The New York business broker and 9/11 survivor has spent 25 years turning a loss no one saw coming into a framework that prepares business owners for the exit they never plan for.
New York, NY, Aug. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FCBB New York Metro today announced that Principal Broker Greg Carafello has been named a 2026 Daily Point of Light Honoree in recognition of his volunteer service at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The honor recognizes Carafello’s more than a decade of service as a trained docent since the museum opened in 2014 and reflects FCBB New York Metro’s commitment to community leadership and civic engagement.
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Since 2014, Carafello has guided more than 200 visitors through the museum’s exhibits and firsthand accounts of the September 11 attacks. A survivor of the attacks whose company, AbraCadabra Colour Copy Centers, lost 70% of its operations at the World Trade Center, Carafello now draws on that experience to advise business owners on exit planning, business valuation, succession planning, and preserving institutional knowledge. He serves as Principal Broker of FCBB New York Metro, President of Executive Franchise Group, LLC, and holds the Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®) designation.
Three years later, Carafello sold what remained of his business for $360,000, a fraction of the 3.2 million he had once expected it was worth, and just enough to cover the loan he still owed on it.”Things changed,” he said, “I was prepared to sell for 3.2million, and I thought that was a little low. Three years later, I sold it for 10% of that, just to get out.”
That experience became the foundation of everything he has built since.
Today, Carafello operates from the 85th Floor of One World Trade Center – the rebuilt tower that now stands on the site where he once worked – as the Principal Broker of First Choice Business Brokers – New York City and President of Executive Franchise Group, LLC. He holds the Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) designation issued by the Exit Planning Institute, a credential that reflects the discipline he brought to a question he once had no time to ask himself: what happens to your business when the unexpected arrives?
“You don’t want to get hit in the head with a 2×4,” he said, “you want to prepare ahead of time to exit”
The stakes extend well beyond any one owner. According to a 2026 report from the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility, roughly 6 million small and midsize U.S. businesses will face ownership transitions by 2035, representing as much as $5 trillion in enterprise value. The same research warns that, without deliberate preparation, a significant share of those businesses will close rather than be successfully sold.
The connection between Carafello’s personal history and professional methodology is not rhetorical – it’s operational. In his practice, exit planning is not a transition; it’s a discipline built for uncertainty. As a CEPA, he walks clients through valuation, succession structure, and the documentation of institutional knowledge – not because an exit is imminent, but because it is always possible. He is currently guiding a $4 million transaction through that same process, restructuring the seller as an S corporation, bringing in accounting, legal, financial and insurance specialists years before any closing date. His franchise background adds a dimension few Business Brokers bring to the conversation: as a Master Franchisee for Cartridge World across more than 80 stores in 8 states and the first and only Area Representative for Fast Signs International in all 5 New York City boroughs, he operates within the system that successful transitions depend on.
The family dimension of his business is not incidental to his practice – it’s proof of concept. His daughter Juliet works alongside him in daily operations. His son, Paul, operates his own Cartridge World Franchise. “We’ve changed our motto,” Carafello said, ” Juliet’s idea, Let our family business help your family business. Everybody we are targeting is a family business, 20 million and under.” The succession planning he teaches his clients, he says, is the same framework he applies to his own.
Every Friday, Carafello returns to a different kind of work. As a trained docent since the 9/11 Museum opened in 2014, he has volunteered at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in lower Manhattan, guiding more than 200 visitors through the artifacts and testimonies of September 11. The work is not separate from his professional life. It is an extension of the same instinct: the belief that what was built, what is lost, and what endures matters, and should not be forgotten.
In 2026, Carafello was named a Daily Point of Light Honoree for his inspiring service work. This places him amongst a national community of civic leaders who have chosen to make service a defining feature of their lives, not a footnote.
“If I had to sum it up,” Carafello said, ” you should be proactively prepared for the worst. Don’t wait to get knocked over before you start to plan. You want to sell your business on a high, not on a low, because once you’re negotiating from weakness, there’s no bottom. You’ll be negotiating until the money hits your bank.”
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