I have not as yet actually started a business so I really don’t have much overhead, but I know what it will cost me in terms of getting a business license in order to sell retail online and for an accountant plus a professionally designed business website and what it will cost in advertising and for most of us the advertising is what takes the biggest chunk of money.

I know it’s important to have a logo for your business for branding purposes so I am looking into that for my future plans. I have found a site where you can design your logo. This is a do it yourself logo site and the price is $99. of course if your not the creative type and can’t decide from the samples you can always choose to have a custom design which does cost more.

They have different packages you can order after you have chosen your logo if you would like matching cards, postcards, brochures and you can even have them design a professional matching website which interested me because eventually I do want to branch out and sell retail items online instead of just informational products. At any rate this will be something on my to do list when the time comes.

I liked watching “Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous” and always wondered what it would be like to live that way and I know most of us have a fascination and sometimes a disgust toward the wealthiest people in our society. Yes they get a lot of attention in the tabloids and television talk shows and the paparazzi love them. We assume they’re spoiled and possibly got their wealth through unscrupulous means and we tend to look down on them. We figure that they cannot understand the day in and day out struggles that we the ‘common folk’  go through every day.

But there is another side to the lifestyle of the most fortunate in society and that is the philanthropic and community service work that they participate in. There is no question that the wealthy have amazing abilities to generate revenue and build powerful and successful businesses. But it seems that once people reach a certain level of wealth, the urge takes over to give to the community that provides the means for some truly great community service work that is done. I would love to be rich so I could help others, but even without being rich of course there is a lot of volunteer work that can be done to help.

There is a long precedent in the country for those who achieve the highest level of success to turn that success around and put it right back into the community. One of the great philanthropists of the American business community was David Packard, one of the founders of Hewlett Packard. Throughout his career, he didn’t allow the trappings of wealth to affect his lifestyle or his values. After he had achieved great success, he turned around and started the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. This ongoing community service organization uses the tremendous endowment of funds passed to it in his will to fund dozens of worthwhile community service projects including preschools, community centers, health care for children and children’s hospitals.

Bill Gates, the entrepreneur who started Microsoft is a very rich and successful business man that has turned his wealth to community service. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a great example of the wealthy giving back. This foundation gives literally millions to dozens of worthy projects that are set up to help ease the plight of those victimized by global poverty and illness as well as finding ways to encourage global development to help put an end to poverty.

Looking at this charitable work from the outside, you might think that the rich of our society do this kind of thing for a tax write off or because they feel guilty for all they take out of society and you can be sure, there are some of that social class that are motivated for this reason, but for most there is a higher motivation that drives the wealthy to want to do their part.

In many cases, such as Bill Gates, the wealth they have come to know was a by product of their brilliant work with their field of endeavor. They didn’t set out to be rich, but the marketplace rewarded them for innovation, invention or superior business abilities. These individuals are like you and I in that they set out in life to be as successful as they can be. And just like you and I, many of the wealthy know that being a success in life means more than just your bank account or how new your car is.

By using the blessings their success has given them to help others, the wealthy get a different kind of fulfillment from life than just luxury and fine living. They learn what most of us already know and that is to achieve true fulfillment in life, you seek it from helping others.

The rich discover that by helping others in society and through community service that the giver is receiving the greater blessing. We are fortunate to have such philanthropists who are using their wealth to help others, but they have learned that our thanks is not the reward. They have learned that the way to truly get richer is to enjoy a richer life and that there is no richer experience in life than the joy of helping others through community service and other means.