A business (also known as enterprise or firm) is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit or state-owned. A business owned by multiple individuals 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 particular market 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.
Read more about Business: Basic Forms of Ownership, Classifications, Management, Organization and Government Regulation
Famous quotes containing the word business:
“O that a man might know
The end of this day’s business ere it come!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.... Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”
—Andy Warhol (c. 1928–1987)
“No, I regret nothing, all I regret is having been born, dying is such a long tiresome business I always found.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)