Business Ownership Types :: essays research papers

There are different types of ownership within the business sector. Sole tradership is when the business is fully owned and managed by one person, though others can be employed to help run the business. As the sole traders only financial income is from the business and/or bank loan, they do not have the resources to expand and cover regional or national areas. These types of businesses are located in the small business sector and usually cover local areas. Such businesses could be hairdressers, corner shops or market stalls etc. Sole traderships have unlimited liability so if the business fails to pay its debts the financial responsibility falls on the owner/s to pay the debts in full even if they have to sell their business, personal possessions and assets. Another example of business ownership is a partnership. Examples of partnerships used in business are accounting firms and solicitors firms. A partnership has two or more owners. They work, manage and are responsible for the running of the business. Individual partners may concentrate on a certain aspect of the business where they have expert knowledge. As there is more than one owner, larger amounts of capital can be fed into the business via personal funding or bank loans. Partnerships have an unlimited liability. There are two types of limited companies: Private and public. Shareholders own private limited companies. Members of the public cannot buy the shares and the shareholders cannot buy or sell their shares without agreement from the other shareholders. Family owned businesses or larger businesses such as Virgin would fit into this category. Public limited companies have shares on the stock market and can be bought and sold by any member of the public, this way the company can raise further capital and expand their resources. Tesco and British Telecom are such examples. Both these types of limited companies have limited liability, which means the owners of the business are only liable for the amount they invested in the business (unless the debt is so large that the business has to be sold to repay the debt). Co-operatives are companies that are owned by a group of people (members) who have shares in the company. Shares can start as little as  £1 and each member has a share in the Co-operative. It is the members (shareholders) who finance the co-operative and they control on how the business and profits are run.