Having a great idea, working hard, and sheer determination are all crucial, but entrepreneurship is more than that. At its core, being a successful entrepreneur — at least in the long run — is about managing complexity and understanding that financial stability doesn’t automatically come with reaching a certain revenue milestone. Instead, it requires careful thought, planning, and a strategic approach, not only for today or tomorrow but for years, even decades, into the future.
Fratarcangeli Wealth Management encourages business owners to see financial planning as a holistic process that extends beyond making money. It’s about ensuring that wealth is protected, that risk is managed intelligently, and that no matter how the market changes, you are positioned in a way that allows you to adapt, recover, and continue to build something lasting. And as anyone who has ever been in business for any length of time will tell you, that’s not always as easy as it sounds. Fratarcangeli Wealth Management shares four best practices for entrepreneurs and business owners.
1. The Balance Between Growth and Protection
One of the most pressing issues entrepreneurs deal with — and this is something that Fratarcangeli Wealth Management sees time and time again — is knowing when to push forward aggressively, seizing opportunities with both hands, and when to take a step back, pause, and make sure that everything is in place to sustain that growth over time.
Because the reality is, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the excitement of expansion — of taking risks, of betting big, of assuming that what worked yesterday will continue to work tomorrow — and completely forget that not every cycle is going to be favorable, not every decision is going to pan out the way you hoped, and sometimes, the best move you can make is to simply protect what you’ve already built.
“We saw a lot of folks lose their empires because they were overly leveraged,” says founder and CEO Jeffrey Fratarcangeli. “Understanding the balance between where leverage becomes valuable as well as where it becomes an ultimate over-leverage situation that doesn’t allow you to overcome scenarios like a financial collapse is critical.”
That’s the key here. It’s not about avoiding risk altogether because, let’s face it, if you’re an entrepreneur, you already know that risk is part of the game. It’s about making sure that when the inevitable downturns come, you’re not left scrambling, trying to figure out how to recover from a position that was just a little too stretched. As Fratarcangeli says, “It’s not a matter of if we have something that occurs like that again, it’s a matter of when. So you have to be prepared for it.”
2. The Emotional Side of Wealth Management
Here’s something that often gets overlooked when people talk about financial planning: how emotional money is. We like to think of wealth in purely rational terms, as if it’s all just numbers on a spreadsheet, but if you’ve ever had to make a big financial decision — whether investing in a new venture, selling part of your business, or even just deciding how much of your personal wealth to reinvest — you know that it’s rarely, if ever, that simple.
Money, especially for business owners, carries a lot of weight. It represents years of effort, late nights and early mornings, sacrifices made, dreams realized or — sometimes — dreams deferred.
“What I have found is that the more money you have, the less comfortable you become. There’s never enough,” Jeffrey Fratarcangeli shares. “I’ve worked with billionaires, I’ve worked with very successful tens of millions, hundreds of millions, and I’ve yet to see someone be content. Success is something you strive for continuously, whether as an athlete or as a business entrepreneur, you’re constantly looking for that rush, and it’s really tough to balance that.”
Wealth is often misunderstood. Many believe it’s simply about accumulating more, but in reality, it’s about purpose. True financial well-being comes from understanding how money fits into your life and ensuring it serves you, not the other way around. This distinction is crucial and too often overlooked.
For business owners, this means being acutely aware of how emotions can sometimes cloud judgment, leading to overly aggressive decisions, or sometimes causing people to miss out on opportunities that are right in front of them.
The task at hand is to harmonize ambition with wisdom, taking calculated risks while safeguarding the future.
3. The Importance of Legacy Planning
This is one of those topics that people tend to put off, telling themselves that they’ll get to it “someday,” and that it’s something to worry about down the line.
Legacy planning isn’t some far-off event waiting to unfold. It’s happening right now. Every choice you make as a business owner shapes not only your own future, but the future of those who will one day inherit what you’ve built. It’s about creating a foundation today that ensures stability, growth, and opportunity for years, even generations, to come.
As Fratarcangeli Wealth Management points out, this is something that needs to be done intentionally with a deep understanding of the complexities involved.
“We make it our business not only to guide our clients, leveraging outsourcing professionals, attorneys, et cetera, that we trust and have worked with, but also getting their next generation prepared,” says Jeffrey Fratarcangeli. “We do family meetings of what we call intellectual capital, getting them at least prepared for the financial aspect.”
This is essential, because so often, wealth is lost not because of bad investments or economic downturns, but simply because the next generation isn’t prepared to manage it properly.
4. Surrounding Yourself With the Right People
No business owner can master financial planning alone. It demands a network of experts who truly understand your aspirations, the hurdles you face, and the intricate connection between your business and personal wealth.
“You need to understand what’s important to that family and that individual or that entity or company or worker. What’s the most important thing and make sure you understand that and make sure they understand that you know what’s important to them,” Fratarcangeli says. “And then always do the right thing.”
In the end, it all comes down to making the right choices — decisions that aren’t solely focused on quick wins or immediate gains but on creating something lasting. True success is built on a foundation of foresight, responsibility, and a commitment to long-term sustainability.