(FORTUNE Small Business) - Investing is different for small-business owners. The guidelines that financial experts tout make sense for the masses - keep credit card debt low, diversify your holdings, don't put your home at risk - but many successful entrepreneurs break all three of those rules on their first startup.

After a company takes off, the differences only grow more pronounced. Business owners are wealthier than the average investor, more self-sufficient, and far more skeptical of conventional wisdom.

More from FSB Help wanted for HR firm A CEO and rodeo queen King of the mountain bike Current Issue

• Top 50 picks • See as list • Little stocks that rock Wealth builders: • Get rich by funding other startups • Retire wealthy: Keep out the taxman • Breaking the usual investing rules

Consider Michael Geilhufe. After selling his company, Information Storage Devices, which made voice-recognition computer chips, he could have done what most experts advise (tax-free munis, anyone?).

Instead he devotes about 10% of his portfolio to angel investing. He has worked with a group of accomplished entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley called Band of Angels and backed six tech startups. ("I'm looking for a biotech application but haven't found a good deal yet," he says.)

In the stories that follow you'll find others like him - owners who apply their business-building expertise to their investments and succeed in both fields:

• How to fund other startups (and get rich)
• Keep out the taxman

______________________________

How to build a bullet-proof startup. Click here.

What a venture capitalist wants to see in you. Find out.