Meet Armand Amoranto | Brother in Christ, Educator and Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Armand Amoranto and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Armand, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” Luke 12:48

I have been blessed with a lot of gifts. I have been given the gift of faith in God. I have been given the gift to learn and teach others. I have been given the gift to be able to sing and play the guitar. I have been given the gift of a loving wife and 4 children. I have been given the gift of a gentle heart. I could continue to list all of the gifts I have been given, but the point is I have been entrusted with a lot. So I have taken Luke 12:48 to heart and worked to share the gifts I have been given. It is why I have dedicated my life to be a teacher. I have been teaching Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics for 29 years at the high school level. I have shared my gift of music with my students, community, church and even had the opportunity to open for Ray Charles back in college when I was part of an acapella quartet group. Currently, I lead a men’s group in my parish to help them develop their faith and encounter Jesus. I use my Bio-One business to live our faith by being the company who brings care and compassion to our jobs (blood and suicide cleanup, hoarding cleanup, feces and urine cleanup with elderly, fentanyl and drug decontamination, rodent dropping cleanup etc.). We provide a high quality disinfecting and decontamination service that are lead by a team who brings loving heart to whomever we encounter.

What should our readers know about your business?
With each failed business, you get humbled. I have been so successful in the teaching field (earned a National Board Certification, impacted many lives and coached award winning programs (tennis, Science Olympiad, AP Calculus, AP Physics) that you think that the success can be translated to other fields. You live with the notion that your hard work will always bear fruit. Then you just go into the business world and struggle. You realize quickly that desire is not enough. You learn that you need more knowledge. I learned from my first two failed businesses the importance of marketing in the success of a business. With my current business, I am learning that pricing, controlling costs and cash flow is critical to a business. With each successful execution of a job, we earn new jobs and build a reputation of a company that cares and executes at a high level. We have survived for four years with my current business but are still learning a lot. Just recently, we hired a coach to help us transition to the next level of our business.

I am most excited about the team we have created and the level of service we provide but mostly for surviving to this point. As a company we opened in the middle of the pandemic on August of 2020. We thought by opening, there would be some opportunities for us to take advantage of. We only did $60k in sales in 5 months. Needless to say, our start was a huge struggle. We couldn’t market face to face. We couldn’t meet the right people. We couldn’t get our name out there fast enough. So we pivoted. Our Bio-One franchise tauted the importance of building relationships with specific vendors, groups etc. We couldn’t do any of that. So I reached out to Go Be Rewarded and they pitched us a package to create video content monthly, pushed ads through YouTube and increased our social media presence. By the end of first full year , we built our business to $320k in sales. With continued hard work, increasing our number of vehicles and full time employees, we did $450k in sales by end of 2nd full year. Despite going through a franchise rebrand and new websites, we were able to survive and grow to two location (Oceanside and SouthOC) and achieved $650k in total sales at end of year 3.

What I learned is that you need to embrace struggle. It is when the business struggles are the times when I come up new ideas to help bring about more opportunities and sales. We are vendors for the cities of Oceanside and Carlsbad. We earned a contract with the city of San Marcos. We are vendors for Grand Pacific Resorts and Agua Caliente Band of Indians.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would invite my friend to join my men’s group for mass on Saturday at 8:00AM at Mission San Luis Rey Parish. Then join our group for music, prayer and learning till 10:00AM. I would then tour the Mission grounds and the Mission San Luis Rey Church. I would then take them to Oceanside Harbor to enjoy the day at the beach. Do a little boogey boarding and enjoy the beautiful Oceanside weather. If we are adventurous, we would use the new Top Gun Parasailing adventure in Oceanside. After that, I would take them to my house where I would prepare a ribeye steak meal with garlic mashed potatoes, grilled vegetables and some ice cream for dessert.

For the rest of the week, we would start with mass at USD’s church on Sunday morning at 8:30AM where Lupe leads the music in the beautiful church. Go out to brunch near the Harbor of San Diego. If the Padres are still playing, take them to a Padres game at Petco Park. I would probably take them to Roy’s for dinner and enjoy their chocolate souffle. There’s so much to do in San Diego but I would take them to the Midway, San Diego Balboa Park, San Diego Zoo, Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad and take in a concert at the Rady Shell. And if it works out, I would take my friend to a Chargers game at Sofi Stadium.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to say special thanks to my brothers in Christ Andy Domingo and Albin De Leon. Both of these men have been instrumental in giving me advice, providing me with guidance and helping shape the man I am today. Albin helped shaped my early adult years to help build my faith in God and encouraged me to share my gifts of music and faith with my college community. Andy helped shape the man of faith and father I have grown to be. As a fellow educator, he helped guide my path and opportunities with my work in Oceanside Unified School District.

But most of all, I would like to thank my wonderful wife Michele. She has been my rock and makes me want to be a better man daily. She makes me want to be a better father, cook, husband and giver of hugs and kisses. Ultimately, she has led me to want to be a saint and bring as many as I can to heaven along the way. Time and time again in our 24 years of marriage, she has shown me what it means to get up after falling and persevere through suffering. Whether it is the four C sections she has had to endure, the cancer treatments or our other failed businesses, she keeps reminding me that love for each other, love for God and God’s love for us that allows us to appreciate the gifts we have and wonderful family we have grown together.

Website: https://www.biooneoceanside.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biooneoceanside/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/armandamoranto/

Twitter: https://x.com/a_amoranto

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/biooneoceanside

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@biooneoceanside

Image Credits
Pictures are from the Vista Strawberry Festival. Our lead technicians Jesus and Paulino ran in biohazard suits! All pictures are taken by employees of Bio=One of Oceanside