In business, an independent business as a term of distinction generally refers to privately owned companies (as opposed to those companies owned publicly through a distribution of shares on the market). Independent businesses most commonly take the form of sole-proprietorships. "Independent" is frequently used to distinguish one-of-a-kind businesses from corporate chains or conglomerates.
Other terms of distinction used in addition to independent businesses include small business, locally-owned business and startup business, which have varying subtleties of distinction.
Independent is usually referred to as Indie.
Famous quotes containing the words independent and/or business:
“Most works of art are effectively treated as commodities and most artists, even when they justly claim quite other intentions, are effectively treated as a category of independent craftsmen or skilled workers producing a certain kind of marginal commodity.”
—Raymond Williams (19211988)
“I have always had something to live besides a personal life. And I suspected very early that to live merely in an experience of, in an expression of, in a positive delight in the human cliches could be no business of mine.”
—Margaret Anderson (18861973)