Sole Proprietorship, on the other hand, is a type of business entity that is owned and operated by one individual and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business. The owner, therefore, receives all profits and is personally liable for all losses and debts. Consequently, the owner’s personal and business assets are at risk.
A Corporation, however, is a distinct legal entity separate from its owners or shareholders. This means that the owners of a Corporation are its shareholders. The affairs of the business are managed and controlled exclusively by a board of directors.
Of the three (3) alternative forms of Business Ownership open to me, namely, Sole Proprietorship, Partnership and Corporations, I would definitely choose Partnership as my start up business entity. This type of business ownership allows for two (2) or more (up to 20) persons to jointly own and operate a business, which therefore means that there is shared management, as well as shared risk. Therefore, there are fewer consequences with regards to ownership, responsibility and liability which is a great advantage of the other two alternative forms of business ownership stated above which I will expand on and provide more details on the pages 2 – 5
One of the first decisions that you will have to make as a business owner is how the company should be structured and the type of ownership it will have. There are many forms of business ownership such as sloe trader, partnership and corporation the one you chose could equal to profit or loss. Partnership is superlative because it