Evolution stages of small business in the Russian Federation. Formation and development trends of small business in Russia. Theoretical provisions of small business development

In reforming the Russian economy, since perestroika, small businesses have assumed the role of creating the soil for a new economic system. The dominant private sector today emerged precisely in the field of small business, and it is quite natural that by now, according to official data, the share of private small businesses in total, the number of private, state and municipal, public small enterprises accounts for 84%. Small enterprises, possessing 3.4% of the value of fixed assets of the Russian economy and 14% of the number of employees, generate 12% of GDP and provide all the profits for the national economy. This speaks of broad, but still far from fully disclosed internal opportunities for the development of small business.

For a deeper understanding of the current situation with the development of small Russian enterprises, it is necessary to critically examine some pages of "recent history."

A number of stages can be distinguished in the Russian history of small business.

The first stage (1985 - 1987) is characterized by the emergence and activity of centers of scientific and technical creativity, temporary creative teams at public organizations, the spread of team contracts, the small number of participants in entrepreneurship and its experimental nature, the formation of emotional and psychological foundations business activities on the basis of private property. This stage can be called experimental.

During the second stage (1987-1988), the scope of small business activity expands, the number of people taking part in it increases; entrepreneurship acquires the character of an active numerous movement. The purpose of small business development is to saturate the domestic market with consumer goods. This stage was called the stage of the "cooperative movement". He served as an accelerator in the accumulation and redistribution of capital, allowed him to gain initial knowledge and skills for a small business.

The third stage (1989 - 1990) is associated with the adoption of legislative acts aimed at activating small businesses. Preparations have begun for the so-called small-scale privatization. It created the necessary basis for a real transition to market relations, increasing economic efficiency the Russian economy. It was at this time that private enterprise was legalized. Of particular importance during this period was the development of rental relations, which can be considered as a Russian feature of small business.

These periods are characterized by huge benefits of all kinds, including from the state budget, and the generally more favorable state of affairs in the economy determined the attitude of veterans to this period as to the "golden age" of small business. Indeed, there was a very quick and easy accumulation of capital, the production of scarce consumer goods and the sphere of all kinds of consumer services, retail trade, public catering, etc., which were equally scarce at that time, developed.

The seamy side of the "golden age" was, however, the fact that small enterprises played the role of a channel for pumping the resources of command-controlled state-owned enterprises into the shadow economy - in favor of semi-criminal and simply criminal pseudo-market entrepreneurship. The saddest consequence of such a transfer was that the funds accumulated in small businesses by the method of "additional plundering" of the public sector, with a few exceptions, almost forever left the sphere of accumulation and were not used for the development of national production and its infrastructure.

Of course, not only negative processes took place in the development of small business. During the years of perestroika, small business joined the general process of rapid development of the cooperative movement supported by the government. Both denationalization and education of the broad masses of the population in the basics of entrepreneurship took place through the development of cooperation and small business.

However, one cannot fail to notice that the "golden age" of small business and the functions of an accelerator of reforms imputed to it in many respects turned out to be in severe contradiction with other areas of economic reforms, or rather, with an unsuccessful attempt to carry out reforms from above, in rigidly unitary traditions, relying solely on apparatus state power and management. Attempts by the central government to somehow limit the possibilities of obtaining inflated income from the difference between the fixed prices of the public sector and the free prices of non-state enterprises to regulate the activities of small enterprises, to use the levers of taxation came across obvious incapacity state apparatus.

A radically different economic course was needed, which was embodied already in new Russia in reforms such as shock therapy. A new, second stage has begun in the development of small Russian entrepreneurship.

The fourth stage (1991 - 1992) is characterized by commercialization and the emergence of medium and large businesses. There have been fundamental changes in the attitude of the state to the development of entrepreneurship. Many laws have been adopted that have opened up wide opportunities for large-scale development of entrepreneurship.

1992 - the year of shock therapy - was characterized by the highest growth rates since the mid-1980s in the number of small enterprises (2.1 times) and the number of employees in them. This fact is phenomenal, since the liberalization of prices carried out at that time and the introduction of tax pressure severely undermined the financial base of small business. Rapid inflation has led, on the one hand, to the depreciation of the population's savings, and on the other, to a sharp increase in bank credit interest rates. This caused a real paralysis of investment activity, which has not yet been overcome.

Statistics show that science and scientific services became the absolute leader in increasing the number of small businesses. The number of small businesses in it increased 3.4 times.

The number of small enterprises in the field of agriculture increased 3.1 times. This is followed by material and technical supply and general commercial activities to ensure the functioning of the market (2.9 times). The sphere of public education is closely related to them (2.8 times).

At the same time, in 1992, in the general structure of Russian small business, there was a sharp decrease in the share of small enterprises in the sphere of material production.

According to the widespread opinion, the shock therapy model was not very constructive for the rapid and effective development of the country's economy and, in particular, the sphere of small business. But it should be admitted that in the conditions of intensified market reforms, small enterprises have demonstrated their positive capabilities. The most important functions of small business in the conditions of shock therapy have become social deformation, ensuring the survival of large segments of the population in an acute crisis through self-employment, providing an opportunity to obtain additional (in addition to basic, often formal employment) means of subsistence.

Instead of a kind of trough with a strong criminal connotation, which was inherent in the perestroika period, a normal competitive pro-market environment began to form in the sphere of small business, characterized by the struggle of small enterprises for survival on the basis of improving the quality and variety of goods and services. However, what has been said does not mean that criminal structures have left small business alone.

The phenomenal growth in the number of small businesses in 1992 has its own explanation. The rapid development of trade and intermediary small business was a response to the undermining of the original financial base. The liberalization of foreign trade under the conditions of the former USSR and the lifting of bans on private trade within the country created favorable conditions for any trade activity.

The drop in effective consumer demand was then actively compensated by small trade enterprises by importing goods, although not of very high quality (such as Chinese-made products), but which were in high demand among Russian consumers. The rapid turnover of small trading capitals turned them into medium-sized capitals. Moreover, small-scale trade quickly reacted to the growing socio-economic differentiation of Russian society, grouping itself in service niches, both for mass consumers and consumers with a high level of income. Quite quickly, elite shops began to appear next to small stalls, the owners and employees of which often began with "shuttle" activities. The positive role of the trade and intermediary activities of small enterprises should also include their participation in the creation of new economic ties.

Initiated by price liberalization by a number of other factors (the surrender of the military-industrial complex, the loss of markets in Eastern Europe, etc.), the complete clogging of the previously established channels of interconnection between manufacturers, suppliers and trade opened up a wide field of activity for small firms in the supply and sale of products. Of course, for new economic ties in full, a new technological framework of the economy is needed with appropriate market, highly efficient channels for the movement of goods from producers to consumers. Strategically, the task of creating such a framework for a small business is beyond its strength, since it takes many years and huge capital investments.

However, small business was able to play the role of a catalyst for the first steps towards a new system within cooperative ties in the Russian economy. In addition, he played the role of a damper, saving many enterprises from immediate collapse due to the rupture of former, although ineffective, but still working economic ties.

The leap of small businesses towards trade and intermediary activities was also a natural reaction to the tax pressure imposed by the government. In the former USSR, there was no and, in principle, there could not be a tax system adequate to market conditions. Therefore, the introduction of even elements of normal tax liability into the practice of economic life should have caused a natural reaction of rejection among entrepreneurs who are not accustomed to this. But the fact is that this reaction was superimposed on the obvious extremism of the government's tax policy aimed at the withdrawal of up to 70-90% of the income of small businesses. At the same time, the government did not expect that anyone would immediately pay taxes in full. Thus, entrepreneurs were encouraged to seek and find ways to hide income from taxation. Trading and brokering focused on hard-to-control cash opened up great opportunities for tax evasion.

On the whole, the situation in 1992 can be characterized by the generally accepted term "grunding". Small business was constituent element of this massive founding process. Exchanges, banks, insurance companies, large private and semi-state joint-stock enterprises arose throughout Russia in incredible numbers. For the first time in their lives, people received freedom for independent entrepreneurial activity, the right to engage in financial planning, which was previously an absolute monopoly of government agencies and their officials. Such motivations, combined with the collapse of state, primarily budgetary enterprises and organizations, with the hope of obtaining high income from sufficient simple species works and services could not but give rise to large-scale greenunder.

Such grundership is explained not so much by economic reasons as by the general laws of social psychology as applied to the situation of a cardinal social change, which is obvious for Russia.

An illustration of the above is the massive emergence of ephemeral farms in harsh climatic zones and on low-quality soils, where, from the point of view of economic feasibility, such farms, in principle, cannot exist even in the most developed market country. Many small businesses were born not because of economic expediency, without any long-term development program, but only out of a common hope, the dreams of their organizers for a rather abstract one " better life"(mainly in the style of attractive stencils of a society of free enterprise and universal consumption.) In a sense, psychological expectations of imminent prosperity dominated over sober economic calculation and even common sense.

This explains the phenomenon of the rapid emergence of numerous private small scientific firms in the context of a very rapid curtailment of any demand for scientific products due to the acute investment crisis, a decline in innovation activity and a fantastic budget deficit at all levels. Psychologically, this phenomenon is also explained by the fact that scientific activity, the personality of the researcher for many previous decades were in a state of obvious lack of demand. The new conditions gave former researchers hope for an independent way out of the deadlock in which they found themselves in state academic, industrial and other scientific institutions in the 70s and 80s.

As the historical experience shows, Gründer is always limited in time. By 1995, niches and opportunities for super-profitable trade and intermediary activities were practically exhausted. Many of the previously established small enterprises, mainly of trade and intermediary or, for example, scientific and consulting orientation, either ceased to exist or diversified. Such a situation should naturally generate new trends in the development of Russian small business. The next, third stage of qualitative changes in the dynamics and structure of small business was indicated, accompanied, as noted above, by a significant reduction in the growth in the number of small businesses.

The main reasons for the suspension of the growth of the number of small enterprises were a sharp narrowing of the boundaries of areas characterized by easily achieved high profitability, the exhaustion of psychological expectations of unlimited financial opportunities for independent entrepreneurial activity. In a normal market economy, in most cases, small business is inferior to medium and large business both in terms of profitability and on the boundaries of potential opportunities. It follows them in the role, although quite worthy, but still an outsider. If in Russia back in 1992-1994. the entire economy, including small business, lived according to the stochastic laws of the initial accumulation of capital, then by 1995 the laws of the civilized market system began to operate more and more clearly. Less common were cases when a small business easily bought up expensive buildings and even medium-sized ones. manufacturing enterprises... Income per person employed in small businesses at a level fluctuating around the average wage in the country became the norm.

According to the official statistics of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, as of 01.01.1996, there were 877 thousand small enterprises in Russia, which employed 8.9 million people (according to the average number of employees), and taking into account secondary employment - 13.8 million people ... The sectoral structure was dominated by trade and intermediary activities, and the regional structure was dominated by the Central Economic Region with a core in Moscow.

In the Russian economy, a tendency towards the beginning of a new market concentration and centralization of capital, as well as economic activity itself, began to be traced. The process of absorption of enterprises has been developed. Often the most profitable small businesses are the first victims of these acquisitions. For example, in Orenburg, on the site of numerous individual trade stalls, well-designed trade pavilions belonging to one or another large company have appeared. Less profitable small businesses also cannot withstand economic competition with medium and large firms and are forced to curtail their activities. In this sense, at this stage russian reforms the processes of centralization and concentration of capital are also opposed to the increase in the number of small enterprises. But, it can be assumed that in the future, new large and medium-sized enterprises will most actively stimulate the creation of new small enterprises in the structure of new economic and technological chains being formed.

The dramatic slowdown in the growth of the number of small businesses in 1994-1995. also influenced the completion of the re-registration of the latter, created under the laws of the former USSR. During the re-registration, existing small enterprises took on new organizational forms, and those that had ceased their work were simply liquidated. Since the number of registered, but actually not functioning small enterprises was quite large, their official liquidation made a significant contribution to the overall slowdown in growth. The factor of re-registration and liquidation of non-working enterprises fully manifested itself in 1995 in connection with the introduction of the new Civil Code (CC) into the practice of economic activity. In accordance with the provisions of its first part, small enterprises in the form of partnerships (and this is a very common economic form of small enterprises) must re-register their founding documents by adopting other economic forms provided for by the Civil Code. If we take into account that even according to the official estimates of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, more than a third of registered small enterprises either did not start economic activities or suspended them without liquidation, then it is obvious that the re-registration that began in 1995 and, accordingly, the official liquidation of really non-functioning small enterprises led to a further significant decrease in the number of small businesses in Russia. And taking into account the fact that in a number of Russian regions a little more than half of registered small businesses are actually operating (according to the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation), re-registration has made certain adjustments to the regional structure of small businesses in the country.

The slowdown in the growth of the number of new small enterprises is also explained by the fact that it did not show its strength - both in economic and socially, such a powerful factor in the growth of small businesses as the rise in unemployment. Despite all forecasts of its rapid increase, until 1996, official unemployment remained at the level of 2-3% of the economically active population. Real unemployment may be an order of magnitude higher, as indicated by alternative calculations of experts from trade union associations, international organizations and so on. But, nevertheless, the official status of workers (even at "half-dead" enterprises), while it operates, creates a socio-psychological effect in which people refuse to engage in other independent activities, including trying their hand at small business. More common is the occasional, often unrecorded support earnings from small resale or auxiliary work. But as soon as the Russian government actually, and not in words, goes to bankruptcy of numerous unprofitable enterprises, the growth of official unemployment will undoubtedly trigger a new wave of growth in the number of small enterprises.

The most significant negative point was and remains the criminalization of small business. In this regard, the most typical answer to the question of sample surveys of managers of small enterprises about the influence of criminal structures on their activities is very indicative. A significant part of the respondents answer that they do not know anything about criminal structures at all. In the current situation, such an answer indicates not overcoming the dependence of small businesses on criminal structures, but quite the opposite - their especially strong dependence on these structures and even direct involvement in these structures and fear of them. Criminality continues to be a significant factor hindering the normal development of Russian small business,

The sharp decline in the growth rate of the number of small enterprises was reflected in different ways in individual industries. Although somewhat slowing down, for the first time in the past several years, the number of small enterprises in construction and transport increased at an outstripping rate (by 18 and 19% in 1995). In trade and catering, the number of small businesses decreased by about 10%. In general commercial activities to ensure the functioning of the market, in science and scientific services, there was an absolute decrease in the number of small enterprises (-18.7 and -5.6%).

The dynamics of the number of small businesses in the regional context shows some outpacing growth in the number of small businesses in the regions of the North Caucasus and the North of the European part of Russia. Although there have been no significant changes in the regional structure of small business, one can nevertheless notice a positive process of gradual, more even distribution of small businesses across various economic regions of Russia. In 1995, the average number of employed in small businesses increased by 0.8% in comparison with 1994. Of course, the growth rate is small, but it confirms the data of sociological surveys, during which managers of small enterprises expressed an opinion about the need to increase the number of employees of enterprises. And, which is very important, they indicate that the time has come for the transition from semi-legal employment to normal, adequate to the current laws.

Particularly noteworthy is the increased investment activity of small businesses. The total volume of their capital investments in 1995 increased by 4 times, and in industry by 7.4 times.

It can be stated that in 1994-1995. The policy of moderately tight financial stabilization pursued by the Russian government, on the one hand, was accompanied by a significant slowdown in the growth rate of the number of small enterprises, but on the other hand, it had a pronounced reorganization effect. A fundamentally new economic situation began to form in the country, in which small business began to play a role characteristic of it in a normal market economy.

In the struggle for survival, small enterprises have learned to independently adapt to the complexities of the market. Thus, to increase their viability, they are actively diversifying their economic and investment activities. More than half of small non-commercial enterprises, in addition to their main activity in 1995, were also engaged in trade as a simple but relatively profitable activity with a fast capital turnover period. And commercial capital is increasingly rushing into production, albeit in its simplest forms.

In general, we can say that a new leap forward in the dynamics of the number of small businesses, in increasing their macroeconomic weight in all respects is inevitable. It should be expected as the prerequisites accumulate for the formation of an integral system of market economy, decisive steps in the field of demonopolizing the economy, and de-bureaucratizing management.

Small business in Russia has been developing at an outstripping pace in recent years. But despite this, small businesses still do not have a significant impact on the development of the Russian economy as a whole. The share of production of goods and services by small enterprises is only about 8% of the total production volumes of all enterprises in the country. Small businesses account for only 3.4% of total investment in fixed assets.

In Russia, there are only 62 registered small enterprises per 10,000 inhabitants, while in the United States there are 214 enterprises with less than 20 employees per 10,000 inhabitants, in the manufacturing industry in Great Britain - 143 enterprises, in Germany - 51. In Italy, there are 10 thousand inhabitants. 693 enterprises with less than 20 employees, in Hungary - 810..

The number of small businesses in Russia does not exceed 1 million. there were 953.1 thousand of them. their number increased by 62.2 thousand (by 7%). In general, in 1999-2004, the number of small enterprises in Russia increased insignificantly - by only 85.1 thousand (by 10%), and the main increase occurred in the last year, and in 2000-2001 the number of small enterprises decreased.

Every fifth Russian enterprise belongs to small business. However, if at the beginning of 1999. the share of small enterprises in the total number of registered enterprises in Russia reached 30%, then by the beginning of 2005. it decreased to 22%. This was due to the fact that small businesses closed faster and more often than medium and large businesses, and because newly registered businesses were not small businesses.

By forms of ownership, small enterprises are 96.4% private enterprises and 3.6% - enterprises of mixed Russian and joint Russian and foreign ownership. Most of the small enterprises of mixed ownership are in education (13.3%), finance and credit and pension provision (11.7%), science (10.2%) and communications (9.3%).

In the total number of registered small enterprises, wholesale and retail trade enterprises (50%) dominated, followed by enterprises engaged in real estate transactions (14.5%), small manufacturing enterprises (12.7%) and construction companies (10.6%). ). Small businesses are practically undeveloped in fishing, mining, production and distribution of electricity, gas and water, social security, education, healthcare and social services.

IN russian industry small enterprises are represented mainly in mechanical engineering and metalworking (32.7% of all small enterprises in the industrial sector), in the forestry, woodworking and pulp and paper industries (16.1%), as well as in the food industry (14.4%).

The total volume of goods and services produced by small enterprises in 2004 amounted to 2 trillion 273.9 billion rubles, which (without inflation adjustment) exceeded the 2003 indicator. by 35%. In 2003. the growth of production of goods and services by small enterprises in current prices was 45%, in 2002. - 36%, in 2001. - 39%. In general, for 1999-2004 (compared to 1998), the volume of production of small enterprises increased by 8.7 times. Adjusted for the GDP deflator index (which is the most accurate measure of inflation in the economy as a whole), the growth of production of goods and services of small enterprises amounted to 13.9% in 2004 and slowed down compared to 2003, when it was 27.5%. The growth rate of production in small business last year was the lowest in the last 4 years. Nevertheless, in general, in 1999-2004, the production of goods and services by small enterprises in Russia, after deducting inflation, doubled.

The volume of products, works and services produced by small enterprises in the main type of activity in 2004 amounted to 1 trillion 910 billion rubles, or 84% of the total volume of products and services produced. The total proceeds from the sale of goods and the sale of services by small enterprises amounted to 8 trillion 214 billion rubles.

The average number of employees per small enterprise in Russia is 9 people, and most of them are in construction (15) and in industry (14), and the least in financial and credit, insurance and pension provision of the population (4).

In 2007, the number of small enterprises in Russia for the first time exceeded one million, and 60% of them belong to the sphere of trade and services, while the innovation, scientific and technical, and manufacturing sectors are still developing slowly. Today in Russia there are 1.1 million small businesses, which employ 2.5 million workers, which is only 15% of the total number in the country. Moreover, 60% of them are employed in trade and services, as this guarantees quick profit.

By subjects Russian Federation statistics are as follows. Almost 21% of the total number of small businesses are concentrated in Moscow, in second place is St. Petersburg (12%), in third place is the Moscow region (4%), and in fourth place is Krasnodar Territory (3.6%). Quite good performance in Rostov, Samara, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk regions - large Russian regions.

Small business in Russia has a number of distinctive features that are not typical for small businesses in developed countries... Among them:

a high level of diversification (versatility) of small businesses. The unstable Russian economy forces entrepreneurs to look for any sources of income, engaging in various types of activities, sometimes not related to each other either organizationally or technologically;

striving for maximum independence. In countries with developed market economies, a significant part of small businesses work on a subcontract basis, in a franchise system, etc .;

a high share of the "shadow" sector (according to various estimates, from 30 to 50% of the real turnover of small businesses are not involved in solving national problems);

low technological and managerial level of activity.

Entrepreneurship theories date back to the 18th. The first economic scientist to develop one of the first concepts of entrepreneurship is Richard Cantillon, according to whom an entrepreneur is a person acting in conditions of risk. A. Smith made a significant contribution to the development of the theory of entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur, according to Smith, is an owner of capital who, in order to realize some commercial idea and make a profit, takes economic risk. Of interest is the opinion of J. Baudot that an entrepreneur is a person who combines the functions of an owner of capital and a manager of it. J. Schumpeter defines entrepreneurs as economic entities whose function is to implement new combinations and who act as its active element. From the above, we can conclude that entrepreneurship is a risky business voluntarily carried out by citizens. Also, entrepreneurship is interpreted as free economic management in different areas activities carried out by subjects of market relations in order to meet the needs of specific consumers and society in goods (works, services) and profit, necessary for the self-development of their own business and ensuring financial obligations to the budget and other business entities.

Small and medium business in a market economy is the leading sector that determines the rate of economic growth, the structure and quality of the gross national product (GNP). In all developed countries, small businesses account for 60-70% of GNP.

The criteria for classifying an enterprise as small are the number of employees and the share of state, municipal property and property of public associations in the authorized capital of these enterprises, which should be no more than 25%. The number of employees in small business is determined by the average number of the main production personnel and employees working under contracts and part-time jobs. Small businesses include enterprises with no more than 200 employees in industry and construction, up to 100 people in science and scientific services, up to 50 people in other sectors of the manufacturing sector, and up to 15 people in the non-manufacturing sector.

Russian small business has gone through four stages in its development.

The first and most striking of them was observed in the conditions of the command-administrative economy at the end of the 1980s. Huge benefits of all kinds, including at the expense of the state budget, and a generally more favorable state of affairs in the economy determined the attitude of veterans to this period as to the "golden age" of small business. Indeed, there was a very quick and easy accumulation of capital, the production of scarce consumer goods and the sphere of all kinds of consumer services, retail trade, public catering, etc., which were equally scarce at that time, developed.

The seamy side of the "golden age" was, however, that small enterprises played the role of a channel for pumping the resources of command-controlled state-owned enterprises into the shadow economy, in favor of semi-criminal and simply criminal pseudo-market entrepreneurship.

Of course, not only negative processes took place in the development of MP. During the years of perestroika, small business joined the general process of rapid development of the cooperative movement supported by the government. Both denationalization and education of the broad masses of the population in the basics of entrepreneurship took place through the development of cooperation and small business.

1992 - the year of shock therapy - was characterized by the highest growth rates since the mid-1980s in the number of small enterprises (2.1 times) and the number of employees in them. A new, second stage has begun in the development of Russian small business.

This fact is phenomenal, since the liberalization of prices carried out at that time and the introduction of tax pressure severely undermined the financial base of small business. Rapid inflation has led, on the one hand, to the depreciation of the population's savings, and on the other, to a sharp increase in interest rates on bank loans. This caused a real paralysis of investment activity.

Statistics show that science and scientific services became the absolute leader in increasing the number of small businesses at that time. The number of small businesses in it increased 3.4 times. The number of small enterprises in the field of agriculture increased 3.1 times. This is followed by logistics and general commercial activities to ensure the functioning of the market (2.9 times). The sphere of public education is closely related to them (2.8 times).

At the same time, in 1992, in the overall structure of Russian small business, there was a sharp decrease in the share of small businesses in the sphere of material production.

The most important functions of the MP in the conditions of shock therapy have become social damping, ensuring the survival of large segments of the population in an acute crisis through self-employment, providing an opportunity to obtain additional (in addition to basic, often formal employment) livelihoods.

The phenomenal growth in the number of MTs in 1992 has its own explanation. The rapid development of trade and intermediary small business was a response to the undermining of the original financial base. The liberalization of foreign trade under the conditions of the former USSR and the lifting of bans on private trade within the country created favorable conditions for any trade activity.

The drop in consumer effective demand was then actively compensated by small trade businesses by importing goods, although not of very high quality (such as Chinese-made products), but which were in high demand among Russian consumers. The rapid turnover of small trading capitals turned them into medium-sized capitals.

Small business has become an integral part of the massive founding process. Exchanges, banks, insurance companies, large private and semi-state joint-stock enterprises arose throughout Russia in incredible numbers. For the first time in their lives, people received freedom for independent entrepreneurial activity, the right to engage in financial planning, which was previously an absolute monopoly of government agencies and their officials. Such motivations, combined with the collapse of state, primarily budgetary enterprises and organizations, with the hope of receiving high incomes from fairly simple types of work and services, could not but generate a massive development of entrepreneurship. This is explained by economic reasons and the general laws of social psychology as applied to the situation of a cardinal social change, which is obvious for Russia.

By 1995, niches and opportunities for super-profitable trade and intermediary activities were practically exhausted. Many of the previously established small enterprises, mainly of trade and intermediary or, for example, scientific and consulting orientation, either ceased to exist or diversified. This situation naturally should have generated new trends in the development of Russian small business. The next, third stage of qualitative changes in the dynamics and structure of small business was indicated, accompanied, as noted above, by a significant reduction in the increase in the number of small businesses.

The main reasons for the suspension of the growth in the number of small businesses were a sharp narrowing of the boundaries of areas characterized by easily achieved high profitability, the exhaustion of psychological expectations of unlimited financial opportunities for independent entrepreneurial activity.

If in Russia back in 1992-1994. the entire economy, including small business, lived according to the stochastic laws of the initial accumulation of capital, then by 1995 the laws of the civilized market system began to operate more and more clearly. Less common were cases when a small enterprise easily bought up expensive buildings and even medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. Income per person employed in a small enterprise was becoming the norm at a level fluctuating around the average wage in the country.

In the Russian economy, a tendency towards the beginning of a new, market concentration and centralization of capital, as well as economic activity itself, began to be traced. The process of absorption of enterprises has been developed. Often, the most profitable small businesses are the first victims of these acquisitions.

The slowdown in the growth of the number of new small enterprises is also explained by the fact that such a powerful factor in the growth of small enterprises as the growth of unemployment has not shown its strength - both economically and socially. Despite all the forecasts of its rapid increase, until 1996, official unemployment remained at the level of 2-3% of the economically active population.

Since 2000, a fundamentally new economic situation began to form in the country, in which small businesses began to play a role characteristic of small business in a normal market economy.

Small businesses in the struggle to survive have learned to independently adapt to the complexities of the market.

To consolidate and further develop the positive growth trends of Russian small business, to radically expand the field of its activities, it is necessary to intensify state support for small businesses at all levels. First of all, support is needed in the sphere of lending and insurance of small business, stimulating its investment activity. It is also extremely important to expand the innovative and scientific activities of the MP in the interests of developing all spheres of the Russian economy. The beginning of a real recovery in the economy made it possible to move to the fourth stage of a truly market development of Russian small business.

1.1 The concept of small business and small business. Criteria for classifying enterprises as small

List of sources used

Introduction

In a market economy, a significant part of the enterprises are small. Moreover, there is a constant tendency to increase their number. Today the world economy is experiencing the so-called "boom" of small business. It is predetermined by the deepening of specialization and decentralization of production; the growing role of services in the economy; carrying out privatization and reducing the regulatory role of the state in some sectors, ensuring freedom of entrepreneurial activity by the state, expanding state support for small businesses.

In developed countries, small business is integral part market economy. It, as a source of progressive economic changes, acquired particular relevance in the 90s: small enterprises (SM) promote the development of competition, create new jobs, are intensively engaged in scientific research, and the like. In addition, small business is the key to the democratization of the economy and public life, a factor in maintaining social justice in society. Foreign experience confirms the effectiveness of the existence of the small business sector in the modern economy.

No "healthy" economic system cannot do without the balance of large and small businesses.

Large business needs and profitable a capacious market with a stable and long-term demand, mass-produced products that meet the requirements, accumulation of significant financial resources, and cheap labor. Small businesses have a number of advantages in management: ease of communication, lack of a rigid hierarchy, and the ability to quickly adjust goals. Therefore, the cost of production in a small business is lower than in a large one, with high quality manufactured products and services.

Thus, small firms, performing a liaison and intermediary role between major manufacturers and end consumers, they can understand the needs of each specific consumer, contribute to the maximum satisfaction of their needs. In addition, statistics show that small business is a significant source of new ideas and replenishment of budget revenues at various levels.

The small business sector creates and circulates the bulk of national resources that serve as a breeding ground for large and medium-sized businesses.

A distinctive feature of small business is its availability as a field of activity for a wide range of people, which is due to the fact that its functioning does not imply large financial investments, does not require large material and labor resources.

Small business is a multifaceted socio-economic phenomenon that affects most aspects of the country's economic life and contributes to the solution of many of its problems. However, it is not without its drawbacks and requires support from government agencies.

Small business is twofold in its essence: on the one hand, it is an organization, and on the other, it is a private person. It is here that the interests of the state, its tax policy and the interests of a particular citizen, his requests and opportunities for their satisfaction are most closely aligned.

Thus, it is small business that is necessary condition the formation of the so-called middle class - a social foundation that ensures the stable development of Russian society, therefore the topic of this work is relevant.

The purpose of this work is to study the role of small business in the economy.

In accordance with the set goal, the following tasks were solved in the work:

considered the concept and role of small business in the economy;

studied the foreign experience of functioning of small business enterprises;

analyzed the state of small business;

identified the problems of small business in the crisis and determined ways to overcome them.

In the process of performing the work, educational-methodical and normative literature, articles and monographs on the selected topic were used.

1. Theoretical principles of small business development

1.1 The concept of small business and small business. Criteria for categorizing enterprises as small

The economy of developed countries is represented by a system of enterprises, which, according to generally accepted terminology, are defined as large, medium and small. The owners of these enterprises are united by a common corporate interest - the preservation, development and protection of private property, and profit maximization. At the same time, business is not homogeneous, each of these three groups has its own interests that determine their strategy. economic behavior, attitude towards the state and the state towards them, approaches to solving technical and economic problems. The place and role of these sectors in the economy are different. Big business mainly determines the economic and technical strength of a country. For the purpose of self-preservation and development, he gravitates towards integration. At the same time, it often becomes an instrument for the expansion of international entrepreneurial structures in the domestic market.

Medium-sized businesses are more dependent on the domestic economic environment and are competing both within their own group and with large domestic and foreign capital. Medium entrepreneurship is more closely related to national interests.

Small business represents the most numerous stratum of small owners, who, by virtue of their massiveness, largely determine the socio-economic appearance of the country. This business sector forms the most extensive network of enterprises working mainly for the mass consumer of goods and services. Combined with the small size of small businesses, their technological, production and management flexibility, this allows them to be sensitive to changing market conditions. It is thanks to the activities of small businesses that many products and services become available to the end consumer. They diversify the number of products offered on the market, since it is more profitable for this area to deal with each product in small volumes, thus making a profit from each type, than to develop any one direction and, in case of failure, doom itself to complete collapse.

Theorists do not yet have a unanimous opinion on the definition of the term "small business". It is firmly rooted in scientific literature, everyday speech, and even legislative acts, but, nevertheless, it requires clarification.

IN general plan entrepreneurship is a sphere of economic activity in which an entrepreneur realizes himself - an innovator, a subject looking for and realizing new opportunities, spheres and objects of application of production factors, capable of putting forward and mastering new goods, technologies, forms and methods of serving consumers, generating new needs and ways their satisfaction.

But this sphere is structured and organized in a certain way. And the primary structural link of entrepreneurship is an enterprise, which, according to certain criteria, can be classified as small, medium and large. Therefore, when we talk about small businesses, we mean entrepreneurship within the framework of small businesses that have a number of specific features and characteristics. Or, in another terminology, we are talking about entrepreneurship in the field of small business.

In scientific literature, instead of the term "small business", the term "small business" is often used. These concepts are practically identical. The only difference is that the term "small business" is a legal term, since it is used in normative acts with some exceptions, and "small business" is an economic one. But, in essence, they are one and the same phenomenon.

In the legal and economic literature, there are many definitions of MT or small business, affecting various aspects of this phenomenon. Of greatest interest is the definition of the term "small business" given by the so-called Boulton Commission, which indicates three main features of a small business:

a small sales market that does not allow the company to have a significant impact on prices and volumes of goods sold;

legal independence - the company is not managed through a formalized management structure, but by the owner or partner-owners who control their own business. This condition makes it possible to exclude small branches of large firms;

personalized management, assuming that the owner or partners-owners themselves participate in all aspects of business management and in the process of making all decisions and are free from any external control.

According to Article 3 of the Federal Law "On State Support of Small Business in the Russian Federation", small business entities are considered to be:

1.commercial organizations, in the authorized capital of which the share of participation of the Russian Federation, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, public and religious organizations (associations), charitable and other foundations does not exceed 25%, a share belonging to one or several legal entities that are not subjects of small business, does not exceed 25%;

2. and in which the average number of employees for the reporting period does not exceed the following limit levels (small enterprises):

in industry - 100 people;

in construction - 100 people;

on transport - 100 people;

in agriculture - 60 people;

in the scientific and technical sphere - 60 people;

in the wholesale trade - 50 people;

in retail trade and consumer services - 30 people;

in other industries and in other activities - 50 people.

Also of interest is the proposed by academician L.I. Abalkin's classification of MP subjects. He divides them into three categories: “The first is what was called individual labor activity in Russia earlier. The second type of farms is a form of small business based on family farming with or without the involvement of additional workers, which has a fairly wide development. Family farms developing in Russia are a classic example, and finally, the third group is really modern production enterprises, small in number, but modern in organization, technology, and often large in scale of production: in construction, science and scientific activity.

Small businesses are also understood as individualsengaged in entrepreneurial activity without education legal entity, i.e. individual entrepreneurs. Individual entrepreneurs are always small businesses.

Thus, both production cooperatives and joint stock companies, and societies with limited liability and others - all commercial organizations, regardless of their organizational and legal form, can belong to small business entities, i.e. be so-called "small businesses".

small business entrepreneurship russia

1.2 The role of small business in the economy

The efficiency of small enterprises is determined by a number of their advantages over large enterprises:

a small business meets the market needs for those goods and services that are impractical for medium and large firms to produce and provide for economic and other reasons, for example, because of the limited needs of local markets;

higher capital turnover;

small businesses often show themselves as innovators.

In particular, out of 61 major discoveries in the 20th century, 48 were made at small and medium-sized enterprises. At the same time, as practice shows, 80-85% of the developments of small firms are introduced within one or two years * (4);

relatively low costs of organizing and conducting business, primarily for management;

high adaptability to market changes;

proximity to local markets and adaptation to the needs of the clientele and other benefits.

The efficient functioning of the economy is possible only with the optimal ratio of the number of large, medium and small enterprises. In our country, the number of small enterprises in comparison with large enterprises is much less than in developed countries. In the US, 97% of businesses are small, and in Russia, 28%.

Why is small business attractive to the economy?

First, the unity of the right of the owner and the direct management of the enterprise. The ability and willingness of small business functionaries to take risks and be accountable for their decisions presupposes this kind of unity.

Secondly, the so-called visibility of a small business. The small size makes it possible to establish an informal, personal nature of the relationship between the employee and the employer, to provide a more effective mechanism for motivating work and a higher degree of satisfaction with it.

Third, there are relatively small sales markets that do not allow a small firm to influence prices and sales of products within the industry. However, some small firms are so successful in defining their market niche that they practically become monopolists within it, with all the ensuing consequences.

Fourth, the personified nature of the entrepreneur's relationship with partners-suppliers of resources and buyers of finished products. This is due to the fact that a small business is, in principle, designed to serve a relatively narrow circle of consumers.

Fifth, the family nature of the enterprise, the conduct of business: the family is often included in the number of employees, the basic capital of a small enterprise is often formed at the expense of family savings, the business itself is inherited by representatives of the family, etc.

Finally, sixth, small firms are characterized by a special nature of financing. If large corporations form the necessary financial resources through stock exchanges, then small businesses can count on relatively small bank loans, their own funds and the informal capital market (funds are borrowed from friends, relatives, other entrepreneurs, etc.).

Thus, we can say that small firms form the foundation on which the higher "floors" of the economy are built and which largely determines the architecture of the entire building of the economy.

This is explained as follows.

First of all, it should be emphasized the integrating (connecting the economy into a single whole) role of small enterprises (this type of firm is called commutators, i.e. connectors).

The fact is that in a market economy, the presence of effective demand for any product should automatically give rise to its supply. But a characteristic feature of modern efficient production is its selectivity: it is economically justified and profitable not in all conditions.

Large-scale production is effective, as a rule, with the mass production of more or less the same type of product, providing savings on the volume of production (production scale). Otherwise, a large company, if possible, does not undertake the release of unprofitable goods. But this has the potential to create deep imbalances.

For example, the production of cars is beneficial to large companies, since it is a serial standard product, as well as the production of gasoline. But it is not profitable for giant firms to maintain gas stations (with rare exceptions) because of high transaction costs, insignificant daily earnings, etc. without small enterprises, a paradoxical situation would have developed: mass-produced cars with a sufficient amount of gasoline would not be able to freely move around the country if there are not enough gas stations in it.

Only small switching firms are ready to use any business opportunity, the rest of the companies are very picky in this sense.

Medium-sized firms are characterized by smaller volumes of output, but take up production only where special and at the same time sufficiently long-term needs have formed. A specialized medium-sized firm must accumulate knowledge in a narrow area and go to the associated costs, only being confident that its business will have a future.

Without small firms, the economy would acquire a "patchwork" character: some market needs would be satisfied with sufficient completeness - those on the basis of which it is possible to create large-scale super-profitable or specialized profitable production, while others that do not meet these requirements would not be satisfied. This contradiction is resolved with the help of switching firms, the main strategy of which is a constant search for now appearing and now disappearing social needs, continuous adaptation to market conditions. It is no coincidence that the activities of such firms are characterized by the lack of planning - by definition, they must be mobile, ready for changes.

The importance of small business for the economy is clearly illustrated by the diagram shown in Figure 1.

First of all, small business means additional jobs, wages and, accordingly, social protection of employees. In addition, small business is one of the sources of income for budgets of all levels. It enables people to show their capabilities and hidden abilities. Small business aims to maximize customer satisfaction, often in industries that large firms have abandoned. Wanting to survive, enterprises seek to reduce production costs, which contributes to lower prices for products. Small firms are helping to accelerate the distribution of new products.

The role of small enterprises in the formation of competitive relations in a market economy is no less important. Of course, for an individual small firm, a collision with a large corporation most often ends in defeat. But the relationship between the entire sector of small business and big capital is developing differently: small firms are often the attacking side here.

Recently, the term "genetics" has appeared in Western economic literature, which denotes a group of fast-growing, mostly small companies that are engaged in copying the products of leading firms. They are especially widespread in the pharmaceutical, electronics and other industries.

Where do genetics firms benefit? First, by copying already known products, they do not incur huge expenditures on scientific research, and therefore their costs for the production of synonymous goods (often produced under other names) are much lower. Secondly, large monopolies often raise prices, small firms do not.

Thus, by offering a product of equal consumer properties at a lower price, small businesses are able to seriously compete with large firms and oust them from a significant part of the market.

But small firms do more than compete with inefficient divisions of large corporations. Together, as a single sector of the economy, they are able to compete quite seriously with the most powerful companies. This is facilitated not only by their large number and flexibility, but also by the rapid renewal of small businesses. Every year a huge number of small enterprises appear, and the number of those being liquidated is just as large. But only a small part of them go bankrupt, the overwhelming number of small businesses go out of business without major financial losses and are ready to form a new business. Therefore, the number of small businesses, as a rule, not only does not decrease, but even increases. Despite the fact that according to statistics, out of three newly created enterprises go bankrupt every two, which confirms the idea of \u200b\u200ba huge number of small enterprises being opened. This maintains a competitive market environment and curbs the stagnation tendency inherent in giant corporations.

What determines the position of small businesses in competitive struggle?

These firms usually have two possible behaviors.

The first is to choose a field of activity where the small size of the enterprise provides the greatest efficiency. A family farm, a mini-bakery, a small laundry, and even homeworkers who use modern technology can be quite effective and competitive. information Technology (a design engineer using a computer-aided design system, a broker using an automated sales system, a doctor working with automated system diagnostics, etc.). Let's add to this the motives of the activity of small business owners that are not typical for other firms: not only, and not so much enrichment, but also the opportunity to be independent and realize oneself in business. Further, small firms save on costs (accounting, storage, advertising, management and R&D costs).

Positive impact on competitive positions small businesses are also provided with state support (if any).

These factors contribute to the fact that small business withstands competition with larger business, but only as long as it remains small. Its growth will mean the loss of those advantages that ensured its effectiveness.

Another variant of the behavior of a small company is a certain interaction, a symbiosis with a large corporation. In some cases, this means for a small business the loss of freedom, independence, transformation into an appendage of a large corporation.

Characterizing the role of small business in the economy, it is necessary to emphasize its function for the rational use of resources. This is, first of all, about labor. Small businesses act as employers for a significant portion of the population. Small business in countries with socially - oriented market economies created 70% of new jobs. The problem of employment, a massive increase in unemployment is worldwide. As the developments of international organizations, in particular the ILO and the UN, show, economic growth does not create an adequate number of new jobs. Of the roughly 50 emerging economies, only seven have increased jobs in the last decade.

Small enterprises ensure the national use and material resources, including the widespread use of local sources of raw materials and large-scale production waste. It is necessary to mention the inclusion of part of the population in the production of financial resources by transferring them from the state of accumulation to the state of investment.

It is also important that small business brings the production of goods and services closer to the consumer, and on this basis the reduction of delivery costs from large industrial centers to the periphery, thereby ensuring the equalization of the levels of commodity provision in settlements of various scales and different regions.

Thus, small business acts as an integral, objectively necessary sector of the market economy that performs important functions.

However, small businesses also have some disadvantages. The small volume of operations limits the ability of a small business to expand its activities, as well as to conduct large scientific developments. Small businesses are distinguished by their increased susceptibility to market fluctuations, which leads to frequent ruin and bankruptcy. Accordingly, workers in small companies are less socially protected than in large firms.

The situation of small business largely depends on the external environment. This is a set of elements that directly affect the formation and functioning of small business. The elements of the external environment can be roughly divided into 4 groups.

The first is a set of markets that are most important for small business: resource (means of production, labor, finance, information, etc.) and sales.

The second group of elements of the external environment is represented by market institutions (state and financial - credit) and agents (large and medium-sized businesses). The third group can include complexes of social relations: legal, socio - cultural, political. Finally, the fourth group includes the economic environment, ecology, scientific and technological progress, and the structure of the national economy.

The external environment of small business differs in a number of specific features that distinguish it from the environment of large and medium-sized businesses. This is, first of all, the repeatedly emphasized uncertainty of this environment, associated with a number of special circumstances. One of them is that a small business, as a rule, operates in local markets, which have a greater degree of uncertainty and spontaneity compared to the markets of large corporations. The second key feature of the external environment of small business is its objectively subordinate role in the system of relations with the state, financial and credit institutions, etc. The third feature is exceptional mobility, variability of the external environment, intensification of changes in it, especially in the conditions of a transitional economy.

The negative influences of the external environment cause protective, adaptive reactions on the part of small enterprises. But the ability of a small business to resist destructive factors is limited. This raises the problem of the lack of root, relatively low viability of small business. Without the support of the state and without its own intra-group interaction, small business is not always able to successfully withstand large capital in the competitive struggle, defend its economic, political and social interests.

It is no coincidence that in many countries with developed market economies, much attention is paid to small business development and support is provided by the state.

Supporting small business, the state performs two functions: managerial and providing. ...

The first function should become the leading one, since it is this function that gives the development of small business a stable, effective and manageable character - it is the formation of the legal environment for the functioning of small business, as well as the solution of organizational and administrative issues and control.

The supporting function consists in servicing small enterprises, bringing to them material, monetary and information resources, government orders, providing them with services, etc. the widely used concept of "small business support" means in this case a synthesis of the state's administrative and supporting functions.

1.3 Experience of small business development abroad

Small business in developed countries is currently the middle class, which serves as the basis for stable economic development. Even the former developing countries, with the development of small and medium-sized businesses, made a big economic breakthrough (Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, etc.). If we trace the pace of development of small enterprises in these countries, we can see the dependence of the development of the entire economy as a whole.

Small business in the United States began its development in the era of the Great Depression, so its level remains consistently high. Federal programs, which are just beginning to be developed in some countries, in the United States date back to 1932. At this time, after the Great Depression, the state began to subsidize small businesses affected by the war. At that time, it was small business that provided job creation in the United States, emphasizing its important social significance.

Thus, in the United States in the 1990s, small firms produced more than 40% of the gross national product and half of the gross domestic product of the private sector.

In some areas of the economy, small businesses dominate. Thus, their share in the wholesale trade accounts for 86% of the gross product of the private sector, in the service sector - 81%, in construction - 80%, in the financial sector - 60%, in retail trade - 55%, in the manufacturing industry - 21%. ...

According to the US Small Business Act (1953. r,) a small firm exists and operates independently of other enterprises, but does not dominate its field.

In Japan, small businesses include enterprises in industry with no more than 20 employees, in trade in the service sector - no more than 5 people. They are represented mainly by firms of auxiliary production facilities, as well as consumer cooperatives.

In Germany, 2 million small and medium-sized firms produce up to 50% of GDP and provide 66% of employment. These firms are not inferior to large ones in the organization of management, personnel training, and innovations. The government encourages private banks to expand financing opportunities for small and medium-sized companies to support and promote development.

The efficiency of small businesses in Germany is slightly higher than in the USA and Japan. Here, 12.3% of large enterprises and 34% of their employees account for only 52.6% of national income. In addition, 2/3 of jobs are created by small businesses. The number of small businesses is growing.

But small businesses both spring up and fall apart. For example, in Germany at the end of the 90s of the twentieth century. more than 14,500 small enterprises collapsed, and 40% of them existed for no more than five years. The most common causes of bankruptcy in small businesses are marketing failures and lack of competence and experience. Often, a small business is bought out by a larger firm or becomes one itself. But the number of newly created firms exceeds the number of those liquidated, which leads to an absolute increase in the number of small and medium-sized businesses in the economy.

Small business in Germany is one of the most actively developing sectors of the economy. Financial and technological support for small businesses is provided at all levels of government branches.

Programs for promoting small business development in Germany, as well as in a number of developed countries, provide for priority support, first of all, for knowledge-intensive industries. Concessional lending to small businesses from government funding bodies includes the following areas:

lending to small and medium-sized enterprises focused on innovative activities;

lending to projects aimed at preserving and improving a favorable environmental situation related to environmental protection;

lending to small businesses involved in the development of backward economic regions of Germany;

lending to enterprises engaged in construction and solving housing problems;

project financing of enterprises engaged in certain industries, most in need of a radical modernization of production.

The main programs for the development of small and medium-sized businesses in Germany are as follows:

the program "Concept for the development of scientific and technical policy in relation to small and medium-sized enterprises";

the program "Stimulating savings to start a business".

The first program provides financing for small businesses in Germany, the second promotes the opening of their own business, the so-called "start-up" projects. A special government body - the Credit Council for Recovery, which reports directly to the federal government - is called upon to oversee the implementation of the above programs and provide mechanisms for their implementation.

As part of the implementation of federal programs, loans are provided for businesses on preferential terms. These conditions provide for a low interest rate (5-8%) and long lending terms (5-15 years).

Note that small business in Germany has its own specifics and development history. In particular, even in the era of the birth of capitalism, with the appearance of the first large entrepreneurs, chambers of commerce and industry began to be created, which were the first associations and unions for cooperation in the development of production and trade. In modern history, chambers of commerce and industry have developed to the level of state bodies, and now every entrepreneur is obliged to join the chamber. Not a single legal act in Germany concerning small business is complete without the approval, agreement and approval of the chambers of commerce and industry.

The Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry unites all chambers and represents the interests of entrepreneurs at the federal level. The main task of this association is to work closely with representatives of the chambers of commerce and industry of the countries of the European Union. Together, all the associations form the Union of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the European Community.

At the moment, the chambers of commerce and industry of Germany are involved in the formation of budgets of all levels, the development of construction and industry, the preparation of bills concerning the regulation of small businesses. Chambers of commerce and industry have a great influence on all aspects of society, participating in meetings of local self-government bodies, making the most important socio-economic decisions in the development of the country. This is a whole infrastructure in which both media representatives and consulting services participate. The main priority task of the chambers is to provide all kinds of support and assistance to small businesses in Germany.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to the development of small business in the country, since it is this sector that creates new jobs, while actively participating in the development of innovative technologies. Small business is most consistent with the thesis adopted in 2006 - "reorient resource-intensive production towards high-tech solutions."

Despite this, small business in China still needs additional government support, investment attraction, and expansion of small business lending programs. Realizing this, the Chinese authorities are trying in all possible ways to stimulate the economic growth of small businesses, in particular, they are improving the legal legislation in the field of regulation of small businesses and taxation of small businesses. The most important of these laws is the 2002 Law on Stimulating the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises, which provides equal opportunities for small businesses in terms of lending, investment, modernization of production, and the introduction of information and science intensive technologies.

As in other countries, China has created and is actively improving state funds to promote the development of small and medium-sized businesses. Their main role and task is to provide guarantees and collateral for small businesses for the possibility of obtaining bank loans for business. To this end, the Chinese Communist Party has developed and approved a special regulation on the creation of the "State Fund for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises." This fund was financed exclusively from the Chinese budget and acted as a catalyst for the development of small enterprises. The State Fund is called upon to protect and defend, in the fight against large companies, the interests of small businesses in all sectors of the economy, providing them with tax incentives, financing, and legal protection of their income.

The Chinese development programs for the country provide for a fairly impressive economic growth and an increase in the efficiency of the national economy precisely through integrated development, including small and medium-sized businesses. In particular, programs have been approved for the complete modernization of the Chinese economy up to 2020-2050. One of these programs is the program of socio-economic development of the country until 2020, adopted in 2003, which provides for a complete modernization of all sectors of the economy by 2050.

After 2003, an unprecedented rise in the development of small business, an improvement in the profitability of enterprises, an increase in tax revenues to the central budget was noted in the PRC. This leap in development was provided, first of all, by the increasing number of small enterprises and individual entrepreneurs.

State Committee The PRC statistics released the following data: in 2005, there were 3 million small businesses and almost 30 million individual entrepreneurs in the country. Thus, small businesses made up the vast majority of the total number of enterprises in China. It is becoming clear why small business is considered a key sector of the economy in China. It is small business that employs about 60% of the working-age population of the PRC.

If we give a qualitative description of small business in China, then small business is the scientific engine of the country, since it is in this sector that most innovative products, inventions and technical innovations are produced. It is small businesses that constitute the export basis of products manufactured in the country, supplying their goods to the world market.

The main government agency for supporting small businesses in China is a specialized agency - the China Center for Business Coordination and Cooperation. The main task of this center is to create the necessary infrastructure for technological cooperation between national and foreign organizations in the field of entrepreneurship support. On the initiative of the center, consulting and information support for small businesses is being implemented, trade fairs, exhibitions in the development of innovative products are organized, seminars, conferences on researching the problems of small business and implementing programs are held.

Another important body for support and development of small business is the state information service CSMEO, created in 2001. This focal point, mainly through its website on the Internet, provides information services to the population and organizations in matters of small and medium-sized enterprises. The CSMEO network, covering all regions and cities of the PRC, timely informs about the state of the labor market, about changes in the current legislation, about the latest scientific and technical achievements and technological innovations, about the state and development of small and medium-sized businesses. In addition, the information service initiates the holding of fairs, various meetings between enterprises and government officials, and provides consultative support to enterprises.

In Italy, small and medium-sized firms, which exceed the EU average, form the backbone of the country's economic renewal. They have already proven their ability to ensure a high level of export competitiveness.

In France, small and medium-sized firms are most often found in the agro-food complex, contract work, in publishing, aviation and shipbuilding.

In Portugal, small and medium-sized firms produce the bulk of industrial products. Companies with less than 10 employees make up 70% of all industrial companies here, while firms with 500 employees make up only 0.4%.

It should be noted that in all these countries there is an active support for small businesses. All of Europe and especially countries with transition economies (Eastern Europe) focused on expanding their participation in state support for small businesses.

In OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, 99% of all firms are small businesses, which generate jobs (40% to 80% of employment) and provide 30-70% of GDP. Out of 1552 state support programs (for the period from 1993 to 1998), 359 were aimed at supporting small and medium-sized businesses. There are 15.8 million non-agricultural private enterprises in the 12 countries of the European Union. Of these, 14.7 million were microenterprises, almost 1 million were small, about 70,000 had between 100 and 500 employees, and only 13,000 had over 500 employees. Micro-enterprises accounted for 31.8% of the total number of employed outside the agricultural sector, small enterprises - 24.9% and medium-sized 15.1%.

A big plus for small businesses is that many of them are more adaptable than large companies, to the conditions of development in times of crisis for the economies of the West. Large firms are less sensitive and quick to respond to changes in the economy. Small businesses have become an indicator of the general state of affairs in the economy. They are most sensitive to changes in the economic environment, a fall or increase in the rate of profit in industries. The wave of bankruptcies or the formation of new companies begins in the non-monopolized sector and only later, having gained strength, will come to larger firms, affecting their activities. In conditions of deteriorating reproduction, large companies find an "outlet" in the form of capital exports. Small firms usually do not have this opportunity. This forces us to intensively revise our production and sales activities. The development of small businesses in overcoming the crisis is an important means of economic recovery.

2. Formation and development trends of small business in Russia

2.1 Stages of small business development in modern Russia

The dominant private sector today emerged precisely in the sphere of small business.And it is quite natural that by now, according to official data, the share of private small businesses in total, the number of private, state and municipal, public small enterprises accounts for 84%. Small enterprises, possessing 3.4% of the value of fixed assets of the Russian economy and 14% of the number of employees, generate 12% of GDP and give all the profit for the national economy. This speaks of the broad, but still far from fully disclosed internal opportunities for the development of small business.

For a deeper understanding of the current situation with the development of small Russian enterprises, it is necessary to critically examine some pages of "recent history."

The first stage (1985 - 1987) is characterized by the emergence and activity of centers of scientific and technical creativity, temporary creative teams at public organizations, the proliferation of team contracts, the small number of participants in entrepreneurship and its experimental nature, the formation of the emotional and psychological foundations of entrepreneurial activity on the basis of private property. ... This stage can be called experimental.

During the second stage (1987-1988), the scope of small business activity expands, the number of people taking part in it increases; entrepreneurship acquires the character of an active numerous movement. The purpose of small business development is to saturate the domestic market with consumer goods. This stage was called the stage of the "cooperative movement". He served as an accelerator in the accumulation and redistribution of capital, allowed him to gain initial knowledge and skills for a small business.

The third stage (1989 - 1990) is associated with the adoption of legislative acts aimed at revitalizing small businesses. Preparations began for the so-called small-scale privatization. It created the necessary basis for a real transition to market relations, increasing the economic efficiency of the Russian economy. It was at this time that private enterprise was legalized. Of particular importance during this period was the development of rental relations, which can be considered as a Russian feature of small business.

These periods are characterized by huge benefits of all kinds, including from the state budget, and the generally more favorable state of affairs in the economy determined the attitude of veterans to this period as to the "golden age" of small business. Indeed, there was a very quick and easy accumulation of capital, the production of scarce consumer goods and the sphere of all kinds of consumer services, retail trade, public catering, etc., which were equally scarce at that time, developed.

The seamy side of the "golden age" was, however, the fact that small enterprises played the role of a channel for pumping the resources of command-controlled state-owned enterprises into the shadow economy - in favor of semi-criminal and simply criminal pseudo-market entrepreneurship. The saddest consequence of such a transfer was that the funds accumulated in small businesses by the method of "additional plundering" of the public sector, with a few exceptions, almost forever left the sphere of accumulation and were not used for the development of national production and its infrastructure.

Of course, not only negative processes took place in the development of small business. During the years of perestroika, small business joined the general process of rapid development of the cooperative movement supported by the government. Both denationalization and education of the broad masses of the population in the basics of entrepreneurship took place through the development of cooperation and small business.

However, one cannot fail to notice that the "golden age" of small business and the functions of an accelerator of reforms imputed to it in many respects turned out to be in severe contradiction with other areas of economic reforms, or rather, with an unsuccessful attempt to carry out reforms from above, in rigidly unitary traditions, relying solely on apparatus of state power and management. Attempts by the central government to somehow restrict the possibilities of obtaining inflated income from the difference between the fixed prices of the public sector and the free prices of non-state enterprises to regulate the activities of small enterprises, to use the levers of taxation ran into a clear incapacity of the state apparatus.

A radically different economic course was needed, which was embodied already in new Russia in reforms such as shock therapy. A new, second stage has begun in the development of small Russian entrepreneurship.

The fourth stage (1991 - 1992) is characterized by commercialization and the emergence of medium and large businesses. There have been fundamental changes in the attitude of the state to the development of entrepreneurship. Many laws have been adopted that have opened up wide opportunities for large-scale development of entrepreneurship.

1992 - the year of shock therapy - was characterized by the highest growth rates since the mid-1980s in the number of small enterprises (2.1 times) and the number of employees in them. This fact is phenomenal, since the liberalization of prices carried out at that time and the introduction of tax pressure severely undermined the financial base of small business. Rapid inflation has led, on the one hand, to the depreciation of the population's savings, and on the other, to a sharp increase in bank credit interest rates. This caused a real paralysis of investment activity, which has not yet been overcome.

Statistics show that science and scientific services became the absolute leader in increasing the number of small businesses. The number of small businesses in it increased 3.4 times.

The number of small enterprises in the field of agriculture increased 3.1 times. This is followed by material and technical supply and general commercial activities to ensure the functioning of the market (2.9 times). The sphere of public education is closely related to them (2.8 times).

At the same time, in 1992, in the general structure of Russian small business, there was a sharp decrease in the share of small enterprises in the sphere of material production.

According to the widespread opinion, the shock therapy model was not very constructive for the rapid and effective development of the country's economy and, in particular, the sphere of small business. But it should be admitted that in the conditions of intensified market reforms, small enterprises have demonstrated their positive capabilities. The most important functions of small business in the conditions of shock therapy have become social deformation, ensuring the survival of large segments of the population in an acute crisis through self-employment, providing an opportunity to obtain additional (in addition to basic, often formal employment) means of subsistence.

Instead of a kind of trough with a strong criminal connotation, which was inherent in the perestroika period, a normal competitive pro-market environment began to form in the sphere of small business, characterized by the struggle of small enterprises for survival on the basis of improving the quality and variety of goods and services. However, what has been said does not mean that criminal structures have left small business alone.

The phenomenal growth in the number of small businesses in 1992 has its own explanation. The rapid development of trade and intermediary small business was a response to the undermining of the original financial base. The liberalization of foreign trade under the conditions of the former USSR and the lifting of bans on private trade within the country created favorable conditions for any trade activity.

The drop in effective consumer demand was then actively compensated by small trade enterprises by importing goods, although not of very high quality (such as Chinese-made products), but which were in high demand among Russian consumers. The rapid turnover of small trading capitals turned them into medium-sized capitals. Moreover, small-scale trade quickly reacted to the growing socio-economic differentiation of Russian society, grouping itself in service niches, both for mass consumers and consumers with a high level of income. Quite quickly, elite shops began to appear next to small stalls, the owners and employees of which often began with "shuttle" activities. The positive role of the trade and intermediary activities of small enterprises should also include their participation in the creation of new economic ties.

Initiated by price liberalization by a number of other factors (the surrender of the military-industrial complex, the loss of markets in Eastern Europe, etc.), the complete clogging of the previously established channels of interconnection between manufacturers, suppliers and trade opened a wide field of activity for small firms in the supply and sale of products. Of course, for new economic ties in full, a new technological framework of the economy with appropriate market, highly efficient channels for the movement of goods from producers to consumers is needed. Strategically, the task of creating such a framework for a small business is beyond its strength, since it requires many years and huge capital investments.

However, small business was able to play the role of a catalyst for the first steps towards a new system within cooperative ties in the Russian economy. In addition, he played the role of a damper, saving many enterprises from immediate collapse due to the rupture of former, although ineffective, but still working economic ties.

The leap of small businesses towards trade and intermediary activities was also a natural reaction to the tax pressure imposed by the government. In the former USSR, there was no and, in principle, there could not be a tax system adequate to market conditions. Therefore, the introduction of even elements of normal tax liability into the practice of economic life should have caused a natural reaction of rejection among entrepreneurs who are not accustomed to this. But the fact is that this reaction was superimposed on the obvious extremism of the government's tax policy aimed at the withdrawal of up to 70-90% of the income of small businesses. At the same time, the government did not expect that anyone would immediately pay taxes in full. Thus, entrepreneurs were encouraged to seek and find ways to hide income from taxation. Trading and brokering focused on hard-to-control cash opened up great opportunities for tax evasion.

On the whole, the situation in 1992 can be characterized by the generally accepted term "grunding". Small business has become an integral part of this massive founding process. Exchanges, banks, insurance companies, large private and semi-state joint-stock enterprises arose throughout Russia in incredible numbers. For the first time in their lives, people received freedom for independent entrepreneurial activity, the right to engage in financial planning, which was previously an absolute monopoly of government agencies and their officials. Such motivations, combined with the collapse of state, primarily budgetary enterprises and organizations, with the hope of receiving high income from fairly simple types of work and services, could not but give rise to large-scale greendering.

Such grundership is explained not so much by economic reasons as by the general laws of social psychology as applied to the situation of a cardinal social change, which is obvious for Russia.

An illustration of the above is the massive emergence of ephemeral farms in harsh climatic zones and on low-quality soils, where, from the point of view of economic feasibility, such farms, in principle, cannot exist even in the most developed market country. Many small enterprises were born not because of economic expediency, without any long-term development program, but only out of a common hope, the dreams of their organizers for a rather abstract "better life" (mainly in the style of attractive stencils of a society of free enterprise and universal consumption ). In a sense, psychological expectations of imminent prosperity dominated sound economic calculation and even common sense.

This explains the phenomenon of the rapid emergence of numerous private small scientific firms in the context of a very rapid curtailment of any demand for scientific products due to the acute investment crisis, a decline in innovation activity and a fantastic budget deficit at all levels. Psychologically, this phenomenon is also explained by the fact that scientific activity, the personality of the researcher for many previous decades were in a state of obvious lack of demand. The new conditions gave former researchers hope for an independent way out of the deadlock in which they found themselves in state academic, industrial and other scientific institutions in the 70s and 80s.

As the historical experience shows, Gründer is always limited in time. By 1995, niches and opportunities for super-profitable trade and intermediary activities were practically exhausted. Many of the previously established small enterprises, mainly of trade and intermediary or, for example, scientific and consulting orientation, either ceased to exist or diversified. Such a situation should naturally generate new trends in the development of Russian small business. The next, third stage of qualitative changes in the dynamics and structure of small business was indicated, accompanied, as noted above, by a significant reduction in the growth in the number of small businesses.

The main reasons for the suspension of the growth in the number of small businesses were a sharp narrowing of the boundaries of areas characterized by easily achieved high profitability, the exhaustion of psychological expectations of unlimited financial opportunities for independent entrepreneurial activity. In a normal market economy, small business in most cases is inferior to medium and large business both in terms of profitability and on the boundaries of potential opportunities. It follows them in the role, although quite worthy, but still an outsider. If in Russia back in 1992-1994. the entire economy, including small business, lived according to the stochastic laws of the initial accumulation of capital, then by 1995 the laws of the civilized market system began to operate more and more clearly. Less common were cases when a small enterprise easily bought up expensive buildings and even medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. Income per person employed in small businesses at a level fluctuating around the average wage in the country became the norm.

According to the official statistics of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, as of 01.01.1996, there were 877 thousand small enterprises in Russia, which employed 8.9 million people (according to the average number of employees), and taking into account secondary employment - 13.8 million people ... The sectoral structure was dominated by trade and intermediary activities, and the regional structure was dominated by the Central Economic Region with a core in Moscow.

In the Russian economy, a tendency towards the beginning of a new market concentration and centralization of capital, as well as economic activity itself, began to be traced. The process of absorption of enterprises has been developed. Often, the most profitable small businesses are the first victims of these acquisitions. For example, in Orenburg, on the site of numerous individual trade stalls, well-designed trade pavilions belonging to one or another large company have appeared. Less profitable small businesses also cannot withstand economic competition with medium and large firms and are forced to curtail their activities. In this sense, at the current stage of Russian reforms, the processes of centralization and concentration of capital are also opposed to an increase in the number of small enterprises. But, it can be assumed that in the future, new large and medium-sized enterprises will most actively stimulate the creation of new small enterprises in the structure of new economic and technological chains being formed.

The dramatic slowdown in the growth of the number of small businesses in 1994-1995. also influenced the completion of the re-registration of the latter, created under the laws of the former USSR. During the re-registration, existing small enterprises took on new organizational forms, and those that had ceased their work were simply liquidated. Since the number of registered, but actually not functioning small enterprises was quite large, their official liquidation made a significant contribution to the overall slowdown in growth. The factor of re-registration and liquidation of non-working enterprises fully manifested itself in 1995 in connection with the introduction of the new Civil Code (CC) into the practice of economic activity. In accordance with the provisions of its first part, small enterprises in the form of partnerships (and this is a very common economic form of small enterprises) must re-register their founding documents by adopting other economic forms provided for by the Civil Code. If we take into account that even according to the official estimates of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, more than a third of registered small enterprises either did not start economic activities or suspended them without liquidation, then it is obvious that the re-registration that began in 1995 and, accordingly, the official liquidation of really non-functioning small enterprises led to a further significant decrease in the number of small businesses in Russia. And taking into account the fact that in a number of Russian regions a little more than half of registered small businesses are actually operating (according to the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation), re-registration has made certain adjustments to the regional structure of small businesses in the country.

The slowdown in the growth of the number of new small enterprises is also explained by the fact that such a powerful factor in the growth of small enterprises as the growth of unemployment has not shown its strength - both economically and socially. Despite all forecasts of its rapid increase, until 1996, official unemployment remained at the level of 2-3% of the economically active population. Real unemployment may be an order of magnitude higher, which is indicated by alternative calculations of experts from trade union associations, international organizations, etc. But, nevertheless, the official status of workers (even at "half-dead" enterprises), while it operates, creates a socio-psychological effect , in which people refuse to engage in other independent activities, including trying their hand at small business. More widespread is the occasional, often unrecorded support earnings from small resale or ancillary work. But as soon as the Russian government in fact, and not in words, goes to bankruptcy of numerous unprofitable enterprises, the growth of official unemployment will undoubtedly trigger a new wave of increase in the number of small enterprises.

The most significant negative point was and remains the criminalization of small business. In this regard, the most typical answer to the question of sample surveys of managers of small enterprises about the influence of criminal structures on their activities is very indicative. A significant part of the respondents answer that they do not know anything about criminal structures at all. In the current situation, such an answer indicates not overcoming the dependence of small businesses on criminal structures, but quite the opposite - their especially strong dependence on these structures and even direct involvement in these structures and fear of them. Criminality continues to be a significant factor hindering the normal development of Russian small business,

The sharp decline in the growth rate of the number of small enterprises was reflected in different ways in individual industries. Although somewhat slowing down, for the first time in the past several years, the number of small enterprises in construction and transport increased at an outstripping pace (by 18 and 19% in 1995). In trade and catering, the number of small businesses decreased by about 10%. In general commercial activities to ensure the functioning of the market, in science and scientific services, there was an absolute decrease in the number of small enterprises (-18.7 and -5.6%).

The dynamics of the number of small businesses in the regional context shows some outpacing growth in the number of small businesses in the regions of the North Caucasus and the North of the European part of Russia. Although there have been no significant changes in the regional structure of small business, one can nevertheless notice a positive process of gradual, more even distribution of small businesses across various economic regions of Russia. In 1995, the average number of employed in small businesses increased by 0.8% in comparison with 1994. Of course, the growth rate is small, but it confirms the data of sociological surveys, during which managers of small enterprises expressed an opinion about the need to increase the number of employees of enterprises. And, which is very important, they indicate that the time has come for the transition from semi-legal employment to normal, adequate to the current laws.

Particularly noteworthy is the increased investment activity of small businesses. The total volume of their capital investments in 1995 increased by 4 times, and in industry by 7.4 times.

It can be stated that in 1994-1995. The policy of moderately tight financial stabilization pursued by the Russian government, on the one hand, was accompanied by a significant slowdown in the growth rate of the number of small enterprises, but on the other hand, it had a pronounced reorganization effect. A fundamentally new economic situation began to form in the country, in which small business began to play a role characteristic of it in a normal market economy.

In the struggle for survival, small enterprises have learned to independently adapt to the complexities of the market. Thus, to increase their viability, they are actively diversifying their economic and investment activities. More than half of small non-commercial enterprises, in addition to their main activity in 1995, were also engaged in trade as a simple but relatively profitable activity with a fast capital turnover period. And commercial capital is increasingly rushing into production, albeit in its simplest forms.

In general, we can say that a new leap forward in the dynamics of the number of small businesses, in increasing their macroeconomic weight in all respects is inevitable. It should be expected as the prerequisites accumulate for the formation of an integral system of market economy, decisive steps in the field of demonopolizing the economy, and de-bureaucratizing management.

Small business in Russia has been developing at an outstripping pace in recent years. But despite this, small businesses still do not have a significant impact on the development of the Russian economy as a whole. The share of production of goods and services by small enterprises is only about 8% of the total production volumes of all enterprises in the country. Small businesses account for only 3.4% of total investment in fixed assets.

In Russia, there are only 62 registered small enterprises per 10,000 inhabitants, while in the United States there are 214 enterprises with less than 20 employees per 10,000 inhabitants, in the manufacturing industry in Great Britain - 143 enterprises, in Germany - 51. In Italy, there are 10 thousand inhabitants. 693 enterprises with less than 20 employees, in Hungary - 810..

The number of small businesses in Russia does not exceed 1 million. there were 953.1 thousand of them. their number increased by 62.2 thousand (by 7%). In general, in 1999-2004, the number of small enterprises in Russia increased insignificantly - by only 85.1 thousand (by 10%), and the main increase occurred in the last year, and in 2000-2001 the number of small enterprises decreased.

Every fifth Russian enterprise belongs to small business. However, if at the beginning of 1999. the share of small enterprises in the total number of registered enterprises in Russia reached 30%, then by the beginning of 2005. it decreased to 22%. This was due to the fact that small businesses closed faster and more often than medium and large businesses, and because newly registered businesses were not small businesses.

By forms of ownership, small enterprises are 96.4% private enterprises and 3.6% - enterprises of mixed Russian and joint Russian and foreign ownership. Most of the small enterprises of mixed ownership are in education (13.3%), finance and credit and pension provision (11.7%), science (10.2%) and communications (9.3%).

In the total number of registered small enterprises, wholesale and retail trade enterprises (50%) dominated, followed by enterprises engaged in real estate transactions (14.5%), small manufacturing enterprises (12.7%) and construction companies (10.6%). ). Small businesses are practically undeveloped in fishing, mining, production and distribution of electricity, gas and water, social security, education, healthcare and social services.

In the Russian industry, small enterprises are represented mainly in mechanical engineering and metalworking (32.7% of all small enterprises in the industrial sector), in the forestry, woodworking and pulp and paper industries (16.1%), as well as in the food industry (14.4% ).

The total volume of goods and services produced by small enterprises in 2004 amounted to 2 trillion 273.9 billion rubles, which (without inflation adjustment) exceeded the 2003 indicator. by 35%. In 2003. the growth of production of goods and services by small enterprises in current prices was 45%, in 2002. - 36%, in 2001. - 39%. In general, for 1999-2004 (compared to 1998), the volume of production of small enterprises increased by 8.7 times. Adjusted for the GDP deflator index (which is the most accurate measure of inflation in the economy as a whole), the growth of production of goods and services of small enterprises amounted to 13.9% in 2004 and slowed down compared to 2003, when it was 27.5%. The growth rate of production in small business last year was the lowest in the last 4 years. Nevertheless, in general, in 1999-2004, the production of goods and services by small enterprises in Russia, after deducting inflation, doubled.

The volume of products, works and services produced by small enterprises in the main type of activity in 2004 amounted to 1 trillion 910 billion rubles, or 84% of the total volume of products and services produced. The total proceeds from the sale of goods and the sale of services by small enterprises amounted to 8 trillion 214 billion rubles.

The average number of employees per small enterprise in Russia is 9 people, and most of them are in construction (15) and in industry (14), and the least in financial and credit, insurance and pension provision of the population (4).

In 2007, the number of small enterprises in Russia for the first time exceeded one million, and 60% of them belong to the sphere of trade and services, while the innovation, scientific and technical, and manufacturing sectors are still developing slowly. Today in Russia there are 1.1 million small businesses, which employ 2.5 million workers, which is only 15% of the total number in the country. Moreover, 60% of them are employed in trade and services, as this guarantees quick profit.

For the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, statistics are as follows. Almost 21% of the total number of small businesses are concentrated in Moscow, in second place is St. Petersburg (12%), in third place is the Moscow region (4%), and in fourth place is Krasnodar Territory (3.6%). Quite good performance in Rostov, Samara, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk regions - large Russian regions.

Small business in Russia has a number of distinctive features that are not typical for small businesses in developed countries. Among them:

a high level of diversification (versatility) of small businesses. The unstable Russian economy forces entrepreneurs to look for any sources of income, engaging in various types of activities, sometimes not related to each other either organizationally or technologically;

striving for maximum independence. In countries with developed market economies, a significant part of small businesses work on a subcontract basis, in a franchise system, etc .;

a high share of the "shadow" sector (according to various estimates, from 30 to 50% of the real turnover of small businesses are not involved in solving national problems);

low technological and managerial level of activity.

2.2 The state of small business in the Orenburg region

On the territory of the Orenburg region there are about 60 thousand small businesses, including: 8.4 thousand small businesses and 43.4 thousand individual entrepreneurs, including the heads of peasant (farmer) enterprises. Also in the region there are about 6.6 thousand peasant (farmer) households in the form of legal entities. The structure of small enterprises in the Orenburg region and their distribution by type of economic activity are shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.

Fig. 2 - The structure of small enterprises in the Orenburg region

18 organizations of entrepreneurship support infrastructure and more than 70 public organizations of entrepreneurs are registered and operate. ...

It is estimated that more than 200 thousand people are employed in small business, which is one fifth of the total employed population of the region. Highly educated people work in this sector of the economy, most of whom have higher and incomplete higher education - 58.3%, secondary specialized education - 35%. A microcredit system has been created and is successfully operating in the region. During the implementation of the microcredit program, 194 projects were funded for an amount of about 25 million. Along with budget financing, commercial lending institutions are also investors in small businesses. About 570 loans were issued for a total amount of over 20 million rubles.

About 48% of small and medium-sized enterprises in the city work in the field of trade and public catering, more than 19% in construction, 17% are engaged in the production of goods. Small businesses also operate in the field of consumer services, transport, communications, housing and communal services. The bulk of the permanently working population is concentrated in the same sectors of the economy. In total, more than 160 thousand people are employed in small and medium-sized businesses, which is 60% of the city's working-age population.

Figure 3 - Distribution of small businesses in the Orenburg region by type of economic activity

Small and medium business in Orenburg operates in all

According to the data of the Office of the Federal Tax Service for the Orenburg Region, in the 1st quarter of 2009, 8,710 small and medium-sized enterprises and 15,374 non-legal entities operated in the city of Orenburg. Compared to the same period in 2008, the growth in the number of small and medium-sized enterprises amounted to 103%. There is a slight increase in the number of industrial and construction enterprises. ...

In the reporting period, small and medium-sized businesses accounted for 36% of tax revenues (in the 1st quarter of 2008 - 31%).

The budget of the city in 2009 includes funds in the amount of 10 million rubles. to support small and medium-sized businesses.

These cash are aimed at developing priority areas in the field of entrepreneurship.

3. State of the art and the impact of the economic crisis on the functioning of small business in Russia

According to the Federal Service state statistics, the number of small businesses as of January 1, 2008 exceeded 1,100 thousand units, and individual entrepreneurs - 3.4 million people. In 2007, the volumes of turnover and investments in fixed assets at small enterprises continued to grow. The results of the activities of small businesses in 2007 can be viewed as positive. Growth trends in this sector have been noted for the past several years. In addition, in 2006-2008. the state policy was activated to create favorable conditions for the development of entrepreneurial initiatives at both the federal and regional levels. New legislation was adopted on the development of small and medium-sized businesses, a number of regulations were approved aimed at simplifying the access of small businesses to financial and property support. Certain measures are being taken to remove administrative barriers.

However, the indicated positive trends in the development of the small business sector can be reduced by the impact of both general and specific factors caused by the crisis phenomena in the economies of foreign countries and the Russian Federation, recorded in the III quarter of 2008. To general negative factors affecting the activities of small enterprises, include a decrease in liquidity, non-payments, low investment activity. There are also specific factors:

1) a sharp reduction in access to additional financial resources.

As a rule, small businesses, to a lesser extent than large and medium-sized enterprises, use loans to implement projects to expand their business and create new industries. They use loans mainly to replenish working capital, purchase goods from large manufacturers and wholesalers. In other words, small businesses have a large share (and need) of short-term and medium-term loans. However, banks, limited in their resources due to the crisis, will not be able to meet the demand from small businesses for such loans. At the same time, the impact of the banking crisis will be felt to a greater extent by small enterprises working with small regional banks, which currently experience the most significant difficulties with liquidity and are no longer able to provide them with loans.

In addition, in the face of a shortage of funds, branches of large federal and regional banks are likely to tighten requirements for borrowers, including raising interest rates on loans. This will lead to the fact that not all small businesses will be able to count on getting a loan;

2) high dependence of small business on domestic demand.

This factor lies in the fact that small business is mainly focused on meeting the needs of the population and enterprises operating in Russia. The share of export-oriented small businesses is very low. A decrease in effective demand for their goods and services will have a significant negative impact on the activities of small businesses. Thus, a decrease in demand will lead to a decrease in working capital, which in turn will force the enterprise to reduce costs by reducing the volume of production and staffing, suspending its own development projects and expanding its activities;

inappropriateness of using the scheme "prepayment for products - shipment of products" when working with large manufacturers and suppliers, since due to the liquidity crisis and difficulty in accessing financial resources, enterprises will not be able to attract borrowed funds for purchase necessary goods... This, in turn, will lead to the suspension of the activities of individual small enterprises, whose business processes are based on the specified scheme;

3) an increase in the risk of business interruption and even disintegration of the infrastructure for supporting small businesses.

In the event of a decrease in the activity of small businesses and their demand for information, marketing, educational and other business services provided by support infrastructure organizations, some of these organizations may cease to exist. At the same time, the activities of only those organizations that specialize in providing small businesses with financial servicessuch as microfinance institutions, venture capital funds, private equity funds, guarantee funds. Perhaps these institutions, in the absence of bank financing, will become the only source of borrowed money for small businesses;

4) forced withdrawal into the shadow sector of small businesses.

In the absence of funds and effective demand, small businesses will be forced to reduce the scale of their activities. To free up additional funds, many businesses will minimize tax revenues, make maximum efforts to save costs, including hiding their own revenues. At the same time, under the conditions of the existing tax administration, another risk arises - excessive administrative pressure may be exerted on small businesses in order to maintain the existing level of tax payments from specific enterprises.

In general, it can be noted that due to the existence of crisis phenomena in the economy, small business entities will:

freeze all projects aimed at developing and expanding activities (buying new equipment, investing in infrastructure, hiring and training personnel, developing new land plots, opening new outlets, improvement of management methods, organization of production and sales, etc.);

make every effort to reduce investment and tax costs;

revise the methods of working with counterparties (for example, enterprises will refuse to prepay for purchased goods and make more serious demands on customers in order to avoid the possibility of non-payment for shipped products);

increase the attraction of borrowed funds from illegal credit markets and stop using the services of the legal credit market, since access to them will be limited.

Of course, the crisis will not affect all small businesses. The damage from the economic crisis for individual small businesses will not be very strong. These primarily include:

enterprises that produce inexpensive mass-market products and provide relatively cheap services to the population;

enterprises producing goods / services with inelastic demand;

enterprises that do not use borrowed funds in their work;

enterprises that have permanent and well-established relationships with banks that can provide loans at a difficult time;

enterprises with administrative support and working on state / municipal orders.

The crisis can lead to a significant quantitative contraction of small business, i.e. to the withdrawal from the market (primarily "into the shadows") of a part of small enterprises forced to temporarily curtail or completely stop their legal economic activities, as well as to a reduction in the number of employed in small enterprises, a decrease in the volume of turnover and investment in fixed assets in small enterprises.

It should be noted that the main existing or possible problems of small businesses are of a financial nature:

lack of working capital;

lack of access to bank credit services both for solving the problem with working capital and for the implementation of initiated or planned investment projects;

lack of free access to loans from state and municipal funds to support small businesses due to the small size of their financial assets and limited budget financing of these funds;

decrease in demand for products - with a constant level of costs, deterioration of capital turnover indicators, a decrease in the rate of return and business profitability;

the risk of non-payments from counterparties - refusal to work with some counterparties, decrease in profits, increase in the risk of overstocking.

To prevent the negative impact of the crisis on the activities of small businesses, measures should be taken to create a financial base for small businesses and reduce costs.

First of all, it is necessary to increase financial support for small businesses. Thus, it is possible to increase the volume of lending to small businesses under the programs of state banks (for example, Vnesheconombank), as well as to hold a special competition for the placement of state budget funds in non-state banks (lending to private banks), while non-state banks will have to spend these resources on expanding lending to small enterprises.

Another measure in the field of financial support may be an increase in funding for small business support programs carried out based on the results of a competition for the selection of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, whose budgets in 2008 are provided with subsidies to finance activities carried out within the framework of state support for small business by constituent entities of the Russian Federation. At the same time, additional funds allocated from the state budget can be proportionally divided between the constituent entities of the Russian Federation - the winners of this competition, and the main attention should be paid to increasing the volume of direct financial support for small businesses and organizations that form the financial infrastructure for supporting small businesses, including subsidizing their costs. the allocation of grants to start-up entrepreneurs, the creation and development of microfinance organizations, guarantee funds, investment funds.

Another effective measure in the field of financial support is the creation of new and expansion of existing guarantee funds (surety funds) - special non-profit funds that provide guarantees and pledges for small businesses that do not have enough of their own property to fully secure their bank loan obligations. The formation and use of guarantee funds is aimed at simplifying the access of small businesses to credit services of the most reliable credit institutions that impose high requirements on the financial transparency of borrowers and the economic reliability of financed projects. Experience in creating guarantee funds is available in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Leningrad, Voronezh, Sverdlovsk regions, the Republic of Udmurtia, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and other constituent entities of the Russian Federation. At the expense of the federal budget in 2006-2007. supported the creation of 23 regional guarantee funds with a total capitalization of 3.3 billion rubles. Loans of entrepreneurs in the amount of over 5 billion rubles were secured by guarantees. It is necessary to continue to create guarantee funds, as well as conditions for the development of existing funds.

The second group of measures is in the field of property support. In the context of the forced cost reduction, rental rates and the price of real estate will remain a significant factor affecting the cost of products and services of small businesses. Accordingly, a measure aimed at facilitating access to property, as well as reducing the costs of small businesses, may be a reduction in rental rates for non-residential premises and land plots in federal, regional and municipal ownership.

A separate group of measures are special measures aimed at stimulating demand for goods and services of small businesses and import substitution. Here you need to pay attention to the inadmissibility of reducing the volume of federal, regional, municipal orders intended for small businesses. In accordance with the legislation on the placement of state and municipal orders, the state customer is obliged to place 10-20% of the state order exclusively at the auctions held for small businesses for a separate nomenclature of goods, works, services, approved by the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the cost of an order placed at such auctions should not exceed 3 million rubles. for work and goods and 2 million rubles. for services. In order to attract small businesses to fulfill the state order, it is possible to increase the upper limit set for the size of the initial (maximum) price of orders. This will allow small businesses under government contracts to gain access to additional funds that they can use to maintain and expand their operations, as well as increase interest in participating in public procurement from small businesses - potential participants in the order. In addition, in order to expand the access of small businesses to government orders, it is possible to create special electronic platforms that would combine orders intended for small businesses and placed by various government customers, and also serve as a means of broadly informing small businesses about placing orders for the supply of goods. performance of work, provision of services for state needs, in which such subjects are participants in the placement of an order.

Measures to regulate the import of imported goods, in particular quotas, as well as the introduction of additional customs duties on goods related to consumption (primarily food).

In a crisis, it is necessary to pay attention to the implementation of special information events and actions (including holding special seminars, conferences, briefings, posting information on the websites of federal and regional government bodies dedicated to small business issues) aimed at clarifying information:

about the features and consequences of the crisis;

on the impact of the crisis on the activities of small businesses;

about the specifics of management in a crisis;

about additional opportunities for small businesses to access financial and property resources.

Measures aimed at the development of small business in the context of the economic crisis can be divided into three groups:

tax regulation;

reduction of administrative barriers;

personnel support for small businesses.

Measures in the field of tax regulation may involve the provision of "tax holidays" for newly formed enterprises and industries created as a result of investments in the form of capital investments (for example, temporary exemption from taxes on profits, property, land tax of enterprises operating under common system taxation, and temporary exemption from the payment of a single tax of enterprises operating under special tax regimes).

In order to free up additional funds from small businesses, it is advisable to reduce the overall tax burden on small businesses by reducing individual taxes (UST in the first place). In general, tax cuts for small businesses will stimulate growth and increase production, as well as help reduce the shadow sector.

In addition, it is necessary to continue to work to remove administrative barriers that impede the activities of small businesses. It is necessary to accelerate the adoption of a package of bills aimed at reducing pressure on business by streamlining state and municipal control, replacing licensing with civil liability insurance, limiting non-procedural rights of the police and ensuring the possibility of replacing mandatory certification with declaration of conformity. First of all, further streamlining of the principles and regulation of the procedure for conducting inspections of small businesses, a reduction in the number of control and supervision activities carried out in relation to small businesses are required. Real changes must take place not only in ideology, but also in law enforcement practice... In order to streamline tax audits, the general control procedure can be extended to tax control.

As for the replacement of mandatory certification by declaration, the adoption of the relevant law must be supplemented with practical steps to optimize this form of conformity assessment. As a priority, it is necessary to prepare proposals for a significant reduction in the list of certified types of products and clarification of a single list of products subject to mandatory certification and a single list of products subject to declaration of conformity. At the same time, it is necessary to adhere to the target setting to reduce the share of types of products subject to mandatory certification to 50% in 2009-2010, and establish a clear schedule for further reducing the scope of mandatory certification with the consolidation of specific indicators of the effectiveness of its implementation. Reducing certification costs, which are a serious barrier for small businesses, will lead to an increase in the free funds of enterprises, some of which can be directed to investment.

It is also necessary to simplify the access of small companies to power grids and establish low fixed prices for connecting to the power facilities of small businesses.

Given the release of a large number of workers laid off from medium and large enterprises, it is possible to take certain measures to attract them to small businesses and thereby increase labor productivity in the small business segment. A certain role here can be played by the activation of the work of state and municipal employment services with specific small enterprises to employ new workers.

Conclusion

Small business represents the most numerous stratum of small owners, who, by virtue of their massiveness, largely determine the socio-economic appearance of the country. This business sector forms the most extensive network of enterprises working mainly for the mass consumer of goods and services.

To achieve a balanced economy, it is necessary to ensure that the development of large corporations takes place in an environment saturated with small enterprises. This relationship is due to the fact that small enterprises, in the interests of economic development, perform the following extremely necessary socio-economic functions:

expand the demand for equipment, raw materials, materials;

contribute to the formation of additional incomes among the population, and, consequently, expand the demand for consumer goods and services;

smooth out the differentiation of society in terms of welfare, contribute to the creation of a middle class;

help to solve the problem of employment of the population;

promote new technologies, new, more efficient solutions (it is no coincidence that many large companies act as sponsors of small innovative firms);

complement, and as a result, are an integral part of the production and sales infrastructure of many large corporations, which largely allows for the flexibility of their management.

Business relations and, in particular, relations associated with the organization and activities of small businesses are the subject of regulation of several branches of legislation, civil, administrative, tax, budget.

In reforming the Russian economy, since the time of perestroika, small enterprises have assumed the role of creating the soil for a new economic system.

World experience also shows that without government support, the development of small business is very slow.

In reforming the Russian economy, since the time of perestroika, small enterprises have assumed the role of creating the soil for a new economic system.

A number of stages can be distinguished in the Russian history of small business.

The first stage (1985 - 1987) is characterized by the emergence and activity of centers of scientific and technical creativity, temporary creative teams at public organizations, the proliferation of team contracts, the small number of participants in entrepreneurship and its experimental nature.

During the second stage (1987-1988), the scope of small business activity expands, the number of people taking part in it increases; entrepreneurship takes on the character of an active numerous movement.

The third stage (1989 - 1990) is associated with the adoption of legislative acts aimed at revitalizing small businesses.

1992 - the year of shock therapy - was characterized by the highest growth rates since the mid-1980s in the number of small enterprises (2.1 times) and the number of employees in them. The increase in the number of small businesses in 1992 has its own explanation. The rapid development of trade and intermediary small business was a response to the undermining of the original financial base. The liberalization of foreign trade under the conditions of the former USSR and the lifting of bans on private trade within the country created favorable conditions for any trade activity.

The main reasons for the suspension of the growth in the number of small businesses were a sharp narrowing of the boundaries of areas characterized by easily achieved high profitability, the exhaustion of psychological expectations of unlimited financial opportunities for independent entrepreneurial activity.

In 1994-1995. The policy of moderately tight financial stabilization pursued by the Russian government, on the one hand, was accompanied by a significant slowdown in the growth rate of the number of small enterprises, but on the other hand, it had a pronounced reorganization effect. A fundamentally new economic situation began to form in the country, in which small business began to play a role characteristic of it in a normal market economy.

Small business in Russia has a number of distinctive features. This is a high level of diversification (versatility) of small enterprises, a desire for maximum independence, a high share of the "shadow" sector, a low technological and managerial level of activity.

At the current stage, small businesses are also experiencing the impact of the economic crisis.

To prevent its negative impact on the activities of small businesses, measures should be taken to create a financial base for small businesses and reduce costs.

1. Federal Law No. 209-FZ "On the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses in the Russian Federation". Adopted by the State Duma on July 6, 2007. Approved by the Federation Council on July 11, 2007 // Rossiyskaya Gazeta. - 07/31/2007.

2. Alekseev D. Give your business a "fulcrum"! // Moscow accountant. - 2008. - No. 12. - p. 26 - 27

3. Antyushenina S. I am against the reduction of checks for small business // Business press. - 2008. - No. 5. p.11

4. The bank perceives small business as the most flexible segment // Entrepreneur without forming a legal entity. Unincorporated business. - 2009. - No. 3.

5. Vlasenkova E.A. The role of taxation in the development of small and medium-sized businesses: problems and prospects // Tax Bulletin. - 2009. - N 2. - p.7-9

6. Measures are being taken in the region to support small business // Press service of the Governor and the Government of the Orenburg region. http: // old. oren.ru/news/ 2421637 /

7. Danyukova N. Successful development of microcrediting is hampered by systemic problems // Moscow accountant. - 2008. - No. 7. - p.22-24

8. Ibadova L.T. Financing and lending to small businesses in Russia: legal aspects - "Walters Kluver", 2006

9. Ilyin I.E. Small business in Russia: problems and prospects // Bank lending. - 2008 - N 2. - p. 42 - 44

10. Kravchenko S.A. Small spool but precious // Topical issues accounting and taxation. - 2007 - N 19. - p. 7-9

11. Kulikov A.A. Big problems of criteria for small business // BUKH.1S. - 2008. - No. 12. - p.12-15

12. Litvak E. Influence of crisis phenomena in the economy of the Russian Federation on small business // Financial newspaper. - 2009. - N 6. - p. 4

13. Lyashevich I.A. Legal problems of regulation of small and medium-sized businesses in Russia at the present stage // Journal of Russian law. - 2006. - N 5. - p.36-40

14. Small business in the mirror of statistics // Business press. - 2006. - No. 33. - p.6

15. Malykhin M. Who is afraid of small business // Vedomosti. - 2008. - No. 7. - p.12

16. Orenburg region: Small business support is the primary work of the authorities // Oren.ru http://www.oren.ru. - 05.12.2008.

17. Orenburg region: small entrepreneurs are waiting for a business incubator // Economy and Life. - 2008. - No. 125. - p.14

18. Orenburg region: small business support in the crisis // Orenburg news. - 2009. - No. 10. - p.12

19. Orenburg region: Chamber of Commerce and Industry is actively working to support small business // Orenburg news. - 2007. - No. 24. - p.

20. Podgornaya Yu.A., Semynina N. Commentary on the Federal Law of July 24, 2007 N 209-FZ "On the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Russian Federation" (as amended by the Federal Law of 18.10.2007 N 230-FZ ) // Information and reference system GARANT

21. Yuzhakova T. Small business is a common business // Banking in Moscow. - 2005. - N 7. - p.23-24.

Modern entrepreneurship in Russia grew out of the cooperative movement of 1985-1991, which developed rapidly within the USSR. On April 2, 1991, the Law of the Union of Socialist Republics "On the General Principles of Entrepreneurship of Citizens in the USSR" was adopted, which defined the general principles of entrepreneurship in the USSR, regulated the rights and responsibilities of business entities, provided state support, and established relations between entrepreneurs and state authorities.

The law was aimed at creating conditions for a broad manifestation of economic initiative and entrepreneurship of citizens on the basis of the implementation of the principle of equality of all forms of ownership, freedom to dispose of property and choice of all forms of ownership.

If we consider the history of small business from that moment to the present time, then in its development a number of characteristic stages can be distinguished.

The first stage (1985-1987) is characterized by: the emergence and activity of centers of scientific and technical creativity, temporary creative teams at public organizations, brigade contracts. It was characterized by a small number of participants in entrepreneurship, an experimental nature, the formation of socio-psychological foundations of entrepreneurial activity on the basis of private property.

At the second stage (1987-1988), the scope of small business activity is expanding, the number of people taking part in it increases; entrepreneurship is acquiring the character of an active numerous movement, in the vanguard of which the young generation of entrepreneurs stands out clearly, which has determined a kind of life cycle and a period of “uncivilized business”; cooperatives and partnerships were often formed and liquidated within a month, often without starting work. These were really small businesses. The goal of small business development is to saturate the domestic market with consumer goods. However, this did not happen. The main reason for this is the lack of sufficient financial resources and the infantilism of the infrastructure.

The stage of the “cooperative movement” served as a mechanism in the accumulation of capital, made it possible to acquire initial knowledge and skills in organizing the work of a small enterprise.

The third stage (1989-1990) is associated with the adoption of legislative acts aimed at revitalizing small businesses. And to a certain extent it succeeded: the spheres of business activity people, the nomenclature of organizational forms of entrepreneurship diversified, there was an intensive development of lease relations. Preparations have begun for the so-called small-scale privatization. It was at this time that private entrepreneurship was legalized, which led to a real boom in its development, it became possible to legalize shadow capital and individual labor activity. Small business is attracting an increasing number of employees of state-owned enterprises to its sphere, curbing the growth of unemployment. The increase in the number of small businesses has led to competition between enterprises and entrepreneurs, and this has changed the attitude of the latter to knowledge. Among them, not only skills, but also the fundamental foundations of the market economy, marketing, management, etc. are becoming more and more in demand.

Of particular importance during this period was the development of lease relations, which was facilitated by the transition on January 1, 1989 of all state enterprises and associations to self-financing and cost accounting. The lease made it possible to combine the means of production with the direct producer in one person - the labor collective. This is especially important for Russia with its inherent collectivist spirit. Lease relations represented the most perfect model of cost accounting, became the organizational and economic basis for corporatization and privatization. They can be viewed as a Russian feature of small business.

Privatization turned state property into the property of private owners and contributed to its demonopolization. It created the necessary basis for a real transition to market relations and for increasing the efficiency of the Russian economy.

The fifth stage (1993-1994) became a completely large-scale privatization and development of all types of entrepreneurship, the emergence of many types of owners and the intensive participation of small businesses in services, trade, public catering, light industry, producing consumer goods and durable goods. For the first time in the economy venture capital firms appear, entrepreneurship is actively used. The age limit for business is stabilizing. There is a clear delineation of the areas of application of attention among generations: franchising; entrepreneurial chains; minimonopists - mostly the more experienced older generation; “Mass people and chameleons” are young. However, at this stage, the stimulation of the production of goods and services has not yet been provided. In Russia, due to specific historical development, the formation of market relations from the late 80s - early 90s has become irreversible.

At the sixth stage (1995-1998), the possibilities of super-profitable trade and intermediary activities were practically exhausted, so many small enterprises ceased to exist. In the country's economy, the trend towards concentration and centralization of capital was gaining strength, and there were cases of takeover of enterprises. ? ???

The current stage in the development of small business certainly has historical roots. However, they are insufficient for fundamental theoretical generalizations and conclusions. At the same time, Russia fits into the universal trends in the development of small business. According to the main criteria, the creation of a mixed economy, an entrepreneurial environment in it and the development of small business have much in common, from the fundamental foundations of ownership to the principles of organization, functioning and management in the market economic system. That is why, speaking about the development of Russian entrepreneurship, one can characterize it as a directed and consistent reproduction of the environment of existence, unthinkable without small and medium-sized enterprises.

Small businesses do not, by themselves, automatically realize their inherent benefits. To get those advantages, it is necessary to more fully join the system of division of labor, orient oneself to local sales markets and sources of raw materials. Therefore, with all the differences in socio-economic systems, the essential features that characterize small business in Russia remain identical: a strong focus on the market and free trade, the predominant use of non-centralized sources of funding, high organizational and functional flexibility and mobility, general ease of organization and management.

In modern Russia, over the past years, the formation of small business has been taking place against the background of serious socio-political transformations, making a significant contribution to the economic life of society.

Today, every citizen of Russia, to one degree or another, is faced with the phenomenon of small business. This economic phenomenon is given different, sometimes polar, assessments. However, no one will deny the real multifaceted significance of small business for solving social and economic problems. At the same time, having passed a certain development path, small business in Russia has not yet become a competitive sector of the economy. This problem remains urgent for the foreseeable future, and all efforts aimed at supporting small business should proceed from this prerogative.

The prehistory of the development of modern small business is associated with the 70-80 years of the Soviet period of the socio-economic development of society.

The 1977 Constitution of the USSR, by the 17th article, confirmed the right of citizens to carry out labor activities based on the personal labor of citizens and their family members in the field of handicraft crafts, agriculture and consumer services.

However, the predominance of large enterprises, the management of all other enterprises as large, the lack of a differentiated approach in determining the place and role of various enterprises in the country's economy reduced the efficiency of existing small enterprises. The virtual absence of a natural competitive mechanism for the functioning of enterprises in the economy impoverished the Soviet commodity market. This situation, along with other socio-economic problems, led to the need to use the cooperative form as small business in the context of economic reform in the 80s.

Of fundamental importance in these years for the development of small business were the 1986 Law "On Individual Labor Activity", in 1987 the Law "On State Enterprise" (extended to all enterprises since 1989), Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the establishment of joint ventures with foreign capital (1987).

In November 1986 and May 1988, the law legalizes private business activity in a number of manufacturing and service sectors. The growth of the cooperative movement began, which received a powerful impetus for development with the adoption of the Law "On Cooperation" (1988). In this law, a new approach to economic policy found its legislative embodiment, since the law expressed and protected the core of the cooperative system - democracy. With the adoption of this law, the sphere of private initiative in agriculture begins to expand, especially with the introduction of agrarian contracts on land (for a period of up to 50 years), which laid the foundation for the formation of farming, which, however, did not receive wide development.

In June 1990, the Law on Enterprises in the USSR was adopted. This law provided for a further expansion of the independence of enterprises and cost accounting, listed the following types of enterprises: individual, cooperative in the form of a cooperative or other economic society or partnership. The law made it possible to create joint ventures, rental and small state enterprises. Enterprises could unite in unions, economic associations, concerns according to industry, territorial and other characteristics. State enterprises were divided into union, republican, regional, district and communal. The enterprise itself could set prices for its products.

In 1989, the First All-Union Congress of United Cooperatives in the Production of Goods and Services was held. At this congress, the "Union of Soviet Cooperatives in the Sphere of Production and Services" was organized. The Union has defined as its main goal the creation of a parallel economy, which would help to improve its health in a competitive struggle with the existing economic system. The need to protect cooperation from accidental and unscrupulous people, criminal elements who rushed into the new economy for the sake of profit was put forward as one of the most important tasks of this process.

The end of the 80s is very controversial, which was a reflection of the complex socio-political situation in the country and it is difficult to characterize it unequivocally for this reason. One gets the impression that “one hand was creating and the other was destroying”. In fact, on the one hand, attempts were made to create small cooperative forms in the sphere of production and services, on the other hand, the existing economic mechanism with a lot of prohibitions limited the development of new economic phenomena, first of all, small private economy. On the one hand, there was an intensive development of cooperatives producing goods for industrial and technical purposes, construction, agricultural, scientific and technical, trade, medical, serving the population (at the listed enterprises, there were elements of entrepreneurship). On the other hand, there was a lack of flexible economic policy in this area, responsive to the needs of the new economic phenomenon, protecting the consumer and stimulating the producer. The tightening and regulation, and even the prohibition of the activities of cooperatives led to an increase in the shadow sector of the economy. In the early 90s, cooperation as a form of small business is reduced to naught, although it is this form that corresponds to the established economic traditions of domestic producers, is very promising in general and is extremely actively used by all countries with a developed market mechanism of management. Of course, the oppression of cooperatives during that period can also be explained by the fact that in some cases they demonstrated untidiness in economic activity, the priority of short-term interests over long-term prospects, etc. However, this was largely due to objective reasons - not an established market environment and specific socio-political conditions, adapted to the administrative-command system. A similar fate befell individual labor activity.

For the functioning of individual labor activity (ITD) as the most important form of small business, a developed market economic system is required, which in the late 80s - early 90s had not yet formed, and could not have formed.

The beginning of the 90s is characterized by a further increase in the attention of the general public and economists to the possibilities of small business as an important factor in the formation of market relations. A number of fundamental documents appear: Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 790 "On measures to create and develop small enterprises" dated 08.08.1990, Decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR "On measures to support and develop small enterprises in the RSFSR" dated 18.07.1991, No. 404 These documents determined the starting conditions for small business. Cooperatives that emerged in the second half of the 1980s are re-registered as small enterprises; restriction of activities for small businesses is introduced; their registration is simplified; expanding opportunities to enter the external market, which contributes to the emergence of offshore enterprises; a number of material and technical supply benefits for small businesses are envisaged. As a result of measures taken by the state during this period, there is a rapid growth of small enterprises and entrepreneurial activity, which was accompanied by a quick and easy accumulation of capital, vigorous activity in the trade and intermediary sphere. Such economic transformations made it possible to satisfy the demand of the population for the then scarce consumer goods, household services and public catering. However, small businesses are beginning to face very heavy financial pressure: 28% VAT, 35% income tax, 50% and more on commercial loans. Another characteristic feature of this generally prosperous period for small businesses was that small businesses played the role of a channel for pumping the resources of command-controlled state-owned enterprises into the shadow economy, in favor of semi-criminal and simply criminal pseudo-market entrepreneurship. The saddest consequence of this transfer was that the funds accumulated in small businesses by the method of “additional plundering” of the public sector, with a few exceptions, almost forever left the sphere of accumulation and were not used for the development of national production and its infrastructure.

In the context of radical market reforms, small business has gone through the following stages.

FIRST STAGE: 1992-1994

This stage is characterized by progress in understanding the essence of the economic problems of small business. The importance of the role and place of small business in the creation of a competitive economic environment for the new economic system is stated. The contours of the concept of supporting small business are ripening, priorities in its development are determined. The following documents are issued: Decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On organizational measures for the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation" No. 1485 of November 30, 1992, Resolution of the Council of Ministers and the Government of the Russian Federation "On priority measures for the development and state support of small business in the Russian Federation" of 11.05 .1993 No. 446, Decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On staffing of economic reforms" No. 272 \u200b\u200bdated 22.02.1993, Order federal service employment of Russia "On approval of the regulation on the procedure for the work of employment services with unemployed citizens wishing to organize their own business in the conditions of granting them subsidies" No. 37 of 03/30/1993, Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation of 04/29/1994, No. 409 "On measures to state support of small business in the Russian Federation for 1994-1995 ", Decree of the President of the Russian Federation" On some issues of tax policy "No. 1004 of 23.05.1994, Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation" On the network of regional agencies for support of small business "of 29.12.1994 No. 1434. In all these documents, support for small business is recognized as one of the most important areas of economic reform; sectoral priorities for the development of small business are established; the tax exemption is provided for the amount of profit used for the development of production, preferential tax rates are established on the profits of small enterprises in the third and fourth years of operation; provides for the allocation of credit resources for the primary production of goods popular consumption and food, a network of special banks with the participation of state funds is being organized, it is planned to insure programs with a high degree of risk from state funds and reserves, it is planned to provide guarantees for foreign investments and use foreign experience, as well as attract foreign specialists. However, sadly, these decisions remained only a declaration. And although at the beginning of this stage there was a process of mass founding of small enterprises (in the field of science and scientific and technical services, the number of small enterprises increased 3 times, in agriculture - 3.1 times, in material and technical supply - 2.9 times , in the field of education - 2.8), the share of small enterprises in the field of material production in the overall structure of domestic small business has sharply decreased.

The quantitative growth of small enterprises is characterized by the following indicators: 1992 - 560 thousand small enterprises, 1993 - 865 thousand, 1994 - 896.6 thousand.

During this period, the Committee for the Development of Credit Unions was approved (October 1992). Credit unions as a system of large, medium and small credit unions are a traditional form of providing financial services to shareholders. By the end of 1993, 15 credit unions were registered and operated in Russia, uniting more than 3.5 thousand people. In Vladimir and the Vladimir region there were 5, in the Kemerovo region - 2, in Moscow - 2, in Yekaterinburg - 2, in St. Petersburg, Petrozavodsk, Chelyabinsk, Tuapse - one each. These credit unions were registered on the basis of the RF Law “On Consumer Cooperation”. The total amount of all deposits exceeded 40.5 million rubles, loans to shareholders - 40 million rubles.

During this period, interesting promising undertakings were laid in different regions of the country. Since 1992, the Great Russian Way International Trade Caravan has been successfully operating in the Volga region of Russia as a specific form of support for small businesses aimed at developing the infrastructure of small businesses, which allows restoring and expanding economic ties of the Volga regions with other subjects of the Federation, the CIS countries and foreign countries. As a result, the share of small businesses in this region (the entire Volga region) in the total number of small businesses in the country is more than 12%.

This period coincided with mass (voucher) privatization, which on the whole had rather negative consequences for small production. The period of voucher privatization (1992-1994) led to the creation of "command nomenklatura capitalism." This fully meets the interests of a very narrow circle of people, while deliberately reducing the opportunities for participation of the broad masses of the population in the formation of a middle class of private owners. Liberalization of prices virtually completely destroyed the accumulated funds and savings, which could become a necessary source of capital for running your own business.

There was no irreversible and effective turning point in the development of small business during this controversial period. By the end of 1994, a decline began in the activities of small businesses - many scientific consulting, trade and intermediary enterprises disintegrated or diversified. The development of farming did not give the desired results either. At the federal level, the management structure of small business was not clearly defined. Small business support functions were assigned to the Industrial Policy Committee, which was unable to cover the whole variety of problems, as well as forms and types of small business. As a result, the picture of the development of entrepreneurship already in 1993 is characterized by the following indicators: 50% of registered enterprises did not start working, 30% barely made ends meet, 40% did not pay taxes, 10% lived more or less tolerably, 3-4% prospered, 37 % of successfully operating enterprises are associated with the shadow economy.

Another distinguishing feature of this stage is the birth of a mass of various structural divisions: foundations, associations, etc. It was planned that main function These funds should not consist in distributing money, but in attracting funds - not only from Russian, but also from foreign partners. Foundations are given independence in developing a mechanism for attracting these funds. Support funds are designed to create infrastructure - favorable conditions for the development of small business, such conditions under which it will be profitable, profitable, stable, regardless of any external factors and conditions. In early 1994, the Foundation for Assistance to the Development of Small Forms of Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere (approved by the Government of the Russian Federation) was created. This Fund is non-profit organization, which receives 0.5% of the federal budget funds allocated to science, and since 1996 - 1.0%. The activities of this Fund are aimed at “promoting the implementation of the state policy of the formation of market relations in the scientific and technical sphere by supporting, creating and developing the infrastructure of small innovative entrepreneurship, encouraging competition through the attraction of financial resources and their targeted and effective use for the implementation of programs and projects to create products ". The fund must take part in the examination, competitive selection and implementation of federal, sectoral and regional programs and small business development projects.

In November 1994, the Russian Small Business Development Association (RARMP) was established.

In 1993, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) offered its program to support private entrepreneurship. For this program, a special support fund is being created, the amount of which is determined at $ 300 million. The fund is actively beginning to finance both in the capital and in the regions. For example, in 1994, Kuzbassotsbank, through the Tomsk branch, successfully implemented the first stage of a program for lending to microbusiness in the amount of 200 thousand dollars. Convinced of the effectiveness of the emerging partnership, the EBRD has repeatedly increased the volume of credit lines. By 1997, the bank's branches in Tomsk, Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, Yurga and the head office in Kemerovo were included in the lending orbit. This is a very positive development, given the specific difficulties of a very important economic region of the country.

The EBRD has accredited SBS-Agro for lending to Russian small businesses under the Program. The EBRD has clearly defined the criteria that loan applicants must meet. Loans are not provided to a small enterprise if its activities are related to the production of environmentally harmful products, alcohol and tobacco products, the organization of gambling houses (and generally the popularization of gambling), as well as financial transactions and military production. There are also financial terms for lending. A loan must be provided with security, which can be the borrower's equipment, goods in stock, securities, deposits, precious metals or third party warranties. The standard interest rate on loans provided by SBS-Agro was 17-18% per annum in foreign currency. By mid-1997, SBS-Agro had financed 600 projects worth $ 18 million. The main share of loans was provided for the opening of bakeries, shops, meat processing workshops, hairdressers, dental offices, ateliers, gyms, gyms, a little less - for the development of the printing business, car service, opening laundries and restaurants, about 10% - for high-tech industries.

However, characterizing this stage positively as a whole, we can say that a decisive turn towards the development of small business has not been made. In 1996, that is, upon completion of the first stage of privatization, small enterprises accounted for 3% of the total value of fixed assets in all sectors of the economy. This is due to the fact that the conditions for the restructuring of industry in Russia have not yet been created and the question of the stable place of small business in this process has not yet been determined; a competitive environment has not been created, which is the most important condition for the development of small business; the turn towards manufacturing entrepreneurship is still relevant. The problem of loan repayment remains an acute all-Russian problem. In addition, small enterprises in Russia are simply not yet ready to take out loans, since many of them do not know how to draw up business plans, do not have collateral, etc.

Throughout the entire period of legalization of small business, there was a struggle for its supervision and, first of all, for the distribution of state funds to support it. Numerous government departments, government and public organizations did not seek to unite their efforts to support small business. There was no mechanism for the practical implementation of the proposed activities. A unified program and, accordingly, a system of state support for small business in the Russian Federation did not exist until mid-1994.

The picture will not be complete if not to note that there was an increase in the criminal-criminal nature of many processes in small business, which is associated with the absence of stable, established norms and rules of entrepreneurial ethics, the presence of "state racketeering" and criminal racketeering. This stage in the development of small business was still a trial and error stage. However, in general, there was a stable understanding of the need for the development of small business as essential condition further effective economic development of the country.

SECOND STAGE: 1995-1998

At this stage, the focus of economic policy on the creation of a concept for the development of small business in our country is clearly traced. Concrete measures are being developed to provide real assistance to small businesses throughout the country with the provision of independence to the regions in solving these problems.

In 1995, the State Committee of the Russian Federation for the Support and Development of Small Business (GKRP RF) was formed. This committee has received quite broad powers. It is responsible for the development and implementation of all international assistance in this area.

The new Civil Code is being introduced into the practice of economic activity. On June 14, 1995, the Federal Law of the Russian Federation “On State Support of Small Business in the Russian Federation” No. 88-FZ was adopted, which by Article 3 legally defined the status of a small enterprise.

In 1995, the situation in small business was characterized by the following indicators: there were 877.3 thousand small enterprises in the Russian Federation, the share of profits earned by them was 1/5 of all profits received by the Russian economy. The employment of the population is given in table. one.

Table 1
The main indicators characterizing the development of small business in 1995

Industry	Average headcount employed at small enterprises, thousand people	Sectoral structure of employment at small enterprises, in%	Share in the total number of people employed in the industry,%
TOTAL	8944,8	100	15,7
Industry	2589,7	29,0	15,6
Agriculture	93,4	1,0	1,3
Construction	2624,4	29,3	48,5
Transport and communication	185,0	2,1	3,9
Trade	2235,0	24,6	46,4
General commercial activities to ensure the functioning of the market	320,8	3,6	93,9
Housing and communal services, consumer services	106,8	1,2	4,7
Science and scientific services	231,9	2,6	15,8

The State Committee of the Russian Federation for the Support and Development of Small Business provides the following data. As of October 1, 1996, there were 829,442 enterprises employing 8,241,200 people. As of January 1, 1997, there were more than 842 thousand small enterprises with 8,618,300 employees. Most of the small businesses are in trade and public catering - 43%, construction and industry is inferior - 32% (17% and 15%, respectively). The Tax Service also takes into account 3.5 million entrepreneurs without a legal entity, who, according to the law, are small businesses. However, to create a normal competitive environment for small businesses, there should be much more.

And nevertheless, taking into account the temporarily employed and family members, almost 15-18% of the population of Russia was associated with the activities of small enterprises.

The direction of the state's activity in the field of small business for this period is determined by the "Federal program of state support for small business in the Russian Federation for 1996-1997." (Approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 18.12.1995, No. 1256).

The purpose of this Program is to ensure the sustainable development of small businesses in the production, innovation and other spheres of the economy. This Program puts forward the following objectives:

• creation of legal, economic and organizational conditions for sustainable development of small business;
• purposeful formation of a system of state support for small business;
• creation of new jobs, opening and support of small enterprises in the production, innovation and social spheres to provide the market with domestic goods and services;
• support of business and innovation activity, development of competition in the market of goods and services;
• initiation of financial, credit and investment mechanisms, the search for new sources of financing for entrepreneurial activity, first of all, at the expense of the own capabilities of effectively developing small enterprises;
• widespread use of standard infrastructure elements created in the framework of software developments in 1994-1995.

Based on the goal and main objectives, the Program provides for the main activities aimed at the implementation of the entire Program. The total amount of funding for 1996 was determined at 883.35 billion rubles, including 707 billion rubles. - funds from the privatization of federal property objects were supposed to go to the Federal Fund for Small Business Support, which in practice did not happen in full.

According to the GKRP of Russia, during 1996-1997. more than 40 legislative and regulatory acts affecting the activities of small enterprises were developed. Among them: "On the participation of small businesses in the production and supply of products and goods (services) for federal state needs", draft Federal Laws "On tenders for the purchase of goods, works, services for state needs", "On leasing", "On the system of guarantees and sureties in the field of small business ”,“ On mutual credit companies ”.

Attempts have been made to support small business in the manufacturing sector and, above all, in the innovation field. According to experts, there are about 120 thousand small businesses with 2.3 million employees in the innovation sphere. As in the whole world, some of them disintegrate, others arise again. However, small enterprises that have been stable for 3-4 years have also appeared. Nevertheless, the measures taken have not fundamentally changed the state of innovation. Its performance still leaves much to be desired. The main factors hindering innovation in small industrial enterprises are the lack of its own funds, high tax rates, unacceptable investment and credit conditions. There has been some deterioration in the situation in construction, and here the main problems are, firstly, insolvency of customers, lack of funding, lack of orders for work, and, secondly, insufficient attention to housing and industrial construction.

During this period, certain efforts were made to form an infrastructure for supporting small businesses. As of June 1997, 74 regional funds, 60 business incubators, 80 educational and business centers, 40 leasing companies, 44 technoparks, 60 information and analytical centers of small business were operating in the regions. In the first half of 1997, 9.3 billion rubles were allocated for the development of small business infrastructure, incl. more than 5 billion rubles. was included in the authorized capital of infrastructure facilities of the Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, Tomsk regions, the republics of Ingushetia, Kalmykia, Karelia, Tatarstan, Altai and Krasnodar regions, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug.

After the 1st All-Russian Congress of Small Business Entrepreneurs in February 1996, the Program "On Priority Measures of State Support for Small Business in the Russian Federation" and the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On Priority Measures of State Support for Small Business in the Russian Federation" were issued, which ordered regional structures to allocate half of percent of the revenue side of the budget. This is very important for the development of small business, since such a formulation of the issue legally guarantees the receipt of state funds. The decree named specific measures for real support of entrepreneurship, among which the following can be distinguished:

• simplification of the registration procedure;
• introduction of tax incentives for banks, leasing and insurance companies serving small businesses;
• transfer of 40% of the budget of the State Employment Fund to create new jobs (since 1997);
• creation of a guarantee fund, to which at least $ 200 million will be deducted annually for investments in Russian small businesses from foreign credit institutions.

Great hopes were pinned on the Federal Law "On the Simplified System of Taxation, Accounting and Reporting for Small Businesses" dated December 29, 1995 No. 222-F3, adopted in the development of the Federal Law dated June 14, 1995, No. 88-F3 "On State Support of Small Business entrepreneurship in the Russian Federation ".

The pioneering region in the development of small business is Moscow. The share of Moscow enterprises in the total number of small enterprises is 20%. The Moscow Small Business Development Program for 1996-1997 was adopted in the capital, which defines the following priorities:

• production, processing and sale of agricultural products and food products;
• production of consumer goods;
• production of medicines and medical equipment;
• provision of various types of services;
• catering;
• construction;
• innovative and environmental activities.

In 1996, 235 billion rubles were allocated to support entrepreneurship. The share of tax revenue from small businesses in some prefectures reaches 80%. The Moscow government decides to create a special guarantee fund in the amount of 20 billion rubles, which would compensate for the difference in interest on loans issued to start-up entrepreneurs. On September 1, 1996, the mayor of Moscow put forward a proposal to revive handicraft in the capital.

All small enterprises in Moscow (of any form of ownership) are equated with state enterprises in paying for utilities, fire alarms, and telephone communications. In the first two years, small businesses are completely exempted from property taxes, in the third year - by 50%, in the fourth - by 25%. Enterprises producing technological equipment for the food industry are exempt from income tax on the sale of products.

Foreign investors also have an interest in the development of small businesses in the capital. For example, significant investments are planned in the construction of small hotels, in the information system of Moscow, in the creation of large wholesale markets, in the arrangement of the ring road (meaning the construction of a whole complex of hotels, small restaurants, car parks).

During this period, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development continues to be active. Thus, in the fall of 1996, Rossiyskiy Kredit Bank was included in the orbit of its activities to support small business. This bank signed a loan agreement under the Small Business in Russia program. The agreement enables everyone who works in small business to get a loan at rates below market rates.

The activities of the Foundation for Assistance to the Development of Small Forms of Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sphere were productive. By mid-1997, this Fund had funded 625 innovative projects selected on a competitive basis from 1,873 small businesses that applied. The Assistance Fund financed the following small business projects:

Pharmacology and medical technology - 24%

• production of the Svinderm dressing for the treatment of burns and wounds without scars;
• production of a computerized optical tomograph for diagnostics of biological tissue microheterogeneities;
• production of high-precision corrective spectacle lenses with a complex surface;
• production of silicone breast prostheses;
• production of cardiac monitors;
• portable thermal containers for temporary storage of blood and its transportation.

Machine tool and instrument making - 12%

• production of high-frequency hydraulic breakers;
• production of a digital pyrometer for thermal diagnostics and flaw detection;
• production of an installation for vacuum-plasma spraying;
• production of small-sized universal metal-working machines ERTEN;
• equipment for packing.

Ecology - 16%

• creation of a set of instruments for environmental monitoring of the air basin;
• production of a complex of means of protection against electromagnetic radiation;
• production of power plants with a capacity of 2 to 50 kW, powered by wind energy;
• production of membrane devices for water purification;
• production of dosimeters;
• creation of stands for fine liquid purification;
• production of a seawater desalination plant.

Electronics - 6.4%

• production of solar storage batteries for household appliances;
• production of modems and video terminals;
• production of monochromatic generators of submillimeter range with electronic frequency tuning;
• production of VHF radio station.

New materials - 3%

• production of suspended polystyrene foam;
• production of products from dispersion-hardened copper;
• production of metal alkoxides.

Common consumption goods. Agriculture, light and food industry - 24%

• tailoring of special clothes;
• introduction of technology for the production of oil from Chinese magnolia vine;
• introduction of Jerusalem artichoke processing technology.

Construction - 4%

• the creation of arched greenhouses;
• production of building materials "stone";
• production of vibration-impulse mixer for concrete preparation.

Aircraft manufacturing - 1%

• single-seat aircraft certification;
• creation of the "Accord" amphibious aircraft.

Other projects - 7.6%

• production of tape wires and bundles based on them.

About 80% of the Assistance Fund's budget is spent on financing innovative projects carried out by small enterprises. The remaining funds are used to finance the following programs: creation of a network of innovation and technological centers - 9%, participation in exhibitions, advertising of goods and services of small innovative enterprises - 1%, financing of exploratory research in the interests of small enterprises - 2%, development of technology transfer infrastructure - 0 , 5%, student involvement in innovative entrepreneurship - 0.5%, support for consulting and educational activities.

The budgetary famine also affected the financing of the Assistance Fund. Of the planned 115 billion rubles. In 1996, the Fund received 49 billion rubles of budgetary funds, and this, of course, affected the effectiveness of the Fund, which resulted in a drop in the number of funded projects from 30-35 out of 100 to 20.

However, the second stage of small business functioning has not yet been able to become an effective instrument of economic growth, employment policy, scientific and technological progress. Small-scale production with its unique entrepreneurial potential still remains an outsider in the economic field of our country and does not adequately solve those problems in the economy that could be solved with the help of small business. In many ways, this is not his fault, but his misfortune. This situation is explained by the peculiarities of the general state of the domestic economy, which is characterized by a severe crisis, a drop in growth rates, investment hunger, and the collapse of economic ties.

Another feature of economic life is the processes of concentration and centralization of capital, which lead to the absorption of small enterprises, their merger. The level of activity of large enterprises has not yet been formed when they become economic entities interested in and initiating the creation of small enterprises. The problem of obtaining loans, which are vital for entrepreneurs, remains very acute. Moreover, the lack of finance for a beginner entrepreneur often becomes the main problem in general. As a result, the tasks of the Federal Program on saturating the commodity market with competitive domestic goods have not been solved.

A significant factor hindering the civilized development of domestic small business remains the criminality and criminalization of the smallest business.

The place and role of small business was determined by the fact that small businesses have already gone through a certain path of development and have had "childhood growing pains". All these years they have learned to independently adapt to the peculiarities of the market, in some cases they have been able to develop the correct competitive strategy of behavior. Small businesses are actively diversifying their economic activities and strengthening their investment policy. Shifts can also be observed in the general culture of doing business. There is an intensification of the activity of small enterprises in the regions where conditions are clearly ripe for the effective use of the potential of small business in the interests of economic growth, and the restoration of economic and business activity of the population throughout the country.

The contribution of small enterprises to the economic potential of the country in the pre-crisis 1998 is discussed following indicators... In 1996, they produced goods and services worth more than 300 trillion rubles (7% of the total volume, and taking into account the services provided and work performed by entrepreneurs without a legal entity - almost 10%). In 1996, budgets of all levels received $ 36.8 trillion from small businesses. rubles, including the federal budget - 15.4 trillion. rub. The percentage (86%) of tax collection from small businesses is high. The share of small businesses in GDP is about 12%. According to the Goskomstat of Russia, in the first half of 1997, precisely due to the expansion of industrial production by small and joint ventures, for the first time in industry in recent years, there was an increase in production by 0.8%.

However, it was still premature to talk about the true development of entrepreneurship in Russia. The position of the majority of manufacturers was monopoly, a genuine competitive environment for the activities of small enterprises was not formed, especially in the manufacturing sector; essentially, the role of the state in determining the benchmarks and priorities of entrepreneurial activity has not changed. The state is still at the level of stating the fact of the need to support and design programs to support small businesses.

THIRD STAGE: 1999-2001

For the current stage, it is becoming characteristic to provide favorable conditions for the development of small business on the basis of improving the quality and efficiency of state support measures at the federal level. This is what the Federal Program of State Support of Small Business for 2000-2001 proclaims as its goal. The events of August 1998 became a milestone for the development of domestic small business. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which lost about $ 12 billion, can be considered the main victims of the August crisis. According to official data, after August 1998, from 25 to 35% of small enterprises actually ceased their activities, which means that out of 877 thousand enterprises (the number of which for our country should reach 3-5 million in order to create a normal competitive environment) only 600 thousand have kept their business. But these enterprises have also reduced the number of personnel, reduced their remuneration.

The whole system of program directions is based on a set of measures to improve the regulatory framework that ensures the development of small business. This set of measures is aimed at developing a concept for the formation of a legal framework for state support of small business. For this, the following priority laws are being developed:

• The Law on Mutual Insurance Societies creates the legal conditions for insuring business risks.
• The Law on Small Business Support Funds promptly raises the issue of expanding and securing the rights and obligations of these funds at the federal, regional and municipal levels. It is also aimed at more effective management of the system of regional funds based on the unification of organizational and legal forms.
• The Law on Innovation is aimed at creating a stable legal framework and preferential conditions for highly risky small businesses using intellectual property. This law provides for the implementation of schemes for attracting, accumulating and directing funds from private investors for the development of small business. And finally, it will help promote valuable papers to the stock market.

At a new stage in the functioning of small business, work will continue to protect the interests of employees. A lot of problems have accumulated in the sphere of labor relations at small enterprises. Supplements in labor law are called upon to build labor relations on a civilized basis, which in turn will make it possible to remove a certain negative attitude towards this sector of the economy.

A whole package of amendments concerns the simplification of the taxation system, accounting and reporting of small businesses, as well as improving the procedure for allocating funds for the implementation of the Federal program of state support for small businesses.

The whole range of tasks outlined in the Program stems from an emphasis on improving the quality and efficiency of government support measures. The core task, among others, can be considered the development and implementation of progressive financial technologies to support small businesses, which will ensure the integration of financial mechanisms of small businesses into the country's credit and financial system. It is planned to solve this task in conditions of a deficit of budgets of all levels on the basis of attracting extra-budgetary sources. This principled approach to the development of small business for the near future assumes the following priorities:

At first, it is planned to restructure the banking system in order to create specialized credit institutions to work with small businesses. Until now, it has been very difficult to obtain a loan in practice. If in countries with developed market economies, a long-term loan is provided, then in our country it is short-term (no more than one month) with the provision of collateral (real estate) and a high interest rate.

The high proportion of small business bankruptcies forces external investors to not lend at all or to provide at high interest rates on very tight repayment terms. As a result, it turns out that private sources of finance are usually inaccessible to small businesses.

Secondly, it is necessary to create guarantee mechanisms for credit and investment support for small businesses. It requires strengthening the activities of federal and regional funds to support small businesses on the security of promising enterprises. In general, it is advisable to move from direct lending to small businesses to a guarantee. It is possible to create guarantee funds for foreign investments in the sphere of domestic small business, taking into account foreign capital. Large-scale production - industrial giants - should become a promising investor in small business. The state needs to stimulate this kind of financing in every possible way, providing preferential conditions for the functioning of funds created for the purpose of financing small businesses by large industrial giants through subcontracting, contractual, and lease relations. As a result, competition among small businesses for contracts with corporations would increase.

Thirdly, promising and modern wide use of various forms of financing leasing and schemes for leasing operations. The main and main advantage of leasing is that, starting his own business, an entrepreneur can only have a part of the necessary financial resources for the acquisition of fixed assets. In this case, the enterprise is provided necessary equipment... This is especially true since many small businesses are still businesses with primitive means of production. It is easier and safer to provide small businesses with modern equipment and technologies through leasing.

Fourth, to remove many problems of lending to small businesses could create a system of special banks - local, municipal, with the active participation of the state. In our country, wide opportunities are not open for cooperative banks and mutual lending societies. The state needs to create conditions for self-organization of credit associations of small businesses and other forms of accumulation and targeted use of temporarily free funds of small businesses. It is also necessary to exempt from taxes funds transferred to mutual lending societies.

In order to facilitate the financial support of small businesses, it is necessary to pay attention to the following. Financial support and subventions should be flexible and differentiated. The priority should be to stimulate the activities of small enterprises in the field of scientific research and high technologies. Small businesses in their activities should make more efficient use of internal sources of financing, such as profits and depreciation charges.

FifthIn the sphere of trade and services, the system of contractual relations - franchising - is a form of economic integration of small and large businesses, which is very effectively used in the market economy of all developed countries.

At sixth, the current stage of development of small business involves the participation of small businesses in the supply of products for state needs. The priority here may be to stimulate the activities of small enterprises in the field of scientific research and high technologies.

Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 31, 1999 No. 1460 "On a set of measures for the development and state support of small enterprises in the field of material production and the promotion of their innovative activity" puts forward material production as the most important sphere of activity of small enterprises. Moreover, the task is set to promote their innovative activities and it is established that state support is provided as a priority to small enterprises engaged in production and innovation activities in mechanical engineering and metalworking; microbiological, medical and biotechnological industries; in the electronics industry; in the woodworking industry; construction industry, as well as in the food industry, processing, storage and packaging of agricultural and food products; production of consumer goods. Innovative entrepreneurship is precisely the direction with which Russia will be able to ensure the competitiveness of domestic products and the economy's recovery from the most severe crisis.

However, the innovative activity of an entrepreneur in modern conditions leaves much to be desired, since it is impossible without investing in this activity. The state is making certain attempts to improve the situation in this area. Thus, the blended investment scheme for attracting investment in innovative projects has been clarified, the state participation in the investment process in the form of sharing the risks of innovation and providing the necessary guarantees has been determined, a program of priority measures has been developed for the development and state support of innovation in industry. Understanding the need for innovative entrepreneurship leads to the active introduction of venture capital into the management practice - an effective efficient form of investment in innovation.

The next most important area the new Program is the introduction into economic practice of effective measures for scientific, methodological and staffing, as well as interaction with the media and propaganda. International cooperation in the field of small business remains relevant. The range of activities in this direction is very rich. First of all, it is planned to improve the system of state support for small business on the basis of studying and using the experience of foreign countries with a developed market economy. The experience of state support for small businesses in such Western European countries as Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, where the use of financial technologies has always been the most important component of their successful development, is of great scientific and practical interest. International cooperation in the field of small business involves a very active participation in various international projects, taking into account which it is possible to carry out the stipulated measures for state support of small business.

Development of progressive financial technologies for small businesses, improvement of regulatory and legal support, increasing the efficiency of using the infrastructure of small businesses and information systemsmonitoring of small business in the regions and various sectors of the economy, etc. is planned to be carried out taking into account the World Bank project "Development of the policy of regulation of small and medium enterprises in the Russian Federation", which will be financed by a grant from the Government of Japan, as well as within the framework of the implementation of the action plan working group on small business of the Russian-American intergovernmental commission. International cooperation in the field of small business provides for the widespread use of TACIS projects, including: "Technical assistance for the development of small and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurship in the former monotowns of the Russian Federation", "Tax reform", "Development of the network information support regional agencies for support of small and medium-sized businesses "," Technical assistance in the creation of the Resource Center for Small Business ".

The microfinance program implemented by the EBRD structures, including the Russian Bank for Project Finance, will be aimed at the development and application of modern forms of cooperation with domestic and foreign banks and investment funds in the field of financing small businesses, as well as the creation of a national system of financing small businesses based on the provision of guarantees and the development of mechanisms and structures for microcredit and insurance for small businesses.

The directions of development of small business have been determined, the priorities of state support for the near future have been formulated. The program provides for the restoration of the potential of domestic small business, lost as a result of the August 1998 events. State support will cover up to 250 thousand small businesses, the number of jobs in this area will again be brought to 8.5 million people, and the share of small businesses in GDP will be 12 percent.

Literature

1. Federal program of state support for small business in the Russian Federation for 2000-20001.

2. Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation "On a set of measures for the development and state support of small enterprises in the field of material production and the promotion of their innovative activities", No. 1460 of December 31, 1999.

4. Gipelson V. Labor market in the private sector. // Entrepreneurship in Russia. - 1997. - No. 1.

5. Vilensky A. Stages of development of small business in Russia. // Economic Issues. - 1996. - No. 7.

7. Zevelev V.A. Small business is a big problem in Russia. - M., 1994.

8. Materials for parliamentary hearings "Small business - one of the directions of industrial development in Russia", 23.09.1997.