A business is an enterprising entity or organization that is engaged in professional, industrial, or commercial activities and the business is also referred to the organized activities and efforts of selling and producing services and goods for profit.
Building blocks of the business model
There are nine building blocks for the development of business such as cost structure, key partnerships, key activities, key resources, revenue streams, customer relationships, channels, value prepositions and customer segments. Customer segment is very important as without customers, the survival of the business is impossible so every business must understand and identify their customers and depending on their common characteristics, the customers can be grouped into segments.
A company will create benefits or value by satisfying the customer’s needs and solving their problem with convenience, accessibility, risk reduction, cost reduction, price, brand, design, customization, performance and newness. Channels will bring value proposition for the customers through sales, distribution and communication and the companies can reach their customers by both indirect and direct for raising awareness, providing customer support, supporting other business functions, allowing for purchasing and delivering.
Companies have to maintain a good relationship with their customers to boost sales, retain and acquire customers and the categories of the customer relationship are cocreation, user communities, automated service, self-service, and personal assistance. Business requires resources like human, intellectual, financial, and physical for providing services and products for their customers. Different businesses focus on different key activities like network or platform, problem-solving, and production categories.
Business build partnership for optimizing the growth, reducing the risk or for gaining resources and the four types of partnerships are buyer-supplier relationships, joint ventures, strategic alliances between competitors which are also called coopetition and strategic alliances between noncompetitors. Cost structures are often considered as economies of scope, economies of scale, variable costs, and fixed costs.
The main different types of business
There four types of business such as corporations, LLC that is limited liability companies, partnerships, and sole proprietorships. Before starting a business, entrepreneurs should consider which business type is suited best for their enterprise. A sole proprietorship is owned by a single individual and it offers legal protection and the least amount of finance for the owner. A partnership is a business owned by two or more people called partners. The corporation is created by shareholders and it is more complicated to create. LLC is a flexible business that combines both corporation and partnership.