Business Structure Within the business community there are three main types of business structures; Sole proprietorship, partnership and joint-stock company. Within each of them there are substructures, but this document will mainly cover the main types. A sole proprietorship is a business owned by a single person. A partnership is just what it states, a partnership between two or more individuals, while a corporation is a business that, for a publicly owned company, has multiple owners in the role of shareholders. A private company is not publicly traded and has a limited number of shareholders. The sole proprietorship is the least complex as it has only one owner, while the company, having multiple owners, is the most complex. Within the corporate structure, there are two main subtypes, privately owned and publicly owned. Privately owned companies are not traded on the open market or stock exchange, but are publicly owned (Parrino, Kidwell, & Bates, 2012). Therefore, in the business structure, publicly owned companies are more involved as they have a larger number of owners. There are advantages and disadvantages to each business structure. These range from the degree of control to the extent of liability for which the owner or owners are responsible. A direct sole proprietorship has the advantages of a single owner, so it is easier to control, the owner is entitled to all profits, and it is also the easiest to create and dissolve (Parrino, Kidwell, & Bates, 2012). But it is also the riskiest, since in a direct sole proprietorship the owner's personal assets are at risk. “You are responsible for everything. You are personally responsible." (Movies on Demand, 2012). Furthermore, the owner has unlimited responsibility for... halfway through the document... what size of the company is taken into account or at what level or stage of development it find the business? Many businesses start out as a sole proprietorship and then, as they grow, turn into a partnership and, finally, into a corporation. Some might start out as a partnership and then become a corporation they could start as a sole proprietorship and develop into a corporation are owed to the owners. Works CitedFilms on Demand. (2012). Corporate Business Structure [Multimedia]. Fundamentals of Corporate Finance (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. Wiley (2012). Student companion [Multimedia]. Retrieved from the Wiley website, FIN571-Fundamentals of Corporate Finance.