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Level 4 Diploma in Business Management

Legal structures: sole trader, partnership, limited company and PLC, and why the choice matters

BM402 · Business Operations — Week 3 of 16

CourseBM402
Week3 of 16
SemesterI
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This week’s topics

Legal structures: sole trader, partnership, limited company and PLC, and why the choice matters

  1. Sole trader
  2. Partnership
  3. Limited and PLC
  4. Business type and structure: market, objectives, goals, strategy

What you will be able to do

  • 1.3 Compare different legal structures of businesses.
  • 1.4 Illustrate how the type and structure of a business relates to its market and objectives.

Activity

Start with this week’s video, then discuss how they apply to this week’s topic and note one example from a real business.

Study materials

Videos

  • Which business structure should I choose? Sole Trader, Partnership or Limited Company · YouTube · HMRC · 2 min · for registered students

Further resources

  • Introduction to Business 2e, ch. 4.1–4.3: Sole traders, partnerships and companies · PDF · OpenStax (2026). US terms: sole proprietorship = sole trader, corporation = Ltd/plc; pp. 117–128 · for registered students
  • Putting the Corporation in its Place · Open-access article · Guinnane et al. (2007), Enterprise & Society. Compares partnerships, private limited companies and public corporations and why each legal form exists. · for registered students
Materials marked “for registered students” open in the student portal, which is set up as soon as you receive final acceptance.
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Admitted students ask questions on this week’s page in the student portal: an AI assistant trained on the course answers first, and during the course’s timetabled classes Connect to your tutor brings your tutor into the chat, who may start a call if needed.

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Course plan
  • Week 1: Business sectors: primary, secondary, tertiary and quaterna…
  • Week 2: Types of business: profit, not for profit, NGOs, micro, SME…
  • Week 3: Legal structures: sole trader, partnership, limited company…
  • Week 4: Business functions and how they work together
  • Week 5: Organisational structures: hierarchic, bureaucratic, matrix…
  • Week 6: How functional relationships shape structure: charts, autho…
  • Week 7: The internal environment of a business and why it is import…
  • Week 8: Midterm evaluation
  • Week 9: Quantifying the internal environment with SWOT/TOWS
  • Week 10: Assessing the internal environment: capacity assessment gri…
  • Week 11: The external environment of a business and why it matters
  • Week 12: Measuring the external environment with PESTLE
  • Week 13: Competition: Porter's Five Forces and the Ansoff matrix
  • Week 14: Assessing a business’s external environment alongside its i…
  • Week 15: Review and coursework completion
  • Week 16: Final evaluation and project assessment
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