I am a business starter. How can the state support me?

The state is ready to help those who take their first steps in small or medium-sized businesses: provide tax incentives or guarantees for loans, teach them the basics of business, and provide advice. In a word, to make sure that the enterprise can develop. For this, there are special programs of state support for entrepreneurship.

Can the state support any business?

State support programs for small and medium-sized businesses are aimed primarily at industries that are priority for the state . They will help you with financing a business that will be useful for your region, region or even a specific city: for example, opening a pharmacy, developing crop production or tourism. But the gambling, alcohol or cigarette business will not be supported.

The programs also have requirements for the entrepreneurs themselves: you can get support only if you have not violated the terms of the programs before. For example, if you have already been given subsidies, but you spent them on other purposes, then you can get on the “black list” and you can no longer count on state support.

Another obvious requirement is to meet the definition of a small and medium business .

The Law on the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises distinguishes three categories of enterprises:

• micro business (no more than 15 employees in the company and an annual turnover of up to 120 million rubles);
• small business (no more than 100 people in the company and a turnover of up to 800 million rubles);
• medium business (no more than 250 people in the company and an annual turnover of up to 2 billion rubles).

At the same time, some measures of state support for entrepreneurs can be calculated both simultaneously for all three categories, and only for one of them, for example, for medium-sized businesses.

Some programs have additional requirements. To participate, you must be, for example:

• aspiring entrepreneur , that is, open your first business.
• young entrepreneur . Individual entrepreneurs under the age of 35 inclusive and companies in which at least half of the authorized capital is owned by entrepreneurs under the age of 35 inclusive are suitable for this criterion.

State support has several levels. Under the federal program of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, money is given to the regions on a competitive basis or subject to certain criteria. Local authorities distribute this money and funds from their own budget in areas that are a priority for their region. There are also special programs of state support for small and medium-sized businesses, for example, from the SME Corporation or from the Ministry of Agriculture.