2.4 Company structure

One of the decisions you will be faced with is how to structure your business. This means the legal structure not the organisation structure.

If you are planning a commercial company, there are the following legal forms to choose from:

• sole trader
• partnership
• limited liability partnership
• limited company
• franchise
• social enterprise.

An overview of legal structures is available at Business Wales [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . It clearly explains the different legal forms. For further advice on this please contact your accountant or adviser.

The Welsh Government agenda has focused on ‘communities’ in recent times, with funding to support the establishment of a range of ‘non profit’ enterprises, community companies, social enterprises, charities, or community interest companies. We alluded to the growing importance of these organisations at the start of the course and also pointed you towards a range of support and advice services.

In setting up one of these you (and your community) will need to consider exactly the same things as any private or for profit enterprise; demand, financial viability, skills and capacity, and how to secure funding. However, as these are often publicly regulated bodies they have complex legal structure and you should contact one of the organisations listed in Links to get appropriate advice.