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Historically, the term business referred to activities or interests. By extension the word became (as recently as the 18th century) synonymous with an individual commercial enterprise. It has also taken on the more general meaning of a nexus of commercial activities.People establish businesses in order to perform economic activities. With some exceptions (such as cooperatives, corporate bodies, non-profit organizations and institutions of government), businesses exist to produce profit. In other words, the owners and operators of a business have as one of their main objectives to receive or generate a financial return for their time, effort and capital.
One can classify businesses in many different ways. Service businesses offer intangible products and typically have different, usually smaller, capital requirements than manufacturers. Distributors will have different inventory control needs than a retailer or manufacturer.
Most legal jurisdictions specify the forms that a business can take, and a body of commercial lawCommercial law or business law is the body of law which governs business and commerce and is often considered to be a branch of civil law and deals both with issues of private law and public law. Commercial law regulates corporate contracts, hiring practi has developed for each type. Some common types include partnershipIn the common law, a partnership is a type of business entity in which partners share with each other the profits or losses of the business undertaking in which they have all invested. There are two types of partners. General partners have an obligation os, corporationA corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a natural person. Civil law systems may refer to corporations as "moral persons;" they may also go by the name "SA" (anonymous society) or sos (also called limited liability companies), and sole proprietorshipA Sole proprietorship is a business which legally has no separate existence from its owner. Hence, the limitations of liability enjoyed by a corporation do not apply. All debts of the business are debts of the owner. It is a "sole" proprietor in the senses.
An industryFor other uses of this term, see Industry (disambiguation An industry is an area of economic production which involves large amounts of upfront capital investment before any profit can be realized. The most successful industries in a given sector tend, to can consist of a group of related businesses, such as the entertainmentEntertainment Entertainment is an amusement or diversion intended to hold the attention of an audience or its participants. Examples of entertainment include: Animation (primarily traditional, computer, and stop-motion) Betting Chat Circus Dance Film Drin industry or the dairyOxford, New York, July 2001 In many northern-hemisphere countries a dairy is a facility for the extraction and processing of animal milk (mostly from cows, sometimes from buffaloes or goats) for human consumption. The end product of such processes are kno industry. This definition resembles one of the more general meanings of "business", and the terms business and industry sometimes appear interchangeable. Thus a fishermanA fisherman is a person who engages in the activity of fishing. Some fishermen do this as their profession, and may belong to a cooperative, corporation, or union. Other people fish for sport, such as most of anglers (who fish with a hook). Fishing may al might say either (more colloquially) that he is in the " fishing business" or (somewhat grandiosely) that he works in the "fishing industry". Similarly, the word " trade" may serve as an equivalent of both "business" and "industry": Victorians might despise those "in trade", and one can still refer to working "in the rag trade", for example.
The word business is sometimes used as a polite word for an animal's droppings.
