Business Ownership
Introduction
Business ownership refers to having control over a business enterprise and exercising this power by dictating its operations, functioning, and management. Ownership can be acquired either through franchising or purchasing an existing business. There are three types of business ownership, namely sole proprietorship, corporation, and partnership. A single entrepreneur can own several businesses under different types of ownership. However, a single business cannot take a different form. Each type of ownership is best for a particular situation or purpose, for example in respect to liability, capital, and the ability to control profit and loss accounts. Therefore, the dynamics of commercial business lies in understanding the three types of business ownership as well as their formation, characteristics, and merits and demerits.
Sole Proprietorship
Sole proprietorship refers to a situation when a business is owned by one person. It is normally the simplest way to initiate a business since the sole proprietor is fully responsible for all the activities and operations. In addition, he or she is responsible for all the obligations and debts related to the business. Therefore, all the profits go either to the sole proprietor or are injected back in to the business as investment. It is characterized by unlimited liability, which means that a creditor with a claim against the proprietor has the right to claim his personal or business assets. Sole
| A sole proprietorship is easy to create; there is minimal creation cost and time.The single owner has autonomy in decision making; sole owner makes all decisions related to the business and has complete ownership of business’s finances.
Sole trader is where a business is run as an individual; so that all profits are their own after tax has been paid on them. Within a sole trader organisation it is possible to employ staff, as the sole trader only means that you own the business personally and do not actually have to work by yourself.
There are several different types of business ownership which are most commonly used in business’ and company’s today, these include; Co-operative which is a business owned by its employees, Partnership which is a business owned by between 2 and 20 people, Private limited which is a business owner by a small groups of people who have shares and a Public limited business is owned by private individuals by shares bought and sold on the stock market. A charity is a business with the purpose to help the public, the government is a business owned by the government and lastly a sole trader which is a business owned by only one person.
Sole proprietorships are the most common type of business in the U.S. They are most commonly chosen because they are the easiest type of business to set up and give the sole owner of the company complete control of the company. There are many benefits to a sole proprietorship in regards to control, profit retention, and convenience.
1. Describe the basic features that distinguish the four basic forms of business ownership: sole proprietorships, general partnerships, C corporations, and limited liability companies.
Sole Proprietorship Sole proprietorship is the most common form of business in the United States. It is a relatively simple way for an individual to start a business since legal costs and business requirements are minimal, and the owner has complete control over the business. Though a sole proprietor is not responsible for any corporate tax payments, the owner is responsible for taxes incurred on the income generated from the business as part of his or her personal income tax payments, and personally shoulders any other risks or obligations. A sole proprietor may also choose to file their business under a fictitious business name or a DBA (doing business as), allowing him or her to operate and market the business under a more typical
Sole proprietorship: Is the simplest and most common business structure. There is no legal distinction between the proprietor and the business, which means it is autonomous. You are entitled to all profits and responsible for all your business's losses and liabilities.
A sole proprietorship is a form of business that is owned by a single individual. • Liability – Due to the lack of legal distinction between the owner and the business, the owner is fully responsible and liable for all debts that the business incurs in the same manner that an individual is fully responsible and liable for all debts that they incur. There is no legal distinction between the assets of the owner of the sole proprietorship and the business; this means that creditors have the ability to come after the owner’s business and personal material assets. Income Taxes – Since the business is the same as the owner of the sole proprietorship, all profits or losses from the business are filed by the
Liability: The owner/operator of a Sole Proprietorship is subject to full and unlimited financial liability for the business. The owner and the company are legally the same entity. The company’s assets are legally the same as the owner’s personal assets.
Sole Proprietorship: A type of business that is owned by and run by one person with no legal difference between the business and the owner. It is easy to form with no cost or time to initiate. It gives the owner the ability to self-govern the business. There are drawbacks; only one owner can be established not allowing a partner. Also, unlimited liability puts the owner’s personal assets in jeopardy with the creditors.
* Single Ownership - The single individual always owns sole proprietorship form of the business. The individual owns all assets and properties of the business and bears the risk of losing or gaining from the business.
There are two main types of ownerships: sole trader ship and partnerships. Some may say that the only difference in the two are that the business is either ran by one single person or by two or more people, but in reality there is a big difference. For example, a sole trader ships could be a business like a market stalls, hairdressers or corner shops; partnerships could be a business like a solicitors firms and accounting firms. Also, while deciding which ownership is right for the business you have to look at the over view of what type of business you’re getting into. Sole trader ships only financial income is from the business and/or bank loans (types of business structures). Partnerships can receive larger
After the creation of a business plan, the next step to operating a business is the selection of an appropriate business structure. Different legal forms of business ownerships affect different managerial and financial factors from the business names to the tax obligations (Gregory, n.d.). The most common forms are sole proprietorship, partnership, cooperatives, and corporations. There are different types of corporations in the business world, but the two most general corporation types are S Corporation and Limited Liability Company (LLC) (Ferrell et al., 2013). The sole proprietorship is the easiest and most basic form of business ownership. It is owned and run by one individual, which is the proprietor. The individual is entitled to all profits and is responsible for all the business’s
The advantages to the sole proprietorship are single control over the business and its decisions, easy to start up, less regulations and paperwork burden that the other types of business. The disadvantages are unlimited liability for their company debts and actions. The law does not recognize any distinctions between the owner’s business assets and personal assets. Banks are very skeptical about lending to these types business because there is only one person to hold liable for repaying the debt.
Is the most common business type, where the business is operated and owned by a single individual. In this type of business, the sole proprietor provides capital, does not share profit or loss and runs the business alone. As such, the business and the owner are indistinguishable for tax and legal purposes (Dlabay, 2011). To differentiate this business from other business types, a sole proprietorship is discussed under the following characteristics.