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The process of researching, promoting, selling and distributing a product or service. Marketing covers a broad range of practices, including advertising, publicity, promotion, pricing, and overall packaging of the goods or services. See marketing.about.com.
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A joining together of two previously separate corporations. A true merger in the legal sense occurs when both businesses dissolve and move their assets and liabilities into a newly created entity.
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Any business in which a person receives proceeds not only from their own sales, but from the sales made by people they have signed up, and potentially people those people have signed up, and so on.
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A business in which a distributor network is needed to build the business. Usually such businesses are also MLM (see above).
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Developing business contacts to form business relationships, increase your knowledge, expand your business base, or serve the community. Also used to describe linking computers systems together. See networking resources on this site.
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Purchasing standard operational services from another business. Outsourced services typically including accounting, payroll, IT, advertising, and more. See Top 10 Tips for Outsourcing Success.
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A business form in which two or more individuals who carry on a continuing business for profit. A partnership is legally regarded as a group of individuals rather than as a single entity, and each of the partners file their share of the profits on their individual tax returns. See more info at Nolo.com.
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A property right granted to an inventor to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted. See more information on patents from your About.com Guide to Inventors.
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A detailed method, formulated beforehand, for managing a business.
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The deliberate promotion of a specific image for a business. Often confused with publicity which is simply the materials used in a specific part of a public relations effort. See more information on Public Relations from your About.com Advertising Guide.
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The exchange of a product or service for money. Also refers to the profession of that activity or a department within a company that performs that activity.
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Service Corps of Retired Executives; they provide counseling advice for small businesses. See www.score.org.
Small Business Just what exactly constitutes "small"? There actually is an official definition, but it varies widely from industry to industry. See the SBA's official sizing standards.
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The United States Government Agency charged with "providing customer-oriented, full-service programs and accurate, timely information to the entrepreneurial community". See www.sba.gov.
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A business owned and operated by one person. See more info at Nolo.com.
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An ongoing relationship between two businesses in which they combine efforts for a specific purpose.
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A form of legal protection for words, names, symbols, sounds, or colors that distinguish goods and services. Trademarks, unlike patents, can be renewed forever as long as they are being used in business. See more information on trademarks from your About.com Guide on Inventors.
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A form of financing for a company in which the business gives up partial ownership and control of the business in exchange for capital over a limited time frame, usually 3-5 years. Investments typically range from $500,000 to $5 million., although there are occasionally VC investments for as low as $50,000 or as high as $20 million.
