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Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit."

A business entity is not necessarily separate from the owner and the creditors can hold the owner liable for debts the business has acquired except for limited liability company. The taxation system for businesses is different from that of the corporates. A business structure does not allow for corporate tax rates. The proprietor is personally taxed on all income from the business.

A distinction is made in law and public offices between the term business and a company (such as a corporation or cooperative). Colloquially, the terms are used interchangeably. (Full article...)

Economics (/ˌɛkəˈnɒmɪks, ˌiːkə-/) is a behavioral science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyses what is viewed as basic elements within economies, including individual agents and markets, their interactions, and the outcomes of interactions. Individual agents may include, for example, households, firms, buyers, and sellers. Macroeconomics analyses economies as systems where production, distribution, consumption, savings, and investment expenditure interact; and the factors of production affecting them, such as: labour, capital, land, and enterprise, inflation, economic growth, and public policies that impact these elements. It also seeks to analyse and describe the global economy. (Full article...)

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The Oliver Typewriter Company was an American typewriter manufacturer headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The Oliver Typewriter was the first effective "visible print" typewriter, meaning text was visible to the typist as it was entered. Oliver typewriters were marketed heavily for home use, utilizing local distributors and sales on credit. Oliver produced more than one million machines between 1895 and 1928 and licensed its designs to several international firms.

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A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated traveling carnival or travelling funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may last as long as ten weeks. Activities at fairs vary widely. Some trade fairs are important regular business events either where products are traded between businesspeople, as at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where publishers sell book rights in other markets to other publishers, or where products are showcased to consumers, as for example in agricultural districts where they present opportunities to display and demonstrate the latest machinery on the market to farmers.

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The Greater São Paulo has the largest gross metropolitan product in South America.

The economy of South America comprises approximately 434 million people living in the 12 sovereign states and three dependent territories of South America, which encompasses 6 percent of the world's population. In 2025, South America ranks fourth in terms of nominal GDP by continent, behind Europe and after Africa and Oceania.

South America has two major trade blocks: Mercosur and the Andean Community. Brazil is the largest economy in South America in terms of Nominal GDP, it has a vast and diverse economic landscape encompassing agriculture, manufacturing, services, and natural resources. Due to Brazil's major economy, it has a large influence over its neighbors, and even globally. Argentina which is South America's second largest economy, boasts a rich history of industrialization and a well-developed agricultural sector. Despite economic challenges and very high inflation, Argentina uses its abundant natural resources and skilled workforce to drive economic growth and innovation. Together, Brazil and Argentina serve as economic powerhouses and as such, are major influences to surrounding countries. Uruguay stands out as it boasts the highest GDP per capita in the region. Renowned for its stable political environment, strong social welfare system, and diversified economy, Uruguay has consistently ranked among the top nations in terms of human development and standard of living. Uruguay has a large agriculture sector and has made previous strategic investments in technology and innovation, Uruguay's economy thrives on both domestic consumption and international trade. Guyana ranks second which is attributed to its oil and gas sector. (Full article...)

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"The feature of actual business to which, like Professor Sraffa, we draw attention, and which does not seem to have been generally taken account of in economic theory, is the existence with reference to each seller of groups of buyers who will deal with him instead of with his competitors in spite of a difference in price. If a seller increases his price too far he will gradually lose business to his rivals, but he does not lose all his trade instantly when he raises his price only a trifle. Many customers will still prefer to trade with him because they live nearer to his store than to the others, or because they have less freight to pay from his warehouse to their own, or because his mode of doing business is more to their liking, or because he sells other articles which they desire, or because he is a relative or a fellow Elk or Baptist, or on account of some difference in service or quality, or for a combination of reasons. Such circles of customers may be said to make every entrepreneur a monopolist within a limited class and region and there is no monopoly which is not confined to a limited class and region. The difference between the Standard Oil Company in its prime and the little corner grocery is quantitative rather than qualitative. Between the perfect competition and monopoly of theory lie the actual cases"

—Harold Hotelling, Stability in Competition, 1929

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Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that the Kansas Business Hall of Fame includes the founders of Pizza Hut and Russell Stover Candies?
... that one of Beverly Robertson's biggest accomplishments as CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber was attracting the Ford Motor Company's US$5.6 billion Blue Oval City complex to Memphis, Tennessee?
... that YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim has updated the description of his video "Me at the zoo" on multiple occasions to criticize the website's business decisions?
... that Celine-Marie Pascale's work focuses on how race and class impact the way "business practices and government policies create, normalize and entrench economic struggles" to benefit the wealthy?
... that Gerald Willis, after working as a bus driver at age 15, started a business that earned $2 million per year and built a replica of the Hermitage after watching The President's Lady?
... that Dane Hansen started a road-construction business with about 100 mules that he was unable to sell to the US Army after World War I ended?

On this day in business history

June 19:

1976 - Dennis Crowley, an American Internet entrepreneur, co-founder of social networking sites Dodgeball and Foursquare, was born on this day.

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General images

The following are images from various business-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Chart of the South Sea Company's stock prices. The rapid inflation of the stock value in the 1710s led to the Bubble Act 1720, which restricted the establishment of companies without a royal charter. (from Corporation)
Image 2Plaque in London commemorating Jewish entrepreneur Sir Jack Cohen who in 1919 founded Tesco, the largest supermarket chain in the UK. (from Entrepreneurship)
Image 3Emil Jellinek-Mercedes (1853–1918), here at the steering wheel of his Phoenix Double-Phaeton (from Entrepreneurship)
Image 4In 2012, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer greets participants in an African Women's Entrepreneurship Program at the State Department in Washington, D.C. (from Entrepreneurship)
Image 5Lindley LJ was the leading expert on partnerships and company law in the Salomon v. Salomon & Co. case. The landmark case confirmed the distinct corporate identity of the company. (from Corporation)
Image 6This safety plan of a small Italian business provides information regarding emergency instructions (earthquake and fire), emergency telephone numbers, escape routes and locations of first aid box and fire exstinguishers. (from Business)
Image 7Time required to start a business in 2017 (from Business)
Image 8McDonald's Corporation is one of the most recognizable corporations in the world. (from Corporation)
Image 9"Jack and the Giant Joint-Stock", a cartoon in Town Talk (1858) satirizing the 'monster' joint-stock economy that came into being after the Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 (from Corporation)
Image 10Mexican Stock Exchange in Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City (from Business)
Image 11Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network event in New York City (from Entrepreneurship)
Image 12Offices in the Los Angeles Downtown Financial District (from Business)
Image 131/8 share of the Stora Kopparberg mine, dated June 16, 1288 (from Corporation)
Image 14Student organizers from the Green Club at Newcomb College Institute formed a social entrepreneurship organization in 2010. (from Entrepreneurship)
Image 15Small business vendors at a public market (from Business)

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More did you know

... that Italy is the third largest producer of wine in the world?

...that Calouste Gulbenkian was known as Mr. Five Percent because he retained 5% of the shares of Royal Dutch/Shell, the second-largest corporation in the world by revenue, which he participated in the formation of in 1907?

...that prospect theory was developed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in 1979 as a psychologically realistic alternative to expected utility theory?

...that Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's publications in the 1960s and 1970s helped develop social choice theory, which first came to prominence in the work by the American economist Kenneth Arrow?