(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.

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

- Keep out the taxman

- Little stocks that rock

- 50 Small-Cap Stocks to Watch