The Faces of the Golden strip would like to introduce Aaron Barrett, the newest face to our blog. Aaron is the owner of Barrett’s Gutter Cleaning Services, a local veteran owned company in Simpsonville that specializes in gutter cleaning and inspection, gutter guard installation, soft washing, and dryer vent cleaning. He is also a full-time Firefighter and serves in the National Guard.
The Faces of the Golden Strip would like to thank Aaron Barrett for sharing his passion for supporting our local community and also for his service to our Country.
Q: What inspired you or led you to your current profession?
A: Well I hang Christmas lights every year and clean my gutters at the same time. It’s not too hard for me to be on a ladder. I kind of like the risk of it, or the adrenaline of climbing up the ladder on a steep roof. So I always wanted to start my own company and that was a good way to go with very little upfront cost.
Q: How long have you been in this career field?
A: I’ve been doing it for three years, but I started my LLC a year ago.
Q: What do you enjoy most about what you do?
A: Mostly helping the community. I’ve seen the damage that clogged gutters can cause, and I know for a lot of people as they get older, it’s not really worth the risk for them to try to get up on the roof and clean their own gutters. So I enjoy keeping them safe by doing it for them at a reasonable price. Of course, we also do the dryer events which I enjoy doing to prevent dryer fires. Being a firefighter myself, that’s important to me.
Q: Describe the strangest or funniest incident you’ve experienced in your business?
A: Probably the funniest time was when I was removing old composite guards. They were the plastic cheap guards people use to try to save money. As I’m removing these old guards, I suddenly see something moving and I’m thinking, please don’t be a snake.!!! I’m two stories up on a ladder, so I called the client to come outside to watch me just in case something might happen. I finally removed the guard and it’s a mom squirrel and two babies. The mom jumps out and survives but I have to box up the two babies. We end up hanging them in a bucket in a tree. The mom came back and got her babies and put them in a new home. It’s pretty exciting to do that.
Q: What did you do prior to this career?
A: I’ve been in the Military since 2010 as a Firefighter. I’m currently a Firefighter on the Civilian side for five years, and currently still in the National Guard as well.
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in the Golden Strip, and what do you love there?
A: I really like Sweet Catherine’s in Fountain Inn. All their food is really fresh and they try to source their food locally when they can; also they have a large menu.
Q: How long have you lived or worked in the Golden Strip area?
A: I was living in Indiana and went to Afghanistan in 2011 through 2012. As soon as I got back from Afghanistan in 2012, it seemed like the perfect time to go ahead and move to South Carolina. My brother has lived in South Carolina since 2008, and I came to visit several times and fell in love with the state.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be? And why?
A: Australia. I think the weather’s nice. People seem kind of relaxed and laid back. Whereas here we kind of work to live and it’s a hard work life balance. It’s like the opposite for them, where they just kind of work to pay their bills and enjoy life a little bit more, it seems.
Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: The Pursuit of Happyness. Everyone can somewhat relate to it. I mean, just hearing the title it’s like we’re all pursuing happiness and it’s a constant pursuit. You never stop pursuing it.
Q: What advice would you give a crowd of people?
A: Care about others more than yourself.
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about the Golden Strip area?
A: My favorite thing is the hospitality of it. It’s easy to feel like part of the community. People stop if they see someone that needs help whether it’s helping load groceries in their car, simple things like that, that you don’t necessarily see in bigger cities. Of course, I’m from Indiana, which is the Midwest, you still have some of that, but it’s nothing compared to here. Here people seem to slow down a little bit, and enjoy the smaller things.
Q: What separates you and your company from your competition?
A: I think the main thing that separates us is customer service. We are a smaller business. So we can take better care of our clients and spend more time actually talking to them to figure out what they need. Whether it’s a drainage issue, or they have water pooling in their yard, we can actually spend the time talking to them. We’re not in a rush just to get to the next client. We don’t necessarily have goals where we have to hurry up and get to the next client because we have to do a certain amount of jobs per day. We’re family run, and that’s how we want to treat our clients like they’re family. We’re local, we live here. So it’s important to take care of everyone that lives here as well. Being a small company, the money stays here, it stays local. It goes to our children’s daycare and restaurants. Anytime we shop, we try to shop local as well so it stays within our community.
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?
A: I see the company growing quite a bit. So I see myself expanding to the point of hiring more people within the community. Currently all of our staff are full time Firefighters.
Q: What ways have you found to be the most effective for promoting your business?
A: Facebook has probably been the most effective. There are various Facebook local groups where people can search and often do go on Facebook to search for local companies. A lot of people, especially here in Simpsonville and Fountain Inn want to shop local small businesses opposed to using corporate, larger businesses. That’s pretty much 60-70% of my business whether it’s through someone recommending me on Facebook or leaving a nice review; or me just posting pictures of jobs I’ve done.
Q: What 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?
A: Peace, Security, and just overall happiness.
Q: Do you have a charity or organization that you are passionate about? Do you do any volunteer work for it?
A: Yes, actually. Both myself, and as a company, we’re involved with Fostering Great Ideas. What they do is help foster children locally. They do various events. One of the events they do is a suitcase drive every year and that basically is for foster children. Foster children are constantly bounced from home to home. Oftentimes all their belongings, which isn’t very much, are thrown in a garbage bag. It’s just demeaning. These are their few belongings thrown in the garbage bag like trash. So the suitcase drive helps them have some dignity as they travel from home to home. They also do an event every year where they do a silent auction and drinks, and appetizers which raises money to help the children locally. So we’re really passionate about that. Mainly because my father grew up going in and out of foster care. I grew up hearing stories of how traumatic it was and how foster care actually impacts the person beyond childhood when they go in and out of the system. Even when they have children, they didn’t have that mother or father figure so they aren’t really quite sure about how to be parents themselves, and it’s kind of an on-going cycle so it’s really important.
Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?
A: I would say 90% of my spare time is spent with my wife Kristen and playing with our two boys just hanging out as a family. Anything outdoors or fishing is always fun.
Q: Do you have any pets or cute pet stories to share?
A: We have an Australian Cattle Dog. We also have two chickens we got a a few months ago for the children so they can feed the chickens and raise the chickens and it’s pretty fun but there’s a learning curve to it. The oldest chicken follows you around wherever you go in the yard. Not just walking but will literally chase you and peck at your feet. She’s to the point now where she will climb up the stairs on her deck and actually try to go in the house as we go in the house. Her name is Nugget.
Q: Who else would you like to see nominated as a Face of the Golden Strip?
A: I would say Michelle, the owner of Sweet Catherine’s. She’s my neighbor as well. Really The last time we were looking for donations for the silent auction that Fostering Great Ideas had, she was eager to get involved with that. Just a really nice person and good food obviously.
