A business (also known as enterprise or firm) is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers or other businesses. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, in which most of them are privately ownedformed and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Owners engage in business administration either directly or indirectly through the employment of managers. Owner managers, or hired managers administer to three component resources that constitute the business' value or worth: financial resources, capital or tangible resources, and human resources. These resources are administered to in at least five functional areas: legal contracting, manufacturing or service production, marketing, accounting, financing, and human resourcing. Businesses may also be not-for-profit or state-owned. A business owned by multiple individuals may be referred to as a company, although that term also has a more precise meaning.

The etymology of...