Organizing Your Business: Legal Structure

Organizing your business also means answering certain legal questions. One of the most important questions is: Who owns the business? Do you have any business partners or associates? Who makes the decisions?

Choosing a legal structure of ownership for your business is a lot like deciding which race car you’ll drive in the Indy 500 or which boat you’ll use for a race across the Atlantic. It’s important to select the “vehicle” that will transport you safely to your business destination.  The five most common legal structures for business ownership are:

• Sole Proprietorship
• General Partnership
• S-Corporation
• C-Corporation
• Limited Liability Company (LLC)

Follow this link* to read a very interesting news article about four young people who each started a different business and chose a different legal structure. As you read about their businesses, look for clues as to why they felt that a particular legal structure was best for them.

To help with your note taking, click the link below to download a form for Notes on Legal Structures of Business. If you are taking this course for a grade or for credit, you will turn in this assignment to your advisor or teacher.

Download Worksheet 6: Notes on Legal Structures of Business

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©2007 Business Professionals of America. All rights reserved
*For technical reasons this artical cannot be directly linked. It is reproduced here pursuant to the educational purpose clause of the US Copyright law. To view the original go to www.youngbiz.com and search for "right boat"