TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
JOSHUA SANCHEZ
ADVISING ATHLETES AND ENTERTAINERS
T
by joe innace
he average person might wonder why highly paid pro athletes would ever need business guidance. But their incomes vary widely depending on the sport. The average National Football League player’s salary is about $2 million per year. The Major League Baseball player’s average is about $4 million per year and the average annual salary in the National Basketball Association is about $7 million, according to CNBC. When caught up in the action of watching a game, fans may forget that pro sports are major businesses. The players, however, are usually not well-versed in financial and business matters. So, after the final score — and between games and seasons — who do they turn to for such matters? Sometimes, it’s an old friend with business savvy. And since 2016, for more than two dozen clients it’s been Unlimited Management, LLC in Long Beach, California, headed by CEO Joshua Sanchez. A native of Long Beach, a hotbed of athletes who went on to play in the NFL, Sanchez played football in high school and college, making many friends along the way. Fact is, the business of Unlimited Management grew quite organically. “I was one of those friends that took football 20 / ADVISORS MAGAZINE
NOV 2020
seriously, but you know, everybody doesn’t make it to the National Football League, so I focused as much on academics,” Sanchez told Advisors Magazine in a recent interview. But one of his good friends did make it to the NFL: three-time Pro Bowl selection DeSean Jackson, a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles. “I grew up with him, and that’s how all this kind of trickled,” Sanchez said. Growing up, when he, Jackson and other friends got together, they all knew that Sanchez’s family was into real estate. And in being exposed to such an environment, just hanging out together, the seeds for a business were planted — even though Sanchez and friends may not have known it at the time. “A lot of these kids are from inner city communities so when they came to where I was, it was just night and day based on their own experiences,” Sanchez explained. “They became involved in an environment that was totally different from their upbringing.” Sudden wealth can be a game changer, and there came a time when some — like Jackson — signed pro contracts and became very successful. For many, being in the NFL was more of a shock to the system than the hardest hit on the football field. “It was a new space that they took on, when
