Fellow business tycoons are encouraged to do one thing: work out how many of their billions they need to buy groceries and a cable subscription and give the rest to charity.
Gates and Buffett are famously benevolent and probably for all the right reasons. They're also not stupid. They know that such high profile generosity isn't bad for business. In fact, it casts a warm, fuzzy glow over any brand they're associated with and consumers want to be associated with warm, fuzzy brands.
So here are six ways community support can work for any business whether you're Bill Gates or Barry Backfence.
It's as good as goodwill gets
It's the old saying, 'What goes around comes around.' It's Karma, it's confidence, and it's trust. If your community thinks your business has a good heart, chances are they'll also buy into your brand.
It's benevolent business bonding
Forget exorbitantly priced networking conventions. The fastest, friendliest way to get in cahoots with local business influencers is through a mutual charity endeavour. While the commercial benefits may take a while to kick in, you're far more likely to build a solid working relationship as a cohesive community force than you would with a profit focus from the start.
It's far from taxing
Any volunteer work your business does for an approved not-for-profit charity organisation can be claimed back through income tax. Likewise, donations and charity sponsorships are also generally tax deductible.
It's far from unattractive
In fact it's the complete opposite. Recent Deloitte research shows that more than 60 per cent of 18-26 year olds would rather work for a company offering volunteer charity work as part of their job experience.
While you could argue that such work merely provides attractive variation, it does suggest a more benevolent attitude amongst younger job seekers that can't be ignored.
It's good for you
Ask Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. Yes, both have more money than they could possibly spend in a lifetime, but the good they do will help them live long enough to try. Quite simply, helping others is good for our health and general wellbeing.
