How A Charleston Cleaning Owner Scales Without Losing Standards with Raya Zompero, Zompero Pro Cleaning & Beyond

0:00Welcome to Epic Entrepreneurs. I am Cliff McRae with Action Coach Business Growth Partners. Every week, we sit down with business owners, founders, and leaders to uncover the real stories behind building a successful business. The wins, the setbacks, the lessons learned, and the strategies that help them grow. No scripts, no fluff, just honest conversations with entrepreneurs who are in the trenches every single day. Whether you are a business owner yourself, thinking about starting a business, or simply enjoy hearing how successful people think and operate, you are in the right place. Let's jump into today's episode, shall we?

0:58All right, everyone. Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I am Cliff McRae with Action Coach Business Growth Partners, where we work with local business owners to turn big ideas into real scalable growth. Today, I'm excited to be joined by Rhea Zamparo with Zamparo ProCleaning and Beyond. Rhea, thanks for being here. How are you doing today? Hey, Cliff, I'm doing good. Good to be here. Yeah, we're really excited to have you. So if you don't mind, let's go ahead and jump right into it. Sounds good. Right. So, you know, for those of you who may not know it yet, you know, what is Ampero Pro Cleaning and Beyond and what do you provide for the community?

1:34So we are a residential, commercial, and industrial cleaning business. We provide anywhere from weekly routine cleaning to biweekly, monthly, and we also do deep cleaning as well. Now, is that local to the Charleston area or do you service outside of that area? So we're local to the Charleston area and outside area. We go as far as Bell area to the opposite direction toward Taze Valley, Hurricane area as well. Perfect, perfect. And now what about you as a person? Who is Reyes Ampero? Reyes Ampero is someone who, you know, whatever challenge I'm thrown at, I will tackle it and complete it to the best of my ability.

2:23And I, and everything that I do, I do as unto the Lord. I'm strong in my faith. And so everything I do, no matter the challenge, if it's new territory, I take it on head on and I complete it. I will not stop. I will not quit. And that's the kind of person I am. Love it. So you're one of those kinds of people that, you know, when you, when you agree to do something, you're going to do it all the way. you're going to give it 150 percent. 150 percent. And I especially strive off of adversity. I, for example, in college, I was in my last year and I ended up getting pregnant. Everybody was concerned, didn't think I was going to finish out.

3:05Well, I completed my last year on the dean's list and finished out my college career despite that challenge I faced. Oh, that's awesome. So, I mean, you face diversity. So, you know, as far as the business is concerned, you know, what was something about or what's something that you typically heard about running a business that people think is amazing but is actually not when you hear it? What do you hear a lot? So being your own boss, that I feel like is the lure for many people. And while it's great, it has its pros, it does have some challenges too. I mean, you, I'm a mom of three, so I've got a full plate as it is.

3:50So taking on a business as well and being my own boss, running a team day to day, also operating as well as doing the backend. It's a lot. It's a lot to take on. But like I said, there are pros. I, it's something, there's something about working for yourself and building a brand that versus, you know, working for someone else and building their brand. There's just something so gratifying about that. It's worth it for sure. Now, Rhea, what would you say was the exact moment where you realized, you know, this business could either really work or it could completely blow up in your face and you lose everything?

4:30I recently hit that in the past few months, actually. I've been in the growth phase of business, as they would say. And it's very trying. I've had multiple occasions where I've been, those thoughts circle and, am I able to do this? Am I taking on too much? Did I bite too much off that I could chew? But I just kept pushing through. Like I said, That's the kind of person I am. And it's it's been a challenge, no doubt. But it's I've definitely seen the the fruit of my labor. Yeah, that's awesome. Now, have you ever thought about quitting the business and going back to a traditional nine to five? There's no way.

5:20There's no challenge that I've faced, and there's been many the past year and a half I've been in business, that would have me go back to the before. And that's, you know, like I said, it's building your own brand, and it's so gratifying for me. I couldn't go back. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Now, you know, obviously you probably have a couple of moments. But let's try to signal out one or one in particular. What would you say was the most stressful moment you've ever had as a business owner? Let's really get into it. The most stressful moment. I'd have to say when one of my employees was doing some deep cleaning on a client of mine's wood floor.

6:09She was using a steam cleaner, which traditionally is fine if you use it properly, the machinery properly on the floor itself. But unfortunately, I believe she let it rest too long. And so it did create some damage to our client's floor. And that was a challenge that I hadn't faced yet. And so I had to meet with her and talk with her. And thankfully, my dad, who's a business owner as well, he consulted me through the process. And he actually spoke with her and said, you know, I'm a floor specialist. and what the cleaning procedure she did isn't wrong, but it could be that the flooring itself needed some resurfacing and come to find out it hadn't been done in about nine years, she told us.

6:56So it was likely due to the flooring being in that state when we did run the steaming equipment over top of it. So thankfully it resolved and I still have that client as a client routinely, but it was challenging. And it just, you know, those kinds of things are going to occur. I found, I come to find out, especially when you have teams and you just, you just got to be ready to approach, you know, deal with those challenges as they come. Now, and this question may be hypothetical, or maybe you've thought about this in the past, who knows, but, you know, if you could wave a magic wand, let's say, wave a magic wand and you could instantly fix one part of your business tomorrow, what would you fix?

7:43I'd say to have a strong team that's quality led and dependable. Teams that I could send out trusting that they're going to complete the jobs as I would being on site. that's with how fast my business is growing i'm at 25 clients monthly now i've only been in business about a year and a half and i've got some contracts pending yeah so if i that's really what i'm lacking right now i'm like i told you before i'm a mom of three so i it's you know it's of essence that i have a strong team and that's what i'm lacking right now that's interesting so you're so you're having a tough time file is it is it finding quality employees or is it just the people in general it's definitely finding quality employees i'm very particular because quality is of the utmost for me and that's what i strive for my business.

8:48So, you know, I've had cleaners go in to where it wasn't quality. I've had to fix certain things here and there. So yeah, just having a team that I can depend upon to provide that same quality that I strive to provide myself. Now you said something interesting there. I want to dig into a little bit more. Trusting them completely. What would, now would that just come after you kind of supervised them and kind of seen a lot of their work? Would you trust them completely? Or how would one go about getting complete trust from Rhea? People that prove themselves to be trainable and can follow checklists that I have in place as well, because, I mean, we're human.

9:33We can forget things. I know I have. So if you have a checklist and you're willing to follow it and you're willing to abide by my cleaning procedures, that's truly what I'm looking for. And I, that will tell me I can trust you. I love that. Now, what do you think really just the amount of time, like you said, your mom of three, is that really what's preventing that from getting solved? You think at this point, just not enough time in the day? Yeah. Yeah. I take on a lot as it is being a mom of three, but yeah, it's just, it seems like with the rate that I'm growing now, I'm at the point where I'm, I'm drowning.

10:11So, yeah, I definitely I'm in need of some, you know, quality driven people to add to my team. Now, Ray, what's something about you personally that had to change in order for your business to grow? Was there anything about your personality type or personality that had to change for your business to grow a little bit? You know, that's tough because I feel I'm a very personable person. I can talk to just about any person and be able to just be able to connect, I guess. But aside from that, I don't think there's anything. I guess the one thing would be structure because that's something I've definitely had to work on.

11:04And granted, I've been able to accomplish a lot with a lack of structure, so to speak. I'm one that is that person that procrastinates, but I'll still come through and do an awesome job. That was me all through college, and it's kind of transferred over. But it's something that I've definitely had to work on because, I mean, if you don't have structure, You could forget cleans or, you know, things of that nature. And I've definitely had to make adjustments in that to be able to run my business successfully and efficiently. So if, you know, and this next question may be hypothetical or maybe you've actually gone through this and done this.

11:48But let's say if someone shadowed you for a full day, kind of followed you around and watched everything you did for a full day or let's say even a full week. What would you say would surprise them the most about how you operate your company? I'd say a lot of what I do may seem extra, but I'm finding that to be the case with various people that have followed me around. Because I don't only clean surfaces, but I clean and try and I touch every single item within a space. Because to me, if every item is not clean, then the space itself as a complete whole space, it's not clean to me. okay now raya let's talk about numbers without getting you know totally specific but you know since you've been in you know haven't been in business you know about 18 months now you said right about 18 months months yeah i've got yeah um okay now what month in those 18 months would you say was the turning point when things started to scale and grow wow yeah i would say when I made my first hire, that would have been about, I believe I was about eight months in when it really started to take off and scale.

13:08And it was to the point where I myself couldn't, you know, manage it solely by myself. So I made my first hire and she's been great. she is one that I can trust to send out take care of cleans I've had very little issue with I mean other than human error but yeah okay yeah that's that's good motivation for people you know I know obviously every company is not going to be the same but you know it can't happen in eight months like you said you can hire your first first employee and be growing at that point that's that's awesome yes really really accelerated performance I'm really that's awesome I love to hear great stories like that.

13:46But now, Ray, what would you say actually moves the needle most in your business right now? Would you say it's kind of, is it the leads that you get? Is it your conversions? Is it your competitive pricing or is it your team performance? Or is it something else all entirely? There's multiple things. I know since I joined BNI, I've definitely had an influx of leads. And I've been able to connect with people that have really just enhanced my business and has me on the up to where I'm drowning even more than I was before, which it's a good place to be in. There's some pressure, but I'd rather have that than the adverse, of course.

14:30Yeah, I'd say also performance and quality. I know a lot of people that have hired bigger businesses in our area, they've not been satisfied because the quality wasn't there. So I strive myself on that. And that's something I want to keep despite how big that I grow. And that's why I'm so choosy on who I hire. And right now I run a small team. It's myself, one full-time and a part-time. And I refuse to hire just anyone because I want to continue to have that be what my company how my company is set apart from other cleaning businesses is the quality we provide. I love that. You actually just went into the very next question I was going to ask you, actually.

15:18So would you say the quality is kind of something that's giving you kind of an unfair advantage over your competitors? Definitely. Definitely. And so much so that I've had clients tell me, you know, you're not the cheapest, but I mean, you get what you pay for with you. And that's what I'm after, you know. Love that. Now, what would you say is the hardest leadership lesson you've ever learned? You know, you've had to learn while growing your team. The hardest leadership lesson?

16:16yeah, because as soon as there's a disconnect, I feel like that just creates issues and things that you have to work through. And, but yeah, that's, that's what I would say. Yeah. So basically like, you know, they don't respect, like, you know, you're too much of their friend and they kind of don't respect you as a boss. Right. Is that kind of what you're saying? Definitely. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That is a tough, that is a tough thing to teeter on. Right. It's, it's tough. Cause you, you know, like you said, right. You, you're very personable. You like to know what's going on in people's lives, I'm sure.

16:46But you also don't want it to be like, hey, we're like best friends. You can talk to me crazy. You can come cuss me out, you know, stuff like that. Like you can't feel that comfortable now. Yeah. We've got to have a balance. Exactly. Exactly. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Now, what would you say? Well, you kind of talked about this earlier, but I'll go ahead and ask anyway. What separates your best employees from everyone else, would you say? Trust? Yeah, I'd say trust and quality, the quality that they provide, you know, because it's not their name. It's not their brand. So I feel like a lot of people come on and it's like, you know, this isn't my business.

17:26So maybe they don't take it as seriously, but my ladies do. They're actually, they have a strong faith as I do. Not that you have to have that, but it helps without a doubt. I found, you know, it's like, you know, doing everything as into the Lord, like I said, initially, and they do so. So, yeah. I love that. I love that. All right. So we're going to head into what's called the quickfire round. So how this works is I give you one word. I want you to tell me the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear each word in regards to running your business. And they kind of give me like a little blurb, you know, you know, small paragraph as to why you chose that.

18:01Cool. Okay. Right. First, what is success? Achieving accomplishment.

18:15I'd say achieving any challenge that comes your way, big or small. Failure.

18:25Diversion. A failure is not a complete loss because there's things that can be learned from a failure, which can help you moving forward. I love that. Burnout.

18:42Hmm. That's a hard one. Burnout. Shoot. You haven't burned out yet? I guess not. Maybe that's why it's hard to think of a word. Like, oh, the word is there. It's the tip of my tongue. Oh, my gosh. Like you've checked out. So basically, you get to the point where the going gets tough and you've given out, despite the dreams that you had before. And you've kind of thrown in the towel at that point. Scaling. Advancement. so scaling your business to where you're advancing to where you know you have set your goals where you want your business to be hiring level up so you're building teams that are providers of a service that you provide and they are successful in doing so than advancing your business further competition challenge

20:08ways so it gives you a way to address how you can set yourself apart from other people that are doing the similar work that you're doing leadership

20:25leadership

20:29this is hard

20:34let's see provision you know someone that gives you the provision you need to perform your job successfully and the last word is freedom what does freedom mean to you when running your freedom um

20:54and for you i from what you've told me so far i would probably say trust trust yes yeah the key to it people to go out yeah you can trust your people to go out and do their jobs and you don't have to worry you know they're gonna get the job done yeah 100 freedom 100 yeah all right perfect all right so yeah so we got through that quick fry around here so So, you know, and I want you to kind of be as candid as you can on the answer to these next couple questions. But, you know, with all of this talk of AI and self-automation, you know, you can't hide from AI and self-automation. It's everywhere.

21:30Where do you think your industry is going and where do you see your industry 10, you know, even 15 years from now? You know, thankfully, service-based industry. So I'm a big proponent of AI. AI has definitely been a great tool for me. I have an AI assistant that helps me. Like I said, I'm constantly buried in things. So whatever help I can get, I'm willing to take it. And that's what AI does for me. But I'm not worried about the advancement of it because, like I said, I'm service-based. So it's a pretty safe industry in terms of the growth of AI, which, like you said, it's inevitable. You can't get around it.

22:11Okay. So you think even in 15 years, there's no way that'll take over anything you guys are doing at all? Maybe help out, but it won't take it over, right? Yeah, I don't see it take over. Definitely help out. I have to say, and I'll be candid here, I didn't go to school for business. So I really, I didn't know the first thing. I mean, I grew up in a family that were entrepreneurs and I had that go-getter about me. I'm one that, you know, I've got the work ethic that was instilled in me for my family. But it's a whole different thing when you're running your own business. And I'll say that AI helped me a lot along the way, learning and just when I didn't know what to do, I go to it, hey, how do I address this?

22:56You know, it definitely helped me in getting my business built and getting that framework that I needed initially. Get it. I get it. Now, where do you think your particular business will be by 2030? I mean, when you think of the date 2030 or the year, it sounds like it's so far away, but it's actually not. It's only three and a half years away. What do you think your business will be by then? No, at this rate, with the explosion of growth, I'm really anticipating of that year once we get to that. But I just, from how fast we've grown at this pace, thinking at that point, we would have multiple teams that are operating on a day-to-day basis, have an office, have our vehicles, our company vehicles that our employees would meet and take out to jobs, which will definitely be Cybertrucks I've come to the conclusion of.

23:54I'm big on Tesla. Nice. Yeah. okay now and i want you to be you know as honest as you can on the next question here but let's say a small business owner a small entrepreneur is listening to the podcast episode today raya and let's say they're feeling stuck or overwhelmed they're just not having a great go at 2026 so far what's a piece of advice you'd want them to hear from you today i'd say i and i i'm sure that all of us get to that point and have those, you know, those times that we encounter. Because like I said, the growth phase of a business is not for the, the, the faint. I mean, it's trying and it's, it's like you got that, that stretching going on.

24:43I mean, it's hard, but it's worthwhile. And I'm, I'm definitely, like I said, I can speak to it because I'm coming out to the other side of it, I'm at the point where I'm about five clients away from being out of that growth phase. So I can definitely tell you there's a lie at the end of the tunnel and just keep pushing despite your challenges and things that come against you.

25:10Now what's next for some payroll pro cleaning and beyond? What should people be excited about coming up in the near future? So looking to we're expanding actually and I found that this is a great need. We're expanding to industrial level cleaning. Just did a walkthrough with the stamping plant here locally in Charleston, West Virginia and we are going to be doing some cleaning of the hydraulic pits that they have there. Possibly. Nothing's confirmed yet. We've done our walkthrough. It's a process but I'm excited to say that there is a great demand because they told me, you know, oftentimes there's no one locally that would be able to provide that service.

25:53And so they've had to outsource. So it'd be great if we could get that opportunity to be able to, you know, be a locally based company to provide that service for them. Nice, nice. Now, did you want to put out there that you're hiring or? definitely yeah for sure i i'm hiring so yeah if anyone any of your viewers are interested definitely reach out to me like i said we're in the charleston area and surrounding toward bell and then toward um taze valley hurricane area as well perfect perfect yeah and if somebody's interested in connecting with you what's the best way to do that yeah so you can reach my direct line my phone number is 863 316-4537 or you can email me as well reya at contactprocleaning.com and if you want to check out our website just to kind of get a feel for us see what we're about you can visit contactprocleaning.com 863 is that a that's a florida number it is my family actually moved to florida and my my dad is actually my industrial consultant.

27:07So I, I worked for him for a little bit before starting my own business. And that's why I have that Florida number. That's okay. Yeah. I just noticed that I'm actually from, uh, from Tampa. So I know you're, that's like Lakeland, right? That's like, yeah, they're in Lakeland. Yep. I go to Tampa. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I know Tampa very well. My, my family's down there too. And you know, I don't miss it one bit. I don't miss it one bit. I just, no, I don't miss it. It's too hot i can't deal with the heat why left i love it but i'm i'm of arabic descent i don't know if it has anything to do with it but i just love the area too it's amazing and then complete different i don't know if you've been to charleston west virginia but it's oh yeah we're opposite yes no it's a complete west virginia in total is a complete completely different border that's Oh, yeah.