Paper Example on Business Structures

Definitions - 7 Business Structures

Sole Proprietorship: Sole proprietorship is understood as a business which is owned by an individual who is responsible for its business (Entrepreneur 1). One of the pros of this form of business is its simplicity because it is easy to set up and requires a minimal cost to establish. However, its cons include the owner remains the only person liable for all the business debts (Entrepreneur 1).

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General Partnership: General partnership refers to the business established through partnership in which all the partners contribute to its daily operations and management (Scott 3). One of the pros of this form of business is that all the liabilities and debts are shared among the partners, which reduces the liabilities carried by one person. On the other hand, the cons associated with this form of business include the conflict that may arise from decision making because everyone partner has the same opportunity to make business decisions (Scott 3).

Limited Partnership: Limited partnership refers to a business where the limited partner is not involved in the daily management and operations of the firm (Scott 5). The limited partner in this business structure may have contributed funds only. One of the pros of this type of business is that the limited partner has limited liability in the business (Scott 6). On the other hand, the cons may include the fact that the limited partner does not have decision making powers like the other partners.

S Corporation: S Corporation refers to the business which can avoid double taxation because it is not required to pay the corporate income tax on the profits it makes (Colgate 1). One of the pros includes the limited taxation because it can avoid double taxation. In this case, all the profits are passed directly to the shareholders (Colgate 1). On the other hand, the cons may include limited shareholders to 35 only, relies only on the domestic capitalization, and shareholders have to pay the taxes on all the profits the business earns annually (Colgate 6).

C-Corporation: C Corporation is also another form of business structure which the shareholders elect the board of directors who manage the day-to-day operations and oversee the policies (Colgate 2). Unlike the S Corporation, C Corporation does not cease to exist when the shareholders change or die because the business is treated as an independent entity (Colgate 3). One of the advantages of this form of business is that the owners have limited liability; thus, they are not liable for the debts incurred by the business. On the other hand, the disadvantages may include large capital to establish and regular meetings of the directors and shareholders to discuss the progress of the business (Colgate 5).

Limited Liability Company, LLC: LLC is a form of business structure where the shareholders or owners are not personally liable for the corporation's debts and liabilities (Investopedia 1). The features of LLC are similar to those of the partnership business. One of the advantages of the LLC includes the availability of flow-through taxation to the shareholders. On the other hand, the LLC business has to be dissolved in case a shareholder dies or become bankrupt (Investopedia 2).

Franchise: Franchise is a type of business that allows an organization to expand its operations through a licensing partnership. Franchise business is advantageous because it enables the franchisor to grow its business and also enables the franchisee to venture into the market through the trademark of the existing business (IFA 1). On the other hand, this type of business structure can be disadvantageous, especially to the franchisor who can suffer the consequence of reputation damage caused by the franchisee.

Business Description-Event Planning

Event planning has become an important part of people's lives today due to globalization. However, as an event planner, there is more to do than just selecting the venue and decor decisions (Talley 1). As Talley explains, being an event planner, one has to ensure that everything related to an event is taken care of. This starts from the idea conception all the way to programming the event (Talley 2). As an event planner, one must meet with clients, scout locations for the event, manage the vendor relationships, and establish as well as negotiate contracts (Talley 4). These are but a few responsibilities of an event planner.

Since event planning does not require a lot of resources to establish, I would adopt a sole proprietorship business structure. A sole proprietorship is simple to establish because it is inexpensive. It is easy to mix the business and personal assets in a sole proprietorship (Entrepreneur 9). The disadvantages of a sole proprietorship include the fact that the business can find difficult to survive the death or incapacity of the owner (Entrepreneur 10). Since the sole proprietorship has no separate identity under the law, the success or failure of the business can be influenced by the commitment of the owner. The choices that one makes can influence the business' success or failure. For example, a sole proprietorship can attract lawsuits using the name of the owner, which can result in its failure (Entrepreneur 3). Most of the business people who have ventured into event planning started out planning events before they eventually got into the business (Entrepreneur 9).

Position Description-Customer Service

Since event planning involves different responsibilities such as communication with the clients, negotiating contracts and managing the budgets, I would hire a customer care person who handles all the customer issues. The primary responsibility involved in customer service is to assist an organization's current customer base. Customer service must have excellent communication skills because they deal with customers face to face, via written correspondence and most often via the telephone (Talley 3). In my business, customer service will have the following responsibilities: communicate with the clients, helps in the negotiation of contracts, solicit bids for contracts, and managing clients. The following are the interview questions that I would ask a customer service interviewee:

1. What do you think makes an excellent customer service?
2. What do you enjoy about customer service?
3. What would you do when you realize that you don't know the question that a client has asked?
4. Tell me about your previous experience as customer service?
5. What types of customer service systems have interacted with in the past?
6. Tell me about the challenging experience that you have encountered as a customer service rep? And how did you solve it?
7. How can you alert a customer when you notice a problem with the service?
8. How do you decide on what information to include or leave out when communicating with a client?
9. What does excellent customer service mean to you?
10. Can you bend the organizational rules to help a customer?

Works Cited

Colgate, Adam. "What is an S Corporation?" Business Dictionary, 2018. Accessed on September 29, 2018 from http://www.businessdictionary.com/article/38/what-is-an-s-corporation/

Colgate, Adam. "What is a C Corporation?" Business Dictionary, 2018. Accessed on September 29, 2018 from http://www.businessdictionary.com/article/37/what-is-a-c-corporation/

Entrepreneur. "How to Start an Event Planning Service." Entrepreneur, 2018. Accessed on September 29, 2018 from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/37892

Entrepreneur. "Sole Propretorship." Entrepreneur, 2018. Accessed on September 29, 2018 from https://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/sole-proprietorship

IFA. "What is a Franchise." International Franchising Association, 2018. Accessed on September 29, 2018 from https://www.franchise.org/what-is-a-franchise

Investopedia. "Limited Liability Company-LLC." Investopedia, 2018. Accessed on September 29, 2018 from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/llc.asp

Scott, Devin. "General Partnership vs. Limited Partnership." Harvard Business Service, July 17, 2018. Accessed on September 29, 2018 from https://www.delawareinc.com/blog/general-partnership-vs-limited-partnership/

Talley, Jenell. "What Does an Event Planner Do?" Mediabistro Holdings, LLC, 2018. Accessed on September 29, 2018 from https://www.mediabistro.com/climb-the-ladder/skills-expertise/what-does-an-event-planner-do/