A business (also known as an enterprise, a company, or a firm) is an organizational entity

involved in the provision of goods and services to consumers. Businesses serve as a form of
economic activity, and are prevalent in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately
owned and provide goods and services allocated through a market to consumers and customers in
exchange for other goods, services, money, or other forms of exchange that hold intrinsic
economic value. Businesses may also be social non-profit enterprises or state-owned public
enterprises operated by governments with specific social and economic objectives. A business
owned by multiple private individuals may form as an incorporated company or jointly organise
as a partnership. Countries have different laws that may ascribe different rights to the various
business entities.
The word "business" can refer to a particular organization or to an entire market sector (for
example: "the financial sector") or to the sum of all economic activity ("the business sector").
Compound forms such as "agribusiness" represent subsets of the concept's broader meaning,
which encompasses all activity by suppliers of goods and services.
Businesses aim to maximize sales to have their income exceed their expenditures, resulting in a
profit, gain or surplus.
Basic forms of ownership
Forms of business ownership vary by jurisdiction, but several common entities exist:
 Sole proprietorship: A sole proprietorship, also known as a sole trader, is owned by one
person and operates for their benefit. The owner operates the business alone and may hire
employees. A sole proprietor has unlimited liability for all obligations incurred by the
business, whether from operating costs or judgements against the business. All assets of
the business belong to a sole proprietor, including, for example, computer infrastructure,
any inventory, manufacturing equipment, or retail fixtures, as well as any real property
owned by the sole proprietor.
 Partnership: A partnership is a 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 most prevalent types of for-profit partnerships are: general partnerships, limited
partnerships, and limited liability partnerships.
 Corporation: The owners of a corporation have limited liability and the business has a
separate legal personality from its owners. Corporations can be either government-owned
or privately owned. They can organize either for profit or as nonprofit organizations. A
privately owned, for-profit corporation is owned by its shareholders, who elect a board of
directors to direct the corporation and hire its managerial staff. A privately owned, for-
profit corporation can be either privately held by a small group of individuals, or publicly
held, with publicly traded shares listed on a stock exchange.
 Cooperative: Often referred to as a "co-op", a cooperative is a limited-liability business
that can organize as for-profit or not-for-profit. A cooperative differs from a corporation
in that it has members, not shareholders, and they share decision-making authority.
Cooperatives are typically classified as either consumer cooperatives or worker
cooperatives. Cooperatives are fundamental to the ideology of economic democracy.
 Limited liability companies (LLC), limited liability partnerships, and other specific types
of business organization protect their owners or shareholders from business failure by
doing business under a separate legal entity with certain legal protections. In contrast,
unincorporated businesses or persons working on their own are usually not as protected.
  Franchises: A franchise is a system in which entrepreneurs purchase the rights to open
and run a business from a larger corporation. Franchising in the United States is
widespread and is a major economic powerhouse. One out of twelve retail businesses in
the United States are franchised and 8 million people are employed in a franchised
business.
Classifications
 Agriculture such as the domestication of fish, animals and livestock, as well as lumber,
oil and mining businesses that extract natural resources and raw materials, such as wood,
petroleum, natural gas, ores, plants or minerals.
 Financial services businesses include banks, brokerage firms, credit unions, credit cards,
insurance companies, asset and investment companies such as private equity firms, real
estate investment trusts, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, mutual funds, index
funds, and hedge funds, stock exchanges, and other companies that generate profits
through investment and management of capital.
 Entertainment and mass media companies generate profits primarily from the sale of
intellectual property – they include film studios and production houses, mass media
companies such as cable television networks, online digital media agencies, mobile
media outlets, newspapers, book and magazine publishing houses.
 Industrial manufacturers produce products, either from raw materials or from component
parts, then export the finished products at a profit - they include tangible goods such as
cars, glass, or aircraft.
 Real estate businesses sell, invest, construct and develop properties – including land,
residential homes, and other buildings.
 Retailers, wholesalers, and distributors act as middlemen and get goods produced by
manufacturers to the intended consumers; they make their profits by marking up their
prices. Most stores and catalog companies are distributors or retailers.
 Transportation businesses such as railways, airlines, shipping companies that deliver
goods and individuals to their destinations for a fee.
 Utilities produce public services such as electricity, waste management or sewage
treatment, usually under the charge of a government.
 Service businesses offer intangible goods or services and typically charge for labor or
other services provided to government, to consumers, or to other businesses. Interior
decorators, hairstylists, tanning salons, laundromats, and pest controllers are service
businesses.
Management
The efficient and effective operation of a business, and study of this subject, is called
management. The major branches of management are financial management, marketing
management, human resource management, strategic management, production management,
operations management, service management, and information technology management.
Owners may manage their businesses themselves, or employ managers to do so for them.
Whether they are owners or employees, managers administer three primary components of the
business' value: financial resources, capital (tangible resources), and human resources. These
resources are administered in at least five functional areas: legal contracting, manufacturing or
service production, marketing, accounting, financing, and human resources.
Surefire strategy to out of the crisis
Undergoing a business is not an easy job. There will always be obstacles and barriers that are ready
to test in front of us. If we are not prepared to risk, our business will go bankrupt. The common
obstacle faced by entrepreneurs comes from various factors such as external factors and internal
factors. External factors are factor which come from outside such as the state of the domestic
political, economic and social of our country while the internal factors are factor which come from
inside such as the ineffectiveness of marketing, lack of capital, and human resources that are not
qualified. These factors can make our business destroyed.
Then how do we emerge from the crisis in our business? The following is strategy that can be used
when we are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Pressing expenditure
When your business is in trouble, cut you expenditure that is not too important. The existing funds
is better to be used for saving your business such as expanding marketing network and improve
marketing and product. This is done to optimize the available funds in order to continue your
business.
Innovating
Although you’re having trouble in business, keep innovating by creating new strategies in running
your business. If the product has started to lose its customers, make innovation or new variants on
your product such as innovating in new flavors, new packaging and others. Creating a new
marketing strategy is also important to do so that your product will always be remembered by your
customers.
Get Business Partners
If you have a problem in getting capital, finding business partners will greatly help your business.
Look for business partners or investors who want to invest in your business. Make a clear
agreement about the investment you have to offer so that prospective business partners will invest
their money.
Those all are the proven strategies that you can use in running your business when your business
in crisis. Keep trying and do not easily to give up because business requires hard work and time to
develop.