Editing Company size

'''Company size''' is a [[feature]] of any [[company]]. Company size can be used as a criterion to choose between multiple very similar products. See [[Consumerium User Stories]] for more detailed story on this.

Company size can be measured with many meters such as [[asset]]s, [[cash flow]], [[employee]]s, [[site|number of sites]]

A very useful measurement of company size the ratio of [[asset]]s of the producer compared to average assets of all known producers of same [[product group]].

A lot can be estimated about company size just by looking at the [[types of companies|type of company]]:

*[[sole trader]] is just one person, though they often employ family members, thus their assets are usually low
*[[general partnership]] is formed by two or more persons
*[[limited partnership]] is just like general partnership, but can have ''silent partners'' that just invest [[financial capital]] without participating in the functions of the company otherwise, thus limited partnerships are more likely to have more assets then limited partnership
*[[co-operative]]s are common in agriculture and other low technology more labor then capital intesive industries.
*[[LTD]]s can be of any size, though there are minimums for [[stock]] capital set in law to ensure that they "are serious" since there is no liability for the owners other then losing their vested capital if the company goes [[bankrupt]]
*[[PLC]]s have more capital then LTDs. This is especially true for companies listed in [[w:Stock exchange]]s, since the exchanges have minimum requirements on capital and cashflow in order to get listed

===Researching Company Size===
How much resources it requires to figure out the rough size of a company depends on it's [[country]] (local legistlation) and the [[types of companies|type of company]]: 

*In some countries the information is public by law. Information is available from [[tax]]ing authorities and national registers
*In some countries it is not, in which case this information may be acquired by purchasing [[one share]] of the company thus becoming an owner and being entitled to see the financial records of the company

'''If you have knowledge of the public availability or unavailability of this information in other coutries, please help us on our [[Research]]'''