Classification

• Agriculture and mining businesses are concerned with the production of raw material, such as plants or minerals.
• Financial businesses include banks and other companies that generate profit through investment and management of capital.
• Information businesses generate profits primarily from the resale of intellectual property and include movie studios, publishers and packaged software companies.
• Manufacturers produce products, from raw materials or component parts, which they then sell at a profit. Companies that make physical goods, such as cars or pipes, are considered manufacturers.
• Real estate businesses generate profit from the selling, renting, and development of properties, homes, and buildings.
• Retailers and Distributors act as middle-men in getting goods produced by manufacturers to the intended consumer, generating a profit as a result of providing sales or distribution services. Most consumer-oriented stores and catalogue companies are distributors or retailers. See also: Franchising
• Service businesses offer intangible goods or services and typically generate a profit by charging for labor or other services provided to government, other businesses, or consumers. Organizations ranging from house decorators to consulting firms, restaurants, and even entertainers are types of service businesses.
• Transportation businesses deliver goods and individuals from location to location, generating a profit on the transportation costs
• Utilities produce public services, such as heat, electricity, or sewage treatment, and are usually government chartered.

There are many other divisions and subdivisions of businesses. The authoritative list of business types for North America is generally considered to be the North American Industry Classification System, or NAICS. The equivalent European Union list is the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE).

form of ownership

Although forms of business ownership vary by jurisdiction, there are several common forms:

• Sole proprietorship: A sole proprietorship is a for-profit business owned by one person. The owner may operate on his or her own or may employ others. The owner of the business has unlimited liability for the debts incurred by the business.
• Partnership: A partnership is a for-profit business owned by two or more people. In most forms of partnerships, each partner has unlimited liability for the debts incurred by the business. The three typical classifications of partnerships are general partnerships, limited partnerships, and limited liability partnerships.
• Corporation: A corporation is a limited liability business that has a separate legal personality from its members. Corporations can be either privately-owned orgovernment-owned, and privately-owned corporations can organize either for-profit or not-for-profit. A for-profit corporation is owned by shareholders who elect aboard of directors to direct the corporation and hire its managerial staff. A for-profit corporation is either privately held or publicly held.
• Cooperative: Often referred to as a "co-op", a cooperative is a limited liability business that can organize for-profit or not-for-profit. A for-profit cooperative differs from a for-profit corporation in that it has members, as opposed to shareholders, who share decision-making authority. Cooperatives are typically classified as either consumer cooperatives or worker cooperatives. Cooperatives are fundamental to the ideology of economic democracy.

Introduction

A business (also known as enterprise or firm) is an organization designed to provide goods, services, or both to consumers.^[1] Businesses are predominant incapitalist economies, in which most of them are privately owned and formed to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also form not-for-profit or be state-owned. A business owned by more than one individual may be referred to as a company, although that term also has a more precise meaning.

The etymology of "business" relates to the state of being busy either as an individual or society as a whole, doing commercially viable and profitable work. The term "business" has at least three usages, depending on the scope — the singular usage to mean a particular organization; the generalized usage to refer to a particularmarket sector, "the music business" and compound forms such as agribusiness; and the broadest meaning, which encompasses all activity by the community of suppliers of goods and services. However, the exact definition of business, like much else in the philosophy of business, is a matter of debate and complexity of meanings.