In the simplest of terms, Capital is the funds and assets invested in a business by the owners. This refers to any cash and fixed and current assets that the business partners pool together to get the business off the ground and keep it running. Capital is the main and first funding source that the business receives and profit is usually shared in the ratio that partners have shares in the business.
Other terms associated with Capital include accumulated assets, available money, investment, and startup capital (which is the money that was originally used to start the business). As an example, Max, Ted, and Luke decide to form a clothing business using whatever money and assets they have. Max has $40,000 and is a tailor. Ted has an empty 5,000 square foot building valued at $100,000 plus $10,000 cash. Luke has a car valued at $12,000 that he decides to use as the company vehicle plus $3,000 cash. The total startup Capital that the clothing business would have is the sum of all the monies plus the sum of the values of the assets, which gives a grand total of $165,000. In terms of shares and profit sharing, based on how they rank in terms of the amount of capital each brought into the business, Ted (with 67%) would be first followed by Max (with 24%) and then Luke (with 9%), which means Ted is the holder of the largest share in the business and has controlling interest.
