Small, medium and large businesses: concepts and main features. Large, medium and small businesses

Small entrepreneurship (small business) activities carried out by certain subjects of a market economy are recognized, having characteristics established by law that constitute the essence of this concept. As world and domestic practice shows, the main criterion on the basis of which enterprises (organizations) of various organizational and legal forms are classified as small businesses is the average number of employees employed at the enterprise (organization) during the reporting period. In a number of scientific works, small business is understood as an activity carried out by a relatively small group of individuals, or enterprises managed by one owner.

Small businesses are also individuals engaged in entrepreneurial activities without forming a legal entity.

A small enterprise has a number of features:

· - employees form a small team united by common goals;

· - interchangeability and mutual assistance are used in the work;

· - high intensity of employee activity, which is due to a heightened sense of personal responsibility;

· - the manager’s innovations are quickly implemented.

The advantages of small enterprises include:

· - the opportunity for many citizens to become co-founders (due to small initial investments in fixed and working capital);

· - the possibility of using local raw materials and production waste;

· - creation of new jobs;

· - small management staff compared to large enterprises and, as a result, lower overhead costs;

· - revival of auxiliary industries and folk crafts;

· - promoting the economic and social development of small towns and small settlements.

In addition, participation in small business allows you to unleash the creative potential, realize the activity and ability of millions of citizens, and fill the market with the necessary goods and services.

Medium business. In Russia there is still no clear definition of the concept of “medium-sized business”, that is, they do not distinguish it as an independent unit of economic relations. Basically, the concept of medium-sized business goes “hand in hand” with the concepts of small and large business and remains in the background, as a “load” for enterprises of these categories.

There are completely no signs by which an enterprise can be classified as a medium-sized business, as well as how exactly a medium-sized business differs from small and large. This looks, at the very least, ridiculous, since even if we assume that the gross production of goods and services in the country by large business companies is 50%, and small - 15%, then the gross production by medium-sized enterprises accounts for 1/3 of all goods and services, and this is not at all small. In fact, in Russia even now there is no clear distinction between the concepts of medium and small businesses.

Medium-sized companies are like an unofficial intermediary between large and small businesses. Until now, unlike small businesses, large and medium-sized companies do not have legal status. Medium business is in the middle between large and small, and is their intermediate layer.

Medium-sized enterprises act as “connectors” of large and small enterprises, and the state and small enterprises.

There is such a thing as a network economy. It is medium-sized businesses that have taken upon themselves to solve the main problems of large and small businesses, since these two categories of companies do not have the opportunity to cooperate directly. This is due to the fact that small businesses have instability in the market, have high-risk activities and small firm sizes.

Medium-sized companies help regulate organizational and legal issues that arise between large and small businesses. That is, medium-sized businesses form relationships with small and large businesses that are different in design and form.

The network economy has a structure that consists of three tiers: the upper tier is representatives of large businesses, the lower one is small, and the intermediate tier is occupied by medium-sized enterprises, which form the economic network.

Medium business criteria

You can still try to identify the main criteria by which it is possible to identify representatives of medium-sized businesses:

The number of employees who work at the enterprise. Although this category has its own characteristics - it all depends on the industry. For example, a publishing enterprise can be considered medium-sized if the number of employees is 15-20 people, and an automobile plant - if it employs 10-40 thousand workers.

The turnover of the enterprise, although in this case everything depends on what it does. Currently, a medium-sized enterprise in Russia is considered to be one that has a turnover of 12-50 million dollars per year.

The part of the market that the enterprise occupies. Medium companies can be called those whose market share is 1-2.4%.

Big business. There is no specific concept for big business. Such businesses include companies such as Coca-Cola, General Motors and other well-known large companies.

The main function is that these companies provide a high market economy to the country and the world. The bulk of the products are produced there. You can even say that thanks to big business, all other types of business live in the world. There are mainly 3 reasons for the growth of such companies.

1. Technological economics – that is, the company’s desire to save resources in production. It is achieved by increasing production volume by reducing costs. The company achieves such results by strengthening labor, raising the classification of workers, and introducing automatic equipment.

2. They increase the variety of manufactured goods; this type is called the company’s desire to save on the scale of its activity. Thanks to such an economy, large, global companies are formed. To form such corporations, such types of tools as vertical integration and diversification are used.

3. The third type is when the company saves on transaction costs. These costs are associated with the fact that there is a transition of goods from one technological structure to another. Reduction is achieved through vertical integration and diversification.

But, like any other type of business, a large one also has its drawbacks. As a company grows, its management efficiency decreases. Many types of large businesses have an inflexible system, since they can regulate the demand for the price of their products.

Small and large firms differ not only in size. They interact with the market differently.

Small business

Small firms (small business) strongly depend on the situation that develops in the market, and are almost unable to change this situation, even if it is unfavorable for them. Each of the small firms does not have enough resources for this, and they are almost unable to coordinate their activities, at least on most issues. Even their joint lobbying of their interests in political life is usually less effective for them than for large firms, which can mobilize large resources for this. As a result, small firms are much more likely to go bankrupt. Thus, in Russia, the retirement rate of small businesses (the share of firms that ceased to exist in a year) is 8% versus 1% in the economy as a whole.

At the same time, small businesses in many countries provide a huge portion of employment (which is very important given high unemployment), are more sensitive to competition and consumer demands, and most importantly, are an incubator of entrepreneurship. Because of this, in most countries, society supports small businesses, persuading the state to impose reduced taxes on these businesses, provide them with preferential loans and other types of assistance in order to strengthen the sustainability of small businesses. As for Russia, small business is poorly developed here, primarily due to insignificant support from the state. The number of people working in small businesses in our country is about 10% of all employees, and its share in the gross domestic product is even smaller.

Big business

Large firms (big business) are less dependent on market conditions due to their greater resources, more precisely, "organizational fat" those. a reserve stock of resources that companies can use in the event of unfavorable conditions. Moreover, many of the large companies can influence the market due to their high market share. Thus, a decrease or increase in nickel prices by the Russian company Norilsk Nickel changes the situation on the entire world nickel market. Such opportunities to influence the market lead to attempts by large companies to monopolize it (see clauses 2.6 and 12.4), thereby weakening one of the foundations of the market - competition. Therefore, the state pursues an antimonopoly policy in relation to the largest companies (see Chapter 12).

At the same time, large companies make a large contribution to the production of many goods, especially those that are complex (knowledge-intensive) and require large expenditures of capital (capital-intensive). “As soon as we look at the production indicators of individual goods, it turns out that it is the large concerns that have made the greatest progress,” wrote Schumpeter. Only large companies are able to organize the development and mass production of aerospace equipment, cars and ships, agricultural machinery and energy equipment, as well as mass production of raw materials (oil, gas, ore) and mass production of materials and semi-finished products (steel, aluminum, plastics). Hence the state’s ambivalent attitude towards large companies: on the one hand, they try to limit them (through antimonopoly policy), and on the other hand, they are supported as the pillars of knowledge-intensive and capital-intensive industries.

Big and small business in entrepreneurship

It is a collection of large, medium and small firms. Statistics from most countries clearly classify large and small businesses, while medium-sized businesses occupy an intermediate position. The combination of firms of different sizes is not the same in different sectors of the economy and is determined primarily by economies of scale.

The role and place of big business in a market economy

In most developed countries of the world, large business occupies a leading place in the economy. As a rule, it accounts for more than 50% (and often more than 60%) of GDP. It certainly dominates in many branches of mechanical engineering (in general and transport mechanical engineering, in the electrical industry and instrument making), in the chemical industry, in ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, and in the mining industry. The concentration of production is also growing in many service sectors. This is especially true for such service industries as higher education, healthcare, finance, software production, information services, transport, trade, etc. So, in the USA, for example, the share of large businesses (statistics refers to large enterprises with 500 employees) and more people) account for about 60% of GDP and 47% of the total labor force. The sales volumes and scale of capitalization (i.e., the market value of share capital) of individual largest companies amount to tens and even hundreds of billions of dollars and are quite comparable to the GDP of many countries around the world. The scale of capitalization of the General Electric Corporation, for example, in 2002 was about $380 billion, Exxon Mobil Corporation - $300 billion, Optiruy - $255 billion, Intel - $204 billion.

But in Russia the role of big business is even greater than in other countries. In 2002, large and medium-sized businesses (there are no separate statistics on large businesses in Russia) generated almost 89% of GDP. This, however, is not an advantage of the Russian economy, but its disadvantage and indicates the insufficient development of small business. The level of capitalization of the largest Russian companies, which does not exceed tens of billions of dollars (Gazprom, RAO UES of Russia, LUKoil), also lags noticeably behind developed countries.

The role and place of small business in a market economy

Small business plays an important role in the modern economy. In different countries, the criteria for classifying companies as small businesses are different. In the United States, according to official statistics, small businesses include all enterprises with fewer than 500 employees. In Russia, small businesses include commercial organizations in whose authorized capital the share of state property of the Russian Federation and constituent entities of the Federation, municipal property, property of public and religious organizations, charitable and other foundations does not exceed 25% and whose average number of employees does not exceed the following limits sizes: in industry, construction and transport - 100 people, in agriculture and the scientific and technical sphere - 60, in retail trade and consumer services - 30, in wholesale trade, other industries and other types of activities - 50 people.

Small enterprises are still poorly developed in Russia. In 2002, there were only 882.3 thousand small enterprises in the country employing 7.2 million people (11% of the total number of employees), which is not comparable with the world average of 40-60% of the total number of employees. In 2002, small enterprises in Russia produced only 11% of the country's GDP, while in the United States they produced more than 40% of GDP.

Small businesses in Russia are extremely unevenly distributed throughout the country. So. in the early 2000s Moscow accounted for about 25% of these enterprises, St. Petersburg - 10%, they employed more than 25% of the total number of workers in small enterprises. At the same time, in approximately 1/3 of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, less than 0.5% of the total number of such enterprises was registered.

The distribution of small enterprises across sectors of the Russian economy is very uneven. In 2002, three industries accounted for almost 80% of those employed in small businesses: 39% of those employed were in trade and public catering, 20% in industry, 18.6% in construction.

The weak development of small businesses in Russia is largely due to the underdevelopment of mechanisms for state support. Many developed countries have a well-developed system of government support for small businesses. So. In the USA, the government actively supports small businesses. In order to support small businesses, back in 1953, a special federal agency was created in the United States - the Small Business Administration (SBA), designed to provide financial, advisory and organizational assistance to small entrepreneurs. AMB has more than 100 branches in state capitals and major cities. AMB provides many services to entrepreneurs free of charge. AMB also provides loans to entrepreneurs from its own sources (in the amount of no more than $150 thousand). participates in loans from commercial banks (if these loans are worth at least 350 thousand dollars), provides government guarantees in the amount of up to 90% of the loan amount (but no more than 350 thousand dollars).

In addition to the activities of the AMB, representatives of small businesses receive support from regional executive authorities, under which there are 19 thousand commissions for economic development. The main goal of these commissions is to promote business development in a particular region and the growth of production of promising goods and services that are in demand in that particular area. These commissions provide small businesses with the following types of support:

• direct business support: financial (providing government loans and credit guarantees), in personnel training;
• technical assistance, including the provision and payment of consulting and design services; legal, organizational and financial, engineering development, marketing, etc.;
• administrative and economic services: rental of premises, accounting services, administrative services.

Small businesses have many advantages over large ones - they are more mobile, adapt faster to the challenges of the external environment, and many small firms implement scientific, technical and management innovations faster. The disadvantages of small businesses include fewer opportunities to attract funds.

Recently, quite a lot of attention has been paid to small and medium-sized businesses in our country. and belonging to these business categories may enjoy some benefits, including:

• the possibility of using special tax regimes, reduced tax rates and other tax benefits;
• the right to apply simplified procedures and forms of accounting and static reporting;
• the opportunity to participate in state support projects for small businesses and receive subsidies from the state budget.

Recently, the fact that a subject is classified as a small business has become of great importance in the field of government procurement: such participants in announced requests for proposals, other things being equal, are given priority over competitors. Some competitions are initially held with the condition that only small / medium-sized businesses can apply for participation in them, and their status must be confirmed.

How to determine which category of entrepreneurs you belong to? The criteria that allow an individual entrepreneur or legal entity to be classified into any of the categories are specified in Federal Law No. 209-FZ of July 24, 2007, aimed at the development of small forms of entrepreneurship in the country.

In 2015, the revenue criterion was doubled, and in 2016 another change was made to the law, which came into force in August. Now, instead of proceeds from sales, you should take all income from business activities.

Important! Income from business activities is calculated according to the rules of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. That is, you simply take its value from the declaration for / UTII / income tax, depending on the regime.

Let's combine the criteria into one table:

Legal entities use all three criteria, individual entrepreneurs use only two: number of employees and income.

The number must take into account all employees, including those who work under the GPA and holding multiple positions. Employees of branches/representative offices/separate divisions of legal entities must also be counted.

The income limit was changed back in July 2015; the Government of the Russian Federation doubled the previous limits: previously they were 60, 400 and 1,000 million rubles, respectively.

Separately, we note that in order to obtain the status of a small business, an individual entrepreneur or legal entity must meet the specified criteria for three years (this period has also been increased by the latest Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, previously it was two years). A similar situation arises when a small enterprise loses its status and moves to the next business category. That is, if you are now a small business, then even if you exceed the limit on numbers or revenue next year, you will still be a small business. To move to the medium-sized business group, the limits must be violated for three years.

Due to recent changes, there is now no need to confirm the status of a small business - it is automatically assigned based on the data of your tax returns. In this case, income from the declaration for the previous year is taken for analysis.

From the latest news, it is also worth noting that since August 2016, the Federal Tax Service has been creating a register of small businesses, where it includes everyone who belongs to it. This will again simplify work for small businesses, since in order to receive the benefits they are entitled to, they will not have to provide additional documents: the presence of a company in the register already confirms that it belongs to a small business.

The register is available on the website Nalog.ru.

Here you can use the “Register Search” service to view data on yourself or your counterparties. To do this, in the search field you need to enter the TIN or OGRN or OGRNIP or the name of the legal entity or full name of the individual entrepreneur.

Small and medium-sized businesses are concepts often considered in a single context. It is not always correct to identify them, however.

Small Business Facts

Term "small business" can be used both in an informal context and in the provisions of regulations. As for the first option of its use, it is largely carried out based on the subjective perception of a particular person about the peculiarities of conducting commercial activities on an appropriate scale. In most cases, people tend to understand this as a completely modest entrepreneurial activity, often carried out on an individual basis. A person who has a small store, kiosk, workshop, in the understanding of Russians, is the owner of a “small business”.

However, there are also legal criteria for classifying certain commercial activities into the category in question. Based on the provisions of Federal Law No. 209 of July 24, 2007, as well as Resolution No. 702 of July 13, 2015, enterprises are classified into micro, small and medium-sized depending on:

• on the number of employees;
• from annual revenue.

In accordance with the norms of Federal Law No. 209 and Resolution No. 702, it is legal to classify as small enterprises those firms in which:

• employs 15-100 people;
• annual revenue is 120-800 million rubles.

Obviously, not every owner of a small store or workshop is able to build a business that meets the noted criteria. If the indicators of his commercial activities do not reach those listed above, from a legal point of view his company should be classified as a micro-enterprise.

Thus, a Russian entrepreneur can de facto call even his smallest company a “small business”. But to comply with this de jure status, you still need to try to bring its indicators to those established by law. Otherwise, you will have to be content with the status of a “microenterprise”.

Facts about medium-sized businesses

In turn, the concept "medium business" can also be understood at the level of everyday, subjective perception or disclosed in regulations. Regarding the first aspect, a “medium-sized” company in Russia is usually understood as a company that, on the one hand, is not very large-scale, but on the other hand, plays a very noticeable role in the economy of a city or region. This may be, relatively speaking, not one small store or workshop, but a network of several organizations of the corresponding type.

The legislative criteria for classifying firms as medium-sized are also spelled out in the provisions of Federal Law No. 209 and Resolution No. 702. In accordance with them, a “medium-sized business” is an enterprise in which:

• employs 101-250 employees;
• annual revenue ranges from 800 million to 2 billion rubles.

In turn, if a Russian entrepreneur opens even the most modest chain of stores or workshops on a city or district scale, then, in principle, his brand can already be considered as meeting the noted criteria for being classified as a medium-sized business.

Comparison

From the point of view of everyday perception of both categories, this is, firstly, significance, and secondly, scale. However, both criteria are very subjective. In turn, from the point of view of a company’s compliance with legislative characteristics, a medium-sized business can, strictly speaking, be 2.5 to 16.67 times larger than a small one, in terms of staff size or revenue.

Table

So, we found out what the difference is between a small business and a medium one. Let us display the criteria we have identified in the table.

Business is an entrepreneurial activity. It is carried out by subjects of a market economy, government bodies with the help of borrowed funds under their own responsibility or their own funds. The main goal of the above activities is to generate profit for the further development of your enterprise.

An individual enterprise is a form of business organization in which the owner of the company is one person, who simultaneously performs the functions of a manager and bears unlimited property liability.

Sole proprietorship is based on the individual or family ownership of the entrepreneur. No distinction is made between capital and personal property of an entrepreneur. Property liability applies to all property of the entrepreneur, regardless of its inclusion in the capital. The capital of an individual entrepreneur is small - this is the disadvantage of individual entrepreneurship.

This form of entrepreneurial activity also has advantages: each owner owns all the profits and can make any changes himself. A sole proprietorship is not a legal entity, so the owner only pays income tax; it is exempt from corporate tax. This is the most common form of business, typical for small shops, the service sector, farms, as well as the professional activities of lawyers, doctors, etc.

A partnership (partnership) is a closed association with a limited number of participants who carry out joint activities on the basis of shared ownership and are directly involved in management. A partnership is also not a legal entity, so partners are subject to income taxes only and have unlimited liability for all debts of the firm.

The advantages of a partnership are that it is easy to organize; uniting partners allows you to attract additional funds and new ideas. Disadvantages include:

– limited financial resources in a developing business that requires new capital investments;

– ambiguous understanding of the goals of the company by its participants;

– the difficulty of determining the extent of each in the income or loss of the company, in the division of property acquired together. The partnership firm organizes brokerage houses, audit firms, service departments, etc.

A corporation is a collection of persons who have united for joint business activities as one legal entity. The ownership of a corporation is divided into shares, so the owners of the corporation are called stockholders, and the corporation itself is called a joint stock company. Corporation income is subject to corporate tax. Owners of corporations have limited liability for the corporation's debts, determined by their contribution to the shares.

The advantages of the corporation include:

– unlimited opportunities to raise capital through the sale of shares and bonds;

– division of shareholders’ rights into property and personal. Property rights include the right to receive a dividend, as well as part of the value of the company’s property upon its liquidation. Personal rights include the right to participate in the management of the affairs of a joint stock company. The shareholder may not take part in management without losing anything in property rights;

– attracting professional specialists to perform management functions;

– stability of the corporation’s functioning. The fact is that the departure of any shareholder from the company does not entail the closure of the company.

The disadvantages of the corporate form of business organization include:

– double taxation of that part of the corporation’s income that is paid in the form of dividends to shareholders;

– favorable opportunities for economic abuse. It is possible to issue and sell shares that have no real value;

– separation of ownership and control functions. Owner-shareholders are interested in increasing dividends, managers are interested in expanding production.

There are other disadvantages of corporations, but their advantages outweigh them, which is why a corporation is the most economically significant form of business organization.

In a developed market economy, state ownership does not lose its importance. In this regard, it is necessary to analyze another important form of entrepreneurial activity - state entrepreneurship.

State entrepreneurship is the direct participation of the state in productive activities.

Every country's economy has a public sector of the economy, which represents a common feature of a modern market economy. It is formed by enterprises that are either completely owned by the state or under its control through ownership of a controlling stake. The share of this sector varies in different countries: from 3–4% in the USA to 15–17% of gross domestic product in Western Europe. In the public sector, as a rule, there are low-performing or even unprofitable enterprises that are irrational to use in private enterprise. In order to support enterprises that private entrepreneurs abandon, the state sometimes nationalizes them. Thus, in a worsening economic situation, the public sector is expanding. The state, as it were, takes upon itself the problem of bringing the economy out of the crisis, preserving scientific and technical potential, and the task of technical and technological re-equipment of enterprises. On the contrary, when the economic situation is favorable, the public sector decreases. The state relies more on private initiative and focuses its efforts in this situation on solving social and other problems.

State entrepreneurship has its own special potential, the task of which is not to maximize profits, but to maximize public welfare. Moreover, the scope of state entrepreneurship is not limited to the production of public goods. It is indispensable in stimulating priority areas of scientific and technological progress and fruitful in solving problems of natural monopoly.

In the Russian Federation, state entrepreneurship is carried out in two forms - state unitary enterprises and joint-stock companies with state capital.

State unitary enterprises are divided into:

a) federal. These include those enterprises whose property rights belong to the State Committee for State Property Management,

b) state. These are those enterprises whose property rights have been transferred to the Property Management Committees of the republics within Russia, national administrative entities, territories, regions, Moscow and St. Petersburg,

c) municipal. These include those enterprises whose property rights have been transferred to the Property Management Committees of district and city authorities.

The legal regime of state-owned enterprises also applies to firms of other forms of ownership if the share of state property in their capital is more than 50%. The presence of the public sector in the economy, along with government regulation, allows us to call the modern market economy a mixed market economy.

One and the same form of organization of entrepreneurial activity may include relations of property powers, principles of organization and management that are heterogeneous in nature, which requires their appropriate legal registration. Therefore, in practice, entrepreneurial activity is carried out in specific economic and legal forms, reflecting not only the functional characteristics of the organizational forms themselves, but also the national characteristics of the country’s legal regime.

Based on the size of the company, they are divided into: small business, medium business and large business. The optimal size of a firm is determined by the magnitude of transaction costs and depends on the industry, technology, degree of integration of the firm, etc.

The economic and technical power of a country is determined by big business. A large business is more durable than a medium or small one. Its monopoly position in the market gives it the opportunity to produce cheap and mass-produced products designed to meet the needs of the general consumer.

Comparative production efficiency at large, medium and small enterprises allows us to determine the potential advantages of large businesses, which are based on investment opportunities, capital maneuvering and production diversification.

The contribution of big business to Russia's GDP can be estimated in the range of 20-22%, and taking into account state monopolies (Gazprom, Transneft, RAO UES) - up to 27-28% of GDP. Large business enterprises account for 25-30% of credits and loans received by the real sector of the economy (and taking into account state monopolies - about 40-50%), which indicates greater availability of borrowed funds for them; 20% of the country's banking assets are in the hands of banking monopolies merged with industrial ones, which amounts to about 8% of GDP.

Analyzing the threat of monopolization of Russian markets, it can be stated that the largest domestic companies, even controlling 70–80% of sales in Russia, as a rule, will not be able to impose anything on their consumers, since by the standards of the global market, they are very medium-sized companies. Domestic companies are several times smaller in size than their competitors. AvtoVAZ, with a turnover of $2 billion, is 100 times smaller than its partner General Motors; Power Machines, with a turnover of $350 million, is 290 times smaller than General Electric.

Therefore, it is necessary not so much to strengthen the antimonopoly component of economic policy (not to mention radical recipes for the division of large companies), but to stimulate creative competition, as well as mergers and cooperation of firms. Without the development of large businesses, including financial and industrial groups, Russia will not be able to take a noticeable position in the world market.

Medium-sized businesses play a less prominent role. It is fragile, since it has to compete with both large and small businesses, as a result of which it either develops into a large one or ceases to exist altogether. The only exceptions are companies that are a kind of monopolist in the production of any specific product that has its own regular consumer (production of disabled equipment, repair of city clocks, etc.).

Small business (small enterprise) is a small enterprise of any form of ownership, characterized by a limited number of employees and occupying a small share in the total volume of activities in the country or region that is core for the enterprise.

Small business, or small entrepreneurship, is represented by the largest layer of small owners. In terms of their standard of living and social status, they belong to the majority of the population of developed countries. The small size of small enterprises, technological, production and management flexibility allows them to respond in a timely manner to changes in market conditions.

The economic role of small business in developed countries of the world is determined by the fact that the vast majority of enterprises operate in this sector of the economy, the majority of the active population works and approximately half of GDP is produced.

The place of small business in the economic life of different countries is clearly shown in Table 10.1.

Table 10.1. The share of small enterprises in the economy of the leading countries of the world and Russia (data as of the beginning of 2000)

What do top managers actually do, how exactly does Russian reality contradict the classics of business literature, and what keeps Russian companies afloat, despite their shortcomings? We compare small, medium and large businesses.

Individual entrepreneurship and its basics - where to start your own business, can you count on government support, how do small and medium-sized businesses differ, are there any peculiarities of running it in Russia? What is lending to small and medium-sized businesses, as well as several business ideas from IQReview.

“Small and medium-sized businesses” is a phrase that has been on everyone’s lips lately. Its development is important in any country - it helps create jobs, stimulates healthy competition, and supplies the market with necessary goods. What is it, and how do small and medium-sized businesses differ from each other?

Small business - This is entrepreneurship based on the activities of small enterprises, firms that are not members of any associations. Their activities are regulated by the Federal Law on Small and Medium Enterprises, adopted on July 24, 2007. The legislation defines a small business as an enterprise whose number ranges from 16 to 100 employees, the profit from its activities does not exceed 400 million rubles. Firms that employ a maximum of 15 people are recognized as micro-enterprises, and their income should not exceed 60 million rubles.

Medium business already assumes that the number of employees will be larger - from 101 to 250 people, and annual revenue is about 100 million rubles.

Comparison of Russian small and medium-sized businesses with foreign ones

If we compare data from Russia, Europe and the USA, it will become obvious that the number of small enterprises in our country is much smaller than outside the border. For example, in Europe, tax revenues from small businesses replenish state coffers by almost 50%.

Despite the positive dynamics of growth in the number of small enterprises in Russia, their indicators still lag behind foreign ones. Let's look at the numbers: in our country there are approximately 12 enterprises per thousand people, in European countries - from 37 to 70. The comparison in terms of the number of employees is also not in our favor - 22% versus 70%. As for GDP, the figures here are disappointing: 18% in Russia and almost 70% in the West.

The main difference between the development of domestic business and Western economically more developed countries is that it is mainly focused on the service sector, and the number of enterprises engaged in the processing industry or mining is negligible.

Many factors are responsible for such a significant difference between the number of small and medium-sized enterprises. The success of small and medium-sized businesses in the West is primarily due to government support - numerous programs regulating taxation, preferential lending systems and other incentives stimulate the development of entrepreneurship.

Problems of small and medium businesses

Domestic business, despite the constant attempts of the state to help in its development, still faces a huge number of problems - first of all, the imperfection of the tax system, the interference of criminal structures that control income, and pressure from the government.

The only way out of the situation can be the adoption of special loyalty programs by the government.

Lending to small and medium-sized businesses

It is impossible to start your own business without investments and start-up capital. And if “finance sings romances,” the only option is either to find investors or take out a loan from a bank to develop your business.

The easiest and most cost-effective option is to ask friends for financial help. If you are very lucky, then perhaps you will receive the required amount without collateral, checks and without interest. But if this is not possible, commercial financing remains.

Money to start a business

Another way is to turn to future “colleagues”, current large entrepreneurs. Perhaps some of them will be interested in your well-written business plan. The only “BUT” is that your payment for such help will be a share in the enterprise, and quite a significant one.

Well, the last option is to register as an individual entrepreneur and cooperate with a bank that issues loans to medium and small businesses.

Today, many banks have programs to support individual entrepreneurship.

In Sberbank, for example, you can get all the necessary advice, and on a special information resource portal for private entrepreneurs, which was created with the support of SME Corporation JSC, you can use a business navigator to calculate all expenses, draw up a business plan, find premises, find out , can you count on government support?

Some types of business activities can count on receiving subsidies for the purchase of fixed assets from the state in an amount not exceeding 500 thousand rubles. To do this, you will have to invest at least half of your own money and carry out state registration. The enterprise should not specialize in trade - neither wholesale nor retail.

Now in some regions of Russia the financing of so-called business incubators is being carried out. These programs provide a good chance to save, for example, on rent, which is a good help - in large cities and in the capital, more than half of the enterprise’s revenue has to be paid for it. Upon receipt of such a government benefit, a new entrepreneur will be able to save additional funds to repay the loan.

Planning and organization of medium and small businesses

Strategic planning of your business is one of the main functions of its management, which is a clear designation of the main goals of the organization and ways to solve them. This is the basis that helps make all management decisions, since it is a kind of “model of the future” of the company, determines the prospects for its development in a comprehensive competitive market.

In our country, such tactics of strategic planning for small and medium-sized businesses are not yet very widespread, but market relations are developing, competition is intensifying, and this is increasingly adding to its relevance. The methods that were used before are already outdated and work very poorly. This makes business owners nervous, complaining that everything is to blame for poor management, force majeure situations, and a poor level of specialist training. But in fact, the problem most often lies in the fact that the entrepreneur simply does not see a strategy for the long-term development of his business in the near future, much less its long-term prospects. To do this, you need to calculate everything - the tactics of competitors, the needs and demands of the consumer, possible market changes.

The development of small and medium-sized businesses can be influenced by many completely unpredictable factors, and not giving them importance and due attention means deliberately driving yourself into a hopeless situation. Therefore, the key task is planning and developing tactics and strategies for behavior in the market, taking into account all circumstances - both internal and external.

Forecasting in small and medium-sized businesses and its features

Unlike a large business, in which all plans and strategic developments are carried out by representatives of senior management, and the project team can consist of from twenty to a hundred people, and their project documents number a hundred or two pages, in small and medium-sized businesses this phenomenon can rather be called enterprise development program for a certain period of time. For the most part, such a plan is not even transferred to paper, and is solely a figment of the imagination of a private entrepreneur and his personal opinion regarding the “survivability” of the business for the next couple of years. But such a plan also includes quite specific tasks associated with a specific time period, based on analysis, understanding of the market, “feeling” for one’s own business, studying its strengths and weaknesses, the possibility of confronting competitors, and determining the prospects in this industry.

Analytics helps to conduct a small audit of the current situation of the company and set key priorities for its activities. These priorities are presented as tasks - precise, coordinated with each other, with clear deadlines and indicating resources. The quality of formulation of such tasks has a great influence on the success of their implementation, so simple and effective tools, for example, setting specific goals according to the SMART system, could be a good help for the business owner.

What is very important to remember at the initial stage of developing your business?

The first thing you need to “get into your head” is that you need to constantly monitor the execution of all tasks. Mistakes are not forgiven here, because the slightest inaccuracy can ruin your business in the bud. A good solution would be to place control points at minimal intervals from each other. In fact, at the very beginning of the formation of a small and medium-sized business, its management is unitary - everything is controlled by the director of the company and his assistants, they make the necessary adjustments and so on. But a good solution would be to seek help from temporary, hired personnel - usually their qualifications are higher, which is a definite plus.

How to set goals correctly?

At the very beginning of the implementation stage, some entrepreneurs are faced with the fact that the quality of execution is either poor or non-existent. In 90% of cases, this is not even connected with the qualifications or motivation of its performer, but with unclear and foggy planning, when the goal is not clearly fixed, is not tied to anything, and is not time-determined. Just for comparison: “our goal is to increase product sales” and “our main goal is to increase sales by 30% by January 2018” with a clear definition of performers, resources, and so on. The latter option has a much higher chance of being successful as it is more accurate and matches the success criteria outlined above.

Main points of strategic planning

It is important for a business owner to understand that for it to be successful, a simple mental representation of the development of events is not enough - they must be documented.

With such clearly defined tasks, which are divided into stages, it is possible to track the stages of the company's development, successfully synchronize all personnel, eliminate possible misunderstandings, and also minimize the risk of bottlenecks.

A strategic plan helps set the main guidelines for the company’s development and allows for a sober and objective assessment of its internal resources and development opportunities in the market. Of course, its presence cannot guarantee 100% success of your enterprise, because no one is immune from errors, force majeure and other factors. But such visualized planning of goals, their description, and tracking allows us to create the most favorable conditions for expanding the company’s influence, its growth, internal effective allocation of resources and strong strengthening in the market.

Ideas for small and medium-sized businesses without large initial investments

First of all, you need to clearly determine the location of your “gold mine” - you must agree, it is unlikely that a business selling antique paintings and jewelry will be successful in the provinces. The most popular objects of small and medium-sized businesses among potential clients may be service and small trade enterprises. This area may include, for example, on-site computer diagnostics of cars, a cleaning company, a mini-bakery or a grocery store. An excellent solution would be to become the owner of a payment terminal that allows you to pay utilities, fines, telephone bills - you definitely can’t go wrong, because this is what people will always do.

Summarize. If you have two components - a great desire and even a small initial capital - you can organize an excellent business plan that will open the gates to your future great entrepreneurial activity!

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