Can the state support any business?

State support programs for small and medium-sized businesses are aimed primarily at industries that are a 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, 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-sized businesses (no more than 250 people in the company and an annual turnover of up to 2 billion rubles), while light industry and catering enterprises may have more employees.

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.