Mutuals. Some companies, like certain life insurance companies, are mutuals. When you buy insurance with the company you become a member. Profits are theoretically owned by the members, so there are no shareholders. In Britain, another kind of mutual is building societies, which lend money to people who want to buy a house. But a lot of building societies have demutualized: they have become public limited companies with shareholders. This process is demutualization.

Advantages and disadvantages of different form of business

A: 1) You have total control of your business (Sole Trader)

2) This is a good way of sharing the pressure and work of starting business (partnership)

3) The financial ricks that you are taking are restricted (LTD)

4) You can increase your capital by selling shares (PLC)

D: 1) There is a danger that conflicts of personality could run your business (partnership)

2) It may be difficult to expand (Sole Trader)

3) You may have to sell your possession if the company gas into debts (Sole Trader or partnership).

Qualities of good entrepreneur are she or he could to:

• make own decision, but need time to think over it; - be the leader and get on with almost everybody

• plan exactly what he doing and evaluate the exact dangers of any situations; - can cope with stress.

If you want to start a business, good planning is important. Here are some stages to start business:

1. Get organized. Decide what your skills are. Find out if there is a market for them in your area, e.g. ask your neighbors what they need. Babysitting, coaching for exams or sports, and computer training are all possibilities.

2. Decide how much money you need to start your business. Think about how to get the capital can use your own money or you can ask the bank for а loan. If you get a loan, be sure you can afford to pay the interest.

3. Calculate your costs. First, work out your fixed costs, for example, the rent on your office or the interest on a loan. Then add your variable costs, for example, equipment or tax (if you pay it).

4. Work out how much to charge for your service. Find out what other people are charging and use this to set your own prices.

5. Your revenue is the amount of money you receive from selling your service. You need to calculate this very carefully. Your revenue is the number of hours worked multiplied by (x) the price per hour.

6. Your business will make a profit if your revenue for a year is more than your costs. If your costs are higher than the revenue, you'll make а loss. Work out carefully the number of hours you need to work.

Stages to start a company

1) Identify a problem; 2) Identify a market; 3) Propose an original solution or concept or get the idea of using a product; 4) conduct a feasibility study; 5) create the company; 6) invite private investors to join the project; 7) seek investment from major companies; 8) construct the assembly plant.

Business plan

Business plan is a document that shows how the entrepreneur will organize his or her business, how much he or she expects to sell and where the capital will come from. Once this information has been put down on paper, the entrepreneur can then choose an appropriate form for the company, register it with the authorities and open for business. Setting up a successful business requires careful preparation and planning but also involves a degree of risk-taking. There are a number of questions that all entrepreneurs must ask themselves concerning the products or services that they intend to sell, the competition that they will face, the structure of the business itself and the sources of finance that they will need to open their new venture. This means that all of these parameters must be defined in a business plan. Business plan has different forms in different countries. First of all it need for entrepreneur and next for bank, if he gets a loan.

Business plan checklist

1. Details of the business (Name and type of business 2. Personal details (Relevant work experience). 3. Personnel (Number of people / job function). 4. Product / service (Description). 5. Market (Who are your customers? Is your market growing, static or in decline? Who are the main competitors? What are the advantages of your product or service over the competition?). 6. Marketing (What sort of marketing or advertising do you intend to do?). 7. Premises / machinery / vehicles (Where do you intend to locate the business and why? What sort and size of premises will you need? What machinery / vehicles do you require?). 8. Objectives (What objectives do you have for the business?) For, example it may be concentrating on getting the business into profit or looking for other sites in other city area and expanding the management team. Eventually it might be possible to set up shops in different locations around the country.

Corporate Alliances and Acquisitions

As business and the world economy become increasingly competitive, more and more companies have to strengthen their operations to remain profitable. Companies can go about this in a number of ways, including the following.

Joint venture: Two or more companies agree to collaborate and jointly invest in a separate business project. This type of deal allows the partners to combine their strengths in one specific area.

Merger: Two companies, often in the same industry, come together to form one company. Companies merge for many reasons, for example, to increase market share and cut costs in certain areas, such as research and development.

Acquisition or takeover: One company accumulates enough of another company's shares to take over control and ownership.

Two companies may work together in a particular area by forming an alliance or joint venture; they may remain separate companies, or form a new company in which they both have a stake.

Examples of Mergers and takeovers

1) General Oil and PP have announced they are going to merge. It will be the biggest ever merger in the oil industry.

2) Blighty Telecom is to split into two, and demerge its fixed-line and mobile businesses as part of on-going restructuring. The aim of the demerger is to cut debt by £10 billion.

3) Ciments de France, the French building group, is to acquire Red Square Industries of the UK for 3.1 billion euro’s. This is a friendly bid, as KS1 are likely to welcome it and agree to it But the takeover comes only a year alter RSI rejected a hostile bid, an unwanted one.

4) Abbot Bank is doing badly, and may become the victim of a predator. There were rumours of a possible takeover by Bullion, but it says it won't play the white knight for Abbot by coming to its defence. This leaves Abbot exposed to acquisition, and it may be prey to a big international bank. Abbot does have a poison pill however, in the form of a special class of shares that will be very expensive for a predator to buy.

Conglomerates

Cotton makes a series of acquisitions of retail and non-retail businesses, and becomes the parent company in a conglomerate or combine, with the other businesses as its subsidiaries.