Understanding Legal Structures for Businesses

This workshop is designed to help businesses gain a clear and practical understanding of the different legal structures available as they scale, diversify, or refine their operations. The session will explore a range of options including sole tradership, partnerships, limited companies, and Community Interest Companies and explain how each structure affects your governance, financial liability, tax and National Insurance, decision-making, and long-term business strategy.

Further aims are to bring clarity to acronyms and jargon and support you in choosing or reviewing the structure that best aligns with your business goals.
This session will help you to understand:
• What is a legal structure? What does it do? Why do you need one?
• Different types of legal structures and which formats best suit growth-focused or evolving businesses
• Options and choices – picking your way through the maze
• Pros and cons of different structures
• How your legal structure impacts tax, liability, contracts, and future scalability

Outcomes
By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
• Understand fundamental concepts and the basic principles of different legal structures.
• Identify main business legal structures and differentiate between the primary types of structures available for emerging enterprises or trading enterprises exploring new directions
• Explain concepts including sole trader distinction, separate legal personality, limited vs. unlimited liability, and the implications of different structures for owners, stakeholders, managers, and directors.

The session will include presentation content to the whole group and small breakout sessions. Please use the opportunity to submit questions ahead of the workshop for the presenters to address during the workshop.

About the presenters
This session will be presented by Dorothy Francis and Emma Compson; Co-Directors at CASE (Co-operative and Social Enterprise Development Agency). Combined, they have supported more than 400 social purpose-based organisations and individuals to start up, develop, scale and sustain successful ventures in the East Midlands and beyond, all of whom exist to do business for good. 
CASE is a chosen professional support provider for a wide variety of advisory contracts and tailored services, including entrepreneurial growth and cooperative development programmes.

For enquires, e-mail us on  bgevents@bizgateway.org.uk