Small business representatives named their main fears

Most of all, the owners of small and micro businesses (SMBs) are afraid of loss or damage to premises (36.4%), equipment (35.5%) and transport (26%), follows from a joint study of Sberstrakhovanie and Delovaya Sreda companies. Fear among the representatives of the sector is also caused by staff turnover or shortages (27.2%), loss or damage to inventory (18%), as well as interruptions in work (13.7%). About 3,000 entrepreneurs from 38 Russian cities took part in the survey.

The study also touched upon the prospects for the development of the sector. Almost a third (27.9%) of businesses said they plan to expand their operations. Most of them (40%) expect to do this already in 2023, a quarter (26%) plan to grow in the next 2-3 years, the rest have not yet decided on specific expansion dates, but are set to grow.

According to the Business Environment business registration and remote account opening service, retail trade remains the most popular area for Russian entrepreneurs in 2023. It accounted for about 30% of registrations in January-May. In second place are passenger and cargo transportation, in third – wholesale trade.

Earlier, the recruiting service HeadHunter, following a thematic survey, reported that 53% of companies announced plans to expand or change the scope of their activities. The trend of expansion of small and medium-sized businesses is confirmed by the RSBI index – a joint study of PSB and the Opora Rossii business association. According to it, only 4% of the surveyed companies expect a reduction in investment, and this is the minimum level for the entire period of observation since 2014. 28% of respondents intend to expand their activities.

After the imposition of sanctions, small businesses have new opportunities for cooperation with large companies that have had to change supply chains, said Alexander Kalinin, chairman of Opora Rossii. This has been an incentive for organizations to invest in expanding the range and production for the sake of cooperation, he noted. In addition, there are sectors in which there is a boom in the development of small businesses – domestic tourism, logistics, re-export services with parallel imports. The current situation is favorable for their further development, Kalinin believes. According to him, small business today hopes for the continuation and even expansion of parallel imports, government investment and an increase in lending opportunities for the SME sector.

“Our entrepreneurs are very actively filling those niches that are being vacated by foreign companies. And this is a chance to compete not only for large enterprises, but also for small and medium ones. If earlier it was impossible to approach the state order, despite the 20% quota for small businesses, now the space of opportunities has significantly expanded,” said Anton Danilov-Danilyan, co-chairman of Business Russia. The expert predicts that in the absence of serious triggers for the economic downturn, small businesses will continue to actively expand. It is the deterioration of the overall financial situation in the country that he sees as the main risk for the sector.

Every fifth respondent (18.4%) reported that his business had experienced an insured event, and every eighth (12.7%) said that as a result of the incident, the business had to be suspended. At the same time, 60% of IMB representatives insure their business, follows from the survey. Most often they choose OSAGO (20.6%), voluntary medical insurance of personnel (20.5%), insurance of property and goods (20.3%), voluntary insurance of personnel against accidents (14.6%) and hull insurance (11 ,8%).

“An important element of small business support is insurance protection. In our country, the culture of insurance is still more developed in large companies, while small and especially micro businesses are insured less often,” said Ruslan Vesterovsky, Senior Vice President, Head of Wealth Management at Sberbank.