Holley grad writes book about finding financial freedom through owning small business

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 4 November 2019 at 7:51 am

Provided photo: Ariana and Tom Sylvester have co-authored, Lifestyle Builders: Build Your Business, Quit Your Job, and Live Your Ideal Lifestyle.

HOLLEY – A Holley graduate and her husband have co-authored a book, Lifestyle Builders: Build Your Business, Quit Your Job, and Live Your Ideal Lifestyle.

The book, published by Morgan James, is a practical and entertaining guide to living a better life and building a business to support it.

Ariana and Tom Sylvester overcame the obstacles of building three businesses with one spouse still in a 9 to 5 job and working together as a married couple while raising two young kids. They say they have cracked the code and developed a framework on how to successfully do business and life together.

The family lives in Gates. Ariana and Tom Sylvester have run a real estate, a small wine and liquor store, and an online coaching and training for entrepreneurs.

“We are helping people to figure out their business,” Ariana Sylvester said. “There is a lot of noise, people telling you how to live your lives. It’s really your choice.”

The former Ariana Cuadrado graduated from Holley in 2002. She is in the school’s athletic hall of fame. She played three sports for Holley – soccer, basketball and track, and qualified for the state meet in the long jump.

She went to Oswego State College to play soccer. That’s where she met her future husband, a Perry native who also played soccer.

They graduated together from Oswego in 2006, with Tom earning bachelor’s in computer science and Ariana with bachelor’s in zoology. They married in 2008. They now have two young children.

They have run a real estate company, Sylvester Enterprises, the past 12 years. They have owned Warsaw Wine and Spirits for 7 years. Since 2015, they have been helping entrepreneurs. The past two years they have been Lifestyle Builders, helping people find careers they are passionate about, while maintaining a life balance.

The 285-page book has six sections: Plan With a Purpose, Find Your Freedom, Concept to Cash, Setup & Scale Your Systems, Quit Your Cubicle, and Stop Self Sabotage.

Lifestyle Builders incorporates the often-missed aspect of entrepreneur books: how to prepare your personal life for entrepreneurship. Tom and Ariana show adults seeking a career change how to create their ideal life through entrepreneurship.

“What is needed is having more open conservations with young people that there are a lot of path to what you’re passionate about,” Mrs. Sylvester, 34, said in an interview. “It doesn’t have to be a straight and narrow path.”

The Sylvesters provide a systematic approach to creating a successful business which includes visualizing personal goals, mapping out business financial details, and planning out daily expectations and realities of running a business.

Co-written to provide perspectives from both spouses on building a business while raising a family, Lifestyle Builders shares the Sylvesters’ personal experiences as a model for those seeking the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Tom and Ariana teach fledgling entrepreneurs how to organize and run their business by providing steps that men and women seeking financial freedom can implement immediately. They explain how to unlock the secrets to making the ideal life a reality, even for those who are busy and seriously lacking time and money.

For more information on the Sylvesters and their book, click here.

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