Introduction
- Company name: Indiana Gesund Leb Corporation.
- Legal structure: corporation.
- Owner/Management Group: (Your Name) (Owner); Brighetta Stone (Co-Founder; William Donn (CEO).
- Location: 127 Main Street, Indianapolis, IN, 46204
- Business History: Indiana Gesund Leb Corporation is a large corporation dedicated to the production and supply of healthy meals; it was founded in 2021. The director of the first company was able to turn his hobby into a profitable and prosperous business in just two years. Despite the fact that the corporation has recently entered the market, the experience of employees who work in the business is from 5 years. Thanks to qualified personnel, the corporation provides a high level of service and, at the same time, customers do not need to overpay for the popular name of the brand.
- Mission Statement: Indiana Gesund Leb Corporation specializes in the production and delivery of healthy ready meals using organic foods.
- Products/services and target market: The professionals of our company will develop an individual nutrition program for everyone. Its advantage is that we take into account your habits, lifestyle, employment, health status, and even hobbies. We work to ensure that each of our clients remains healthy and satisfied. It also helps us achieve new successes with health and psycho-emotional state benefits.
- Goals: The corporation’s immediate goal is to open a network of branches in 10 other US states because this direction is really in demand, and there is room to grow and develop.
- Vision Statement: We make healthy living affordable! We want to offer our customers a wide range of quality food and prepared meals while developing an efficient and successful business. Moreover, in the future, we want to provide products that are not related to nutrition but support a healthy lifestyle, namely, goods for sports and outdoor activities. We do this because we want to develop and support the value of healthy living and sports. It will improve the quality of life of our customers and contribute to the improvement of the population in general. We are for an honest and transparent business because our priority is society’s ethical, social, and economic values. We fulfill our obligations to buyers, investors, and the state, thereby maintaining high business standards. Members of the corporation strive to meet most people’s daily needs, offering them the best value for money.
Overview
Indiana Gesund Leb Corporation is a large corporation engaged in the production and supply of healthy meals and was founded in 2021. The main objective of the corporation is the production and delivery of ready-made healthy dishes from organic products. Gesund Leb is trying to support the desire of the population to maintain a healthy lifestyle, maintain an active lifestyle, and play sports. It is essential for the company that its work improves customers’ quality of life. Members of the corporation strive to meet most people’s daily needs, offering them the best value for money. The immediate goal of the corporation is to open a network of branches in 10 other US states.
Corporation Advantages
The most important principle that underlays the industrial corporation from its very inception is maximum production efficiency (reducing costs, increasing output, and maximizing profits). As a result, one of the defining indicators of its success is the desire for leadership in any area. The classic corporate structure involves a clear distinction between ownership and management, pitting employees against company owners. The form of a corporation was chosen to run our business. It allows us to combine several areas: production, customer service (consultation), and delivery, and we also plan to develop other areas of a healthy lifestyle. It means, in addition to working with food products and their sale in company stores, also producing and selling sports equipment and goods for outdoor activities. That also requires the merger of several companies that will specialize at the initial stage in one direction but with different products. In addition, it helps to reduce costs as well as maximize productivity.
A business structure such as a corporation makes it much easier to solve the problem of raising capital, unlike other forms of business organization. The sale of stocks and bonds is a unique way of financing a business, so there are few barriers to attracting different households. Moreover, the securities market helps corporations to pool a large number of people as well as their financial resources into one common fund. Through the sale of securities, this type of financing also contains many advantages for those who buy them. First of all, there is no need to be an active participant in the management of any enterprise. In this case, businesses can expect to participate from a commercial perspective of participation. In addition, it becomes possible to avoid significant risks if one purchase securities from different corporations. Eventually, if necessary, the owners may sell shares or securities to other owners.
Limited liability is also one of the main benefits of owning a corporate business. Owners and co-owners risk only the amount they paid to purchase their portion of the shares. In the event of a corporation’s bankruptcy, the shareholder’s personal assets remain safe. It is also important that creditors sue businesses only as legal entities and not as individuals. That is why the corporation makes it much easier to raise capital, thanks to limited liability.
Ethical Dilemmas in Starting Business
The first and most common dilemma that arises when founding a corporation is that the founders must decide who owns the company. Usually, the founders of corporations are the first shareholders, so it is important at the first stage to determine who owns how many shares. It is generally expressed as a percentage of the total number of shares, which is significant for every founder (Crane, 2019). Given the nature of the corporate business structure, ownership will not remain unchanged. It will be subject to change due to the arrival of new business participants, such as investors or managers. It is never easy to figure out how to get what share of a property. As a rule, it comes down to negotiations between interested parties.
Sharing ownership can also be a serious dilemma: founders tend to make the mistake of dividing capital based on early work. Initially, the shares should be distributed equally to maintain fairness and increase motivation (Crane, 2019). If a company decides to increase the number of its shares outstanding, it is commonly referred to as a stock split occurs. In this case, the company splits the shares; as a result, the shareholder receives two shares of the same value, which are divided equally at par value.
Competition is inevitable between organizations, even in a corporation, during which ethical problems arise: the choice of means of defeating a competitor and the price of victory. Relations between organizations and the state and society as a whole can be problematic. Here, the positions of supporters of the idea of state regulation of the actions of organizations and its opponents often clash. Very often, there are problems between producer organizations and consumers. The activity of the organization is only successful when it meets the interests of consumers. However, consumers may be offered low-quality goods (for example, with an expired shelf life). Moral problems also arise in the relationship of organizations with the local community (Crane, 2019). Organizations must implement a social function: develop the infrastructure of the area, ensure its improvement, create jobs, support the local system of education, medicine, and others.
According to many scientists, the business ethics of the modern world should be based on the following introductory provisions:
- Initially, an essential process in business is the creation of wealth.
- Interpersonal relationships should be at the forefront of solving emerging problems, not production ones.
- Profits and any other income are necessary to achieve various socially significant goals.
It can be problematic for a new company to enter the market successfully and gain a stable position in the business. It can lead young entrepreneurs to cheat customers and/or employees in order to make more profit. Ethical dilemmas reported by the entrepreneur include fairness to customers, government, and competitors, as well as marketing dilemmas. On the one hand, the entrepreneur wants to sell products and wants to grow. On the other hand, the entrepreneur is also concerned about the firm’s ethical behavior towards others. In addition, corporation members may face injustice from more experienced (or larger) partners. As a result, this will lead to a loss of a young organization and a conflict between participants in one business.
Potential Legal Issues
When starting a new business, in addition to ethical dilemmas, questions and problems of a legal or financial nature may arise. For example, shareholder disputes are the most common cause of bankruptcy for new businesses, especially corporations. In this case, the best solution would be to draw up a shareholder agreement that will help avoid further disputes and provide legal protection to shareholders, even if other shareholders are family members or friends (Chu, 2017). It is also useful when a business is split or sold, as the agreement defines who gets what and leaves little room for misunderstanding or disagreement. The shareholder agreement defines the partners’ respective rights and obligations and organizes the management of the specified company (Chu, 2017). It allows shareholders to draft clear contractual provisions relating to key governance issues beyond those required by law and corporate law.
The Food Safety Act and its provisions provide the basis for all food legislation that food businesses must comply with. Numerous food safety laws protect all aspects of the preparation, production, processing, distribution, packaging, storage, and display of food products. Every food business need to be registered with the local environmental health department (Fung et al., 2018). Since our corporation is based on the production of organic products, such as healthy ready meals, it is necessary to obtain an organic status certification from one of the approved certification bodies. Furthermore, to avoid problems with vendors, you should make sure that they have all the required licenses.
The next common mistake many new businesses make is not protecting their intellectual property through registration, which puts the new company at risk of losing its ideas and creations. That may include copyrights, patents, trademarks, or trade secrets (Voss et al., 2017). In addition, if the existing IP that the business is already using (for example, in relation to a business name or a new product) is not examined, another company that believes it owns it can sue. Since intellectual property legal disputes are complex and often take years, it is recommended that one insure oneself with sufficient knowledge of the intellectual property.
Given that employees are a fundamental part of all businesses, there is a potential for many legal issues related to employees. To avoid legal problems, one must accurately classify the employees as full-time, part-time, or independent contractors. It will affect the terms of the employment contract, as well as employee rights such as minimum wage and overtime pay (Stewart & Stanford, 2017). When dismissing an inefficient employee, business owners and employees in high positions should be especially careful. Improper handling of the process may result in an inappropriate or unfair dismissal claim. Certain precautions should be taken to reduce a corporation’s chances of negative legal consequences. For example, one can write a Notice of Dismissal, indicate the appropriate reasons, and notify the employee in advance.
Conclusion
A corporation, or joint-stock company, is a common form of business activity. Its owners are shareholders who have limited liability in the amount of their contribution to the share capital of the corporation. The profit of a corporation belongs to shareholders, which is the main feature of corporate business. Each of the organizational forms of entrepreneurial activity has financial and economic advantages and social attractiveness, disadvantages, and problems. It is necessary to take into account all the possible issues that may arise when starting a business in order to confidently and successfully enter the market. It should also be remembered that the opening of a corporation has its systems of functioning and regulation. The concept of a corporation usually refers to the optimal form of organization of large-scale production of industrial products and services. The most important principle that underlies the industrial corporation from its inception is maximum production efficiency: reducing costs, increasing output, and maximizing profits.
References
Chu, Y. (2017). Shareholder litigation, shareholder–creditor conflict, and the cost of Bank Loans. Journal of Corporate Finance, 45, 318–332.
Crane, drew. (2019). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University press.
Fung, F., Wang, H.-S., & Menon, S. (2018). Food safety in the 21st Century. Biomedical Journal, 41(2), 88–95.
Indiana Secretary of State. (2022). Business forms. Business Services Division.
Stewart, A., & Stanford, J. (2017). Regulating work in the gig economy: What are the options? The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 28(3), 420–437.
Voss, T., Paranjpe, A. S., Cook, T. G., & Garrison, N. D. W. (2017). A short introduction to intellectual property rights. Techniques in Vascular and Interventional Radiology, 20(2), 116–120.