Business is a term with a very wide meaning. Simply, business is an activity of people directed towards satisfying human wants at a profit in a valid way. A business, also known as an enterprise or a firm, is an organization involved in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers.
Today, the business conducted in and among the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, and other countries is more complicated than bartering shoes for corn. No matter how independent we may be, almost everyone depends on others.
Few people today produce everything they need or use; a complex division of labor has encouraged us to not be self-sufficient.
For example, you buy food at the local supermarket. You drive a car manufactured in Dearborn, Michigan. You use fuel pumped from oil wells in west Texas. Various authors have defined business in different ways.
Some are as follows –
“Business may be defined as any form of commercial activity to satisfy the economic wants of people at a profit.” -Keith Davis.
“Business includes those human activities relating to production and distribution of goods, services and ideas with a view to earning profit”. – Roger W. Babson
“Business is basically an activity of people working singly or with others for the purpose of producing and selling the goods or services that our country requires”. -Gloss and Baker.
Finally, we can say that a business without profit or loss is no business. Thus, business refers to any human activity undertaken on a regular basis with the object to earn profit through the production, operation, distribution, sale, or purchase of goods and services.
References:
1. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/business.asp
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business
Last Updated on October 27, 2022 by Magalie D.
Magalie D. is a Diploma holder in Public Administration & Management from McGill University of Canada. She shares management tips here in MGTBlog when she has nothing to do and gets some free time after working in a multinational company at Toronto.
