Despite some common features, in practice, the actual activities of entrepreneurs vary greatly. This is due to the fact that in certain types of business there are various competitive advantages and risks, the implementation of the first and overcoming the second forces entrepreneurs to modify the mechanisms for the functioning of their business. There are also peculiarities in the mechanisms of legal regulation and legal support of entrepreneurial activity in different types business.

The modern market economy is characterized by a complex combination of industries of various scales - large, with a tendency to monopolize the economy, and medium and small enterprises that arise in industries that do not require significant capital, volumes of equipment and cooperation of many workers. The size of enterprises depends on the specifics of industries, their technological features, and the effect of economies of scale. There are industries associated with high capital intensity and significant production volumes, a large share of fixed assets among the costs of an entrepreneur. Most of the large businesses are concentrated in these industries. These include the automotive, pharmaceutical, chemical, metallurgical industries, most enterprises in the extractive industries. The industries that determine scientific and technological progress are growing at the highest rates, since they accumulate financial, production and human resources faster than others. In industries that do not require large capital expenditures, where the share of personnel costs in the costs of entrepreneurs is large, small enterprises are preferable.

Firms of different sizes play different roles in ensuring the sustainability and competitiveness of a market economy, and have different risks and benefits. Allocate large, medium and small businesses.

Big business does not lend itself simple definition Usually the term "big business" is applied to such giants as IBM and General Motors. Among the world's largest companies in different time included such firms as General Electric (USA), Roal Dutch (Great Britain - Denmark), Coca-Cola (USA). Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (Japan), Exxon (USA). This list also included one Russian company, Gazprom. The main element of the capitalist economy, the carrier of the evolutionary process in the economy is to ensure the stability of the market economy and its main components: prices, production structure. Today, they produce most of the mass driven products. It is thanks to large enterprises that business is developing, which is based on mechanisms for reducing production costs. Large firms are the bearers of scientific and technological progress, they accumulate and then implement the methods of rational entrepreneurship. In addition, most modern large firms are international companies operating in global markets, which allows them to take advantage of the relatively cheap resources of the world economy by locating different stages of production in different countries. With the greatest clarity, these properties of big business manifested themselves in the activities of modern transnational corporations. The latter, thanks to the huge concentration of resources and the centralization of financial and material flows within the corporation, are able to create for themselves an effective market and social infrastructure. Coming to less developed countries, transnational corporations themselves create communications, form a model of behavior of employees and consumers, and actively influence domestic and international legislation.

Along with competitive advantages, large business also has weaknesses. The growth of the company is often accompanied by a decrease in the effectiveness of its management. Very often, large firms have the ability to regulate the demand and prices of their products, which reduces the incentive to increase efficiency, and makes big business inflexible. These features of large firms create opportunities for sustainable business development in medium and small sizes (Table 1.1).

Table 5. Strengths and weaknesses of large business

Strengths of big business	Weaknesses of big business
The ability to actively change external environment entrepreneurship	Reduced incentives to increase production efficiency
Opportunities to create and accumulate the achievements of scientific and technological progress and the procedures and rules of rational business	Opportunity to limit access of other firms to the achievements of scientific and technological progress and rational business
Savings on production costs	Decline in management efficiency with the growth of the firm
Sustainability	Inflexibility, possibility of loss of contact with the consumer

If the concept of big business - this concept is mainly economic. The legislation of both foreign countries and Russian does not specifically single out the concept of "big business". Small business is defined both economically and legally. As the experience of countries with highly developed economies shows, it is the most important component of the market economy. In modern conditions, the role of small business in a market economy is growing.

Often in a small business, you can find family business management: it is inherited by the owner's relatives, which dictates the direct involvement of the latter in all the activities of the enterprise.

The functions of a small enterprise, first of all, are economic, determined by its role as, firstly, an employer; secondly, a producer of products and services; thirdly, a catalyst for scientific and technological progress; fourthly, a taxpayer; and fifthly, an agent of market relations.

No less significant function, in my opinion, is social. So through small forms of entrepreneurial activity, many people reveal and realize their creative potential. Basically, the labor of socially vulnerable groups of the population (women, students, disabled people, pensioners, refugees, etc.) is used here, which cannot find employment in large enterprises. Small enterprises are the main place of industrial training and a kind of "proving ground" for running young personnel.

But all the listed advantages of small business are by no means automatic. The problem is that small businesses tend to be at much greater risk than large firms. The advantages and weaknesses of small business are presented in table 1.2.

Table 6. Advantages and weaknesses of small businesses

Small business is unsustainable. Half of the enterprises perish in the first period of their existence, but there and then their place is taken by newly emerging firms. The level of bankruptcy of firms is especially high in the first three years.

Small businesses are highly dependent on market conditions. Small size does not allow to create within the company modern structures and effective specialized management. Most small firms are characterized by unity of ownership and management. Most relationships within the firm and business partners are built on the basis of informal connections. Small firms often turn to informal resource markets, finance business with private loans, use their own funds and funds from friends and relatives. It is not uncommon for small businesses to use the informal and even the shadow labor market (attracting illegal emigrants, minors, etc.). Competitive advantages and profitability of production are provided at the expense of implicit costs, which are often based on high (higher than in large enterprises) intensification of labor and working hours, low payment of resources compared to large businesses. All this determines the extremely unstable and high-risk nature of small business.

In a word, the main difference between small business is that, regardless of country, in most cases it is a typical intuitive business. Without the active support of big business and the state, small business is a source of economic and social risks. Therefore, the legislation of developed countries singles out small business in a special category and actively supports small businesses.

In the modern market economy, in addition to large and small businesses, a significant layer of medium-sized businesses remains. Just like big business, medium business does not have much legal status. It occupies an intermediate position between small and large businesses located at different poles of the economy and plays an extremely important role. It performs the role of an intermediary and a link between large and small businesses, between small businesses and the state.

The small size of firms, the instability and high riskiness of small businesses do not allow them to establish stable ties with large businesses directly. Medium business assumes this role, creating a complex network of relations with various forms, legal and organizational formalities, both with large and small businesses.

The scope of small and medium-sized businesses is very extensive. The main areas of activity of small enterprises are trade and public catering, agriculture, industry and construction. However, it should be noted that the most common type is trade and intermediary activities (more than 70%). Approximately every tenth entrepreneur is engaged in production activities, approximately the same number provide the population with transport, construction and household services, and are engaged in the processing of agricultural products. A small number of small enterprises are engaged in the market of information, medical and real estate services.

The main consumers of products and services of small and medium-sized businesses are the local population, as well as residents of nearby cities and towns. In addition, their products and services are used by private firms and entrepreneurs, government agencies and organizations, trade and intermediary organizations.

The important role of small and medium business is that it provides a significant number of new jobs, saturates the market with new goods and services, satisfies the numerous needs of large enterprises, and also produces special goods and services.

IN existing conditions market relations in Russia, small and medium-sized businesses are one of the most promising forms of management.

The main features of small and medium-sized businesses are: activities in the economic sphere for the purpose of making a profit, economic freedom, innovative nature, the sale of goods and services on the market, flexibility, as well as the limited scope of its scale, causes a special, personal nature of the relationship between the owner and the employee, which allows you to achieve real motivation for the work of staff and a higher degree of job satisfaction. Relatively small resource and sales markets do not allow the firm to have any significant impact on prices and overall industry sales volume. In a small business, there is a personalized nature of the relationship between the entrepreneur and customers, i.e. a small business is designed to serve a relatively narrow circle of consumers. Small businesses mainly rely on relatively small bank loans, their own funds and the "informal" capital market (money of friends, relatives, etc.). Also, in small businesses, the share of working capital is high compared to the main fund. If for large enterprises this ratio is 80:20, then for small enterprises it is 20:80.

Which organizations and individual entrepreneurs are small and medium-sized businesses

At the legislative level, the status of medium-sized economic entities is enshrined in Federal Law No. 209. The specified normative act uses the term "subjects of small and medium-sized businesses", to which, on the basis of Art. 3 of the Federal Law No. 209, include organizations and citizens registered to do business as individual entrepreneurs and having the appropriate characteristics.

In Art. 4 of the said Federal Law, the legislator clearly fixed the circle of entities equated to such enterprises:

1. Business companies (including JSCs and LLCs) and partnerships if any of the conditions provided for in clause 1.1 of Art. 4 in the Federal Law of July 24, 2007 No. 209-FZ. The conditions are:

• participation in the authorized capital of the LLC by the state, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, municipalities, religious and public organizations does not exceed 25%, the total share of foreign organizations is 49%;
• placement of JSC shares classified as high-tech sector;
• implementation of activities related to the application and implementation of various programs, inventions, industrial designs and other results of intellectual activity, the rights to which belong to budgetary scientific organizations;
• participation in programs established by the Skolkovo project.

1. Various cooperatives, including production and consumer ones.

However, in addition to meeting the above criteria, the law also requires compliance with the requirements for the number of employees and total income - we will talk about this later.

Differences between small and medium-sized businesses in terms of income and number of employees

A small business is understood by many as a small store, while a chain of stores is classified as a medium-sized business, for example. In practice, this approach is incorrect, since the legislator in the Federal Law No. 209 established clear criteria for differentiation.

So, the staff of small enterprises cannot consist of more than 100 people, and medium - 250. The income of small enterprises cannot exceed 800 million rubles. per year, and medium-sized enterprises - 2 billion rubles. in year. At the same time, the legislation also distinguishes a special type of business - micro-enterprises. These include organizations and individual entrepreneurs with up to 15 employees, if the income of such organizations or individual entrepreneurs does not exceed 120 million rubles. annually.

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Thus, the gradation of small and medium-sized businesses is clearly fixed at the legislative level. Let's give a practical example of how to determine in practice whether a company is a small business or not.

Let's say Romashka LLC employs 20 people. The net profit of this company is 1 billion 100 thousand rubles. in year. At the same time, the members of the organization are ordinary citizens who are not affiliated with the state or religious institutions. Thus, there are 3 criteria that make it possible to establish that Romashka LLC is a small and medium-sized business entity:

1. Among the founders of the company there are no persons affiliated with the state, i.e. according to this criterion (clause 1.1 of article 4 of the Federal Law No. 209), Romashka LLC is a small and medium-sized business entity.
2. The organization employs 20 people, i.e. this organization is a small business.
3. The organization has a profit of more than 1 billion rubles. in year. According to this criterion, the company can no longer be classified as a small enterprise, but belongs to medium enterprises (profit from 800 million to 2 billion rubles per year).

Thus, Romashka LLC is a medium-sized enterprise.

In conclusion, we note that the law establishes a clear distinction between small and medium-sized enterprises. A careful study of the criteria used in this case makes it possible to avoid mistakes in their differentiation.

The entire set of the commercial sector in the national economy is usually divided according to different criteria. For example, generally accepted in world practice is the gradation into the official (legal) and shadow (criminal) economy, state entrepreneurship (state corporations) and the private sector, into the raw material and manufacturing business, into material production and the service sector. One of the ways to conditionally classify entrepreneurship is its division by size - by volume of turnover, profit, by the number of employees working at the enterprise.

Of course, this breakdown of the total mass of economic entities is always approximate, but it can be very useful for regulatory measures, statistical monitoring, and legislative support.

Our brief analysis Let's start with such an economic and business category as demand.

Demand is always a benchmark for entrepreneurial activity. Where there is no demand, business becomes impossible, because people and enterprises are ready to part with money only in exchange for goods, works and services that they currently need.

Demand is a variable quantity; it appears, then disappears, then grows rapidly or exists in small volumes for a long time. Depending on the parameters of demand, markets for one or another product begin to form - raw materials, semi-finished products, fuel, clothing, food products, machine tools, equipment, entertainment. Increasing demand creates growing markets that provide profit to the companies involved in their work.

Large, mass demand is satisfied, as a rule, by large enterprises organized in the form of network structures, holding companies, public joint-stock companies and international corporations. Typically, such enterprises operate in such areas as aircraft construction, the production of cars and trucks, in the financial and banking sector, the oil and gas industry, etc. Such companies, most often, are transnational and operate simultaneously in many markets - both national and foreign.

Medium-sized enterprises with a workforce of several hundred people operate in a niche of less volume demand - for example, in the markets for goods and services of a geographically limited region - cities, regions, republics.

The small business sector is mainly trade and services. In Russia, three-quarters of small enterprises work in this field, although the state is trying to change this structure towards real production, involving small enterprises in the system of public procurement and tenders. So far it's not going very well, but big plans are being made. As for the development of small and medium-sized businesses, by 2020 it is planned to involve 40 million people in this area of ​​entrepreneurship and increase the contribution of small businesses to GDP up to 40%. Recall that at the beginning of 2018, the share of small businesses is only 21% and has remained fairly stable over the past 10-15 years. The state is trying to involve citizens in the sphere of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) for good reason:

• firstly, along with the growth in the number of SMEs, the number of manufactured products increases, i.e., the GDP and the well-being of the population grow;
• secondly, unemployment is improving, as SME organizers not only provide themselves with jobs and profits, but also create jobs for other people.

In addition to large, medium and small businesses, microbusiness is often mentioned, which includes microfinance organizations, individual entrepreneurs, farmers, and partly self-employed citizens.

If we talk about specific criteria for attributing enterprises to one or another gradation, then for the EU countries they are as follows (see Table 1).

If we talk about our country, then at present in Russia there are the following criteria for classifying business entities as micro, small and medium-sized businesses. Small business entities are understood as commercial organizations in which the average number of employees does not exceed the following limit levels:

1. The average number of employees for the previous calendar year should not exceed the following limit values ​​for the average number of employees for each category of small and medium-sized businesses:

a) from 101 to 250 people inclusive for medium-sized enterprises;

b) up to 100 people inclusive for small businesses; among small enterprises, micro-enterprises stand out - up to 15 people.

Average for reporting period the number of employees of a small enterprise is determined taking into account all its employees, including those working under civil law contracts and part-time jobs, taking into account the actual hours worked, as well as employees of representative offices, branches and other separate divisions of a legal entity.

1. Proceeds from the sale of goods (works, services) excluding value added tax or the book value of assets (residual value of fixed assets and intangible assets) for the previous calendar year should not exceed the limit values ​​established by the Government of the Russian Federation for each category of small and medium-sized businesses.

In accordance with Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of February 09, 2013 No. 101 “On the marginal values ​​of proceeds from the sale of goods (works, services) for each category of small and medium-sized businesses”, the marginal values ​​of proceeds from the sale of goods (works, services) for the previous year excluding value added tax are for

- micro-enterprises - 60 million rubles;

- small enterprises - 400 million rubles;

- medium-sized enterprises - 1000 million rubles.

See: Vershinina A.P. Small business: criteria for attribution and classification.

The main indicator that allows you to recognize the enterprise as small is the number of employees for a specific period of time. Criteria such as the size of its assets, the size of the authorized capital and the annual turnover also matter.

In Russia, a small business is a commercial organization in whose authorized capital the share of participation of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, charitable and other foundations, as well as religious and public organizations does not exceed 25 percent. In addition, the share that belongs to several legal entities or one legal face, should also not be more than 25 percent.

The number of employees for a certain period should not be higher than the standard established in a particular area. If it is construction, industry or transport, the number of employees of a small enterprise cannot exceed 100 people. If this wholesale- no more than 50 people, if consumer services or retail trade - no more than 30 people, if any other activity - no more than 50 people.

Medium enterprises

The definitions of medium and small business around the world are quite close. What generalizes them is economic entities that do not exceed a specific indicator in terms of the number of employees, the amount of gross assets and turnover. Medium enterprises are also eligible for simplified reporting. In order to understand the scope of the number of employees - after all, this criterion is most often the main one - it is worth considering a few examples.

If we take a consulting or research agency, it can be classified as a medium-sized enterprise when the number of its employees ranges from 15 to 50. If we talk about a travel company, then it can be classified as a medium-sized enterprise when the number of its employees is in the range from 25 to 75. The medium print media will be an editorial office with no more than 100 employees. As with small enterprises, medium enterprises are considered in terms of turnover and market share they occupy.

Large enterprises

A large enterprise is a company that produces a significant share of the total commodity volume of any industry. It is also characterized by the number of people employed in the work, the size of assets and sales. To classify an enterprise as a large business, it is necessary to take into account the territorial, industry and state specifics. For example, for the field of mechanical engineering, the main factors are the volume of products, the number of workers and the cost of fixed assets. If we take the agro-industrial complex, we can focus only on the number of livestock or the area of ​​land.

The modern market economy is characterized by a complex combination of industries of various scales - large, with a tendency to monopolize the economy, and medium and small enterprises that arise in industries that do not require significant capital, volumes of equipment and cooperation of many workers. The size of enterprises depends on the specifics of industries, their technological features, and the effect of economies of scale. There are industries associated with high capital intensity and significant production volumes, a large share of fixed assets among the costs of an entrepreneur. Most of the large businesses are concentrated in these industries. These include the automotive, pharmaceutical, chemical, metallurgical industries, most enterprises in the extractive industries. The industries that determine scientific and technical progress are growing at the fastest pace, since they accumulate financial, production and human resources faster than others. According to the data, on the contrary, in industries for which there are not large capital costs, where the share of personnel costs in the costs of entrepreneurs is large, small enterprises are preferable.

There are two problems. Why should one distinguish between small medium and large businesses and what are the criteria for differences.

The need to distinguish between small, medium and large businesses is due to the fact that firms differing in size play a different role in ensuring the stability and competitiveness of a market economy, have different risks and benefits, and require different approaches to their state regulation and legal support. All this forces legislators to look for qualitative and quantitative signs of defining, first of all, small and large businesses and to formulate the main approaches to their regulation.

Big business.

The term "big business" does not lend itself to a simple definition. Usually the term "big business" is applied to such giants as IBM and General Motors.

According to the expert, the largest companies in the world in 1996 included such firms as General Electric (USA), Roal Dutch (Great Britain - Denmark), Coca-Cola (USA). Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (Japan),. Exxon (USA). This list included one Russian company" - "Gazprom", which took 421st place. Among the 500 companies in the world that received the largest balance sheet profit in 1996 according to Fortune were: General Motors (USA),. Ford Motor (USA), Mitsui (Japan), Mitsubishi (Japan), Itochu (Japan) 1

The main element of the capitalist economy, the bearer of the evolutionary process in the economy, is a large, growing corporation. Large firms ensure the stability of the market economy and its main components: prices, production structure. Today, they produce most of the mass driven products. It is thanks to large enterprises that business is developing, which is based on mechanisms for reducing production costs. Large firms are carriers of scientific and technical progress, they accumulate and then implement the methods of rational entrepreneurship.

There are four main, fundamental reasons that stimulate the growth of corporations. The first is the desire to obtain economies of scale in production (technological economies). It is formed with an increase in the volume of output of this product by reducing costs per unit. This reduction is achieved by changing the nature of the resources used, which is manifested in the increased specialization of the labor used, the introduction of automatic equipment, including automatic assembly lines, etc. This contributes to the development of the concentration of production at large enterprises, the formation of multi-factory and sectoral monopolies.

The second reason is the desire for economies of scale in the field of activity (another term is savings on the diversity of production products and sales markets). This type of economy, called by the English economist E. Penrose economy on growth, is formed due to the imbalance in the growth of the company, which constantly generates new production and financial resources that are not being used at a given time. Savings from the use of these resources becomes an incentive to expand the scope of the company. It depends on the specific set of production resources available to the firm, so most firms seek to penetrate those areas in which technological and market factors are in common with the main production of the firm. Due to economies of scale in the field of activity, large multi-product, diversified and multinational companies have been formed. The tools for their formation were vertical integration (combination), diversification (including conglomeration) and internationalization with its highest form - globalization.

The third incentive for corporate growth is savings on transaction costs. These costs are associated with the implementation of market contractual relations and arise when a product or service passes from one technologically separate structure to another, that is, when a transaction takes place - a transaction, an operation, a contract, an agreement. Transaction costs are the costs of running a market system. The reduction of these losses is achieved by limiting the volume of market relations through vertical integration, diversification and internationalization. O. Williamson, relying on studies of changes in the organizational forms of corporations in the United States over 150 years, which led to the formation of a modern firm, called these costs "the main factor in the organizational evolution of corporations." The modern corporation, in his opinion, is the product of a series of organizational innovations, the purpose and result of which is savings on transaction costs. In other words, the modern corporation is a means of reducing these costs.

In addition, most modern large firms are international companies operating in global markets, which allows them to take advantage of the relatively cheap resources of the world economy by locating different stages of production in different countries.

In modern conditions, large firms actively influence not only the internal business environment, creating effective business routines, but are also able to actively modify the external environment, providing them with the most favorable conditions for functioning. With the greatest clarity, these properties of big business manifested themselves in the activities of modern transnational corporations (TNCs). The latter, thanks to the huge concentration of resources and the centralization of financial and material flows within the corporation, are able to create for themselves an effective market and social infrastructure. Coming to less developed countries, TNCs themselves create communications, form a model of behavior of workers and consumers, and actively influence domestic and international legislation.

Along with competitive advantages, large business also has weaknesses. The growth of the company is often accompanied by a decrease in the effectiveness of its management. Very often, large firms have the ability to regulate the demand and prices of their products, which reduces the incentive to increase efficiency, and makes big business inflexible. These features of large firms create opportunities for sustainable business development in medium and small sizes.

Table 2.4.

Strengths of big business	Weaknesses of big business
The ability to actively change the external business environment	Reduced incentives to increase production efficiency
Opportunities to create and accumulate achievements of scientific and technical progress and procedures and rules of rational business	Opportunity to limit access of other firms to the achievements of scientific and technical progress and rational business
Economy on production costs (technological economy, economies of scale in production, economy on transaction costs, use of global markets)	Decline in management efficiency with the growth of the firm
Sustainability	Inflexibility, lack of timely response to changes in the market situation, loss of contact with the consumer

State regulation of big business as a special type of business aimed at reducing the risks associated with its operation. Since the greatest risks for society are created by the ability of large firms to monopolize production and industries, state regulation of large business is mainly limited to problems of monopolization, aimed at limiting the merger of large firms, manipulating prices, various forms of discrimination against small firms, and not using patents.

Russian big business.

Large Russian business plays the role of the locomotive of the national economy. It is still much more efficient than the bulk of medium and small companies in terms of labor productivity, profitability, and, finally, in terms of growth rates. Due to its special position, over the years of reforms, large Russian business has concentrated the main cash flows in its hands. As a consequence, he was able to form fairly strong teams of highly paid, highly skilled managers.

According to Expert magazine, the two hundred largest Russian companies account for more than half of all industrial production in the country. The total volume of sales in 2000 of the two hundred largest enterprises reached 3.67 trillion. rub. or 130.4 billion dollars.