Types and forms of entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurial activity in the modern Russian book market

The first theoretical attempts to understand the phenomenon of entrepreneurship date back to the 17th century. The English economist R. Cantillon is considered the first theorist to give a systematic description of this phenomenon and to introduce the term “entrepreneur” into scientific circulation.

By entrepreneur Cantillon meant a person who, for a certain price, buys means of production in order to produce a certain product and sell it in order to generate income, and who, while accepting the obligation to pay costs, does not know at what prices the sale can be carried out.

J.-B. Say did next step in Entrepreneurship Analysis. Having personal experience in business, he believed that the entrepreneur is the central figure in the process of production and distribution of goods, and entrepreneurship is the activity of organizing people within a production unit.

A. Smith considered entrepreneurial activity within the framework of market relations to be “natural,” that is, self-initiating and self-sustaining: in the presence of capital, labor and raw materials, it arises spontaneously. He identified owners (capitalists) and entrepreneurs, which corresponded to the realities of the time period under consideration: historically, the owner-manager was the predominant type of entrepreneur.

This is an activity related in one way or another to generating profit or income. And in this regard, the concept of entrepreneurship merges with the concept of business - running a business that generates income.

In any model of capitalist economy the most important problem What remains is the method and tools for connecting factors of production within individual firms, corporations and the national economy as a whole. If we take as a basis an abstract two-factor model of the economy, then even in such a simple model in general theoretical form the problem is the following:

There must be a free labor force on the market, ready to offer labor according to the prevailing conditions. given time in a given place the price, the price is wages;

Capital makes a demand in the labor market and is ready to purchase labor at the current price;

The structure of supply must correspond to the structure of demand in terms of educational, professional, qualification, age, gender and psychophysiological criteria;

Using various market economic and institutional instruments, taking into account national and international legislation and standards, capital, personified in the person of entrepreneurs, connects labor and means of production, thereby ensuring the possibility of the functioning of firms and enterprises.

Consequently, entrepreneurship is an integral natural component of any business in all possible models capitalist economy. Accordingly, the most important function of entrepreneurs is to ensure the market “meeting” of production factors: capital, labor, natural resources(including land), intellectual forces of managers at various levels of management.

However, ensuring the connection of production factors is not a technical task. This is a complex management process during which the abilities and talents of an entrepreneur are identified, the external manifestation of which is:

Profit rate;

Ability to innovate;

Efficiency of capital investments;

Stability of position in its market segment;

Business reliability and risk management;

Social satisfaction of staff.

Every day, when making managerial, financial, economic, and marketing decisions, an entrepreneur takes into account changes in the economic environment, the political situation, the social and cultural environment, technical and technological changes (or lack thereof), even the natural, climatic and landscape features of the habitat.

At first glance, the requirements for entrepreneurship are such that every businessman simply must be an encyclopedic educated person, sensitive to economic challenges and institutional requirements for business. However, in real life Entrepreneurs often get by without special knowledge.

Firstly, entrepreneurship is a talent, a gift from God. Knowledge and education only polish natural talents and sharpen the instincts and intuition of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is not so much a science as it is an art. If an entrepreneur does not have the qualities inherent in nature, no amount of education will help him.

Secondly, a good entrepreneur is a person who has the gift of forming a business team of qualified specialists. Personnel sense sometimes has a significant higher value in business than knowledge of technology, accounting and rules of conduct in relation to contractors, competitors and personnel. General principle good entrepreneurship in terms of personnel policy is unexpected for those who are far from this activity: “Select subordinates smarter than yourself!” .

However, effective business with qualified entrepreneurship always involves following certain ethical imperatives that have evolved over centuries. Universal ethical standards: honesty, responsibility and commitment, courage, trust in the counterparty, desire for innovation - standard qualities that distinguish an effective business. Businessmen have long understood that the capitalist and entrepreneurial class cannot enrich themselves through deception. Cheating only redistributes wealth, it does not create it.

The concept of entrepreneurship carries a slightly different meaning than the often used concept of business. In the public consciousness, the concept of entrepreneurship is often associated with the implementation of some large-scale and new idea, which can bring income both in the short and long term, but with a certain probability may not live up to expectations.

At the same time, a special layer of enterprising people takes on the risks associated with making non-standard decisions. If business as a whole allows for a significant share of routine activities carried out according to certain given rules, then economic innovations and pioneering strategic decisions are necessary conditions entrepreneurship, an expression of its “spirit”. Thus, just as the amount of remuneration for entrepreneurial activity and the time of its receipt significantly depend on the uncertainty factor, in public opinion entrepreneurs are often identified with “ascetics” and “pioneers”.

The boundaries between the concepts of business and entrepreneurship are quite arbitrary and blurred, especially if we're talking about about high-risk types of business.

Entrepreneurship in a broad sense is identified with any business, in a narrow sense - with high-risk types of business associated with the implementation of a significant and, as a rule, new idea.

You can select distinctive features entrepreneurial activity:

The focus of entrepreneurial activity on making a profit, which at the same time does not exclude obtaining a negative result (losses);

Type differentiation of entrepreneurial activity, which actually corresponds to the main classification of civil contractual obligations, distinguishing agreements on the transfer of property into ownership and use, agreements on the production of work and the provision of services;

An entrepreneur carries out activities at his own risk, which involves not only assessing the possible adverse consequences of his behavior in the market, but also the ability to choose options for this behavior from the standpoint of his own interests and compliance with current legislation;

Carrying out activities between or with the participation of individual entrepreneurs and legal entities, the legal status of which is determined by acting in market relations on their own behalf, which does not exclude the use of someone else's hired labor ( labor force), including in the form of an employment contract;

Carrying out business activities on an ongoing basis, systematically, which distinguishes this activity from one-time, occasional transactions;

Independent activity, requiring the adoption of proactive decisions taking into account risk, on the one hand, and excluding direct interference of government and management authorities in the activities of the entrepreneur, on the other.

For the formation of entrepreneurship, certain conditions are necessary: economic, social, legal and others.

Economic conditions are primarily:

Supply of goods and demand for them;

Types of goods that customers can purchase;

The amount of money they can spend on these purchases;

Excess or insufficiency of jobs, labor force, affecting the level of wages of workers, that is, their ability to purchase goods.

The economic situation is significantly influenced by the availability and accessibility of financial resources, the level of income on invested capital, as well as the amount of borrowed funds that entrepreneurs are willing to turn to to finance their business operations and that credit institutions are willing to provide to them.

All this is done by many different organizations that make up the market infrastructure through which entrepreneurs can establish business relationships and conduct commercial transactions. These are banks - providing financial services, suppliers - supplying raw materials, materials, semi-finished products, components, fuel, energy, machinery and equipment, tools; wholesalers and retailers - providing services to bring goods to consumers; specialized firms and institutions - providing professional legal, accounting, intermediary services, employment agencies - providing assistance in the selection of labor; educational institutions- training of workers and specialists - employees; other agencies - advertising, transport, insurance; means of communication and information transfer.

Closely related to the economic ones are the social conditions for the formation of entrepreneurship. First of all, this is the desire of buyers to purchase goods that meet certain tastes and fashion. On different stages these needs may change. Moral and religious norms, depending on the socio-cultural environment, play a significant role. These norms have a direct impact on the lifestyle of consumers and through this their demand for goods. Social conditions influence an individual’s attitude towards work, which in turn affects his attitude towards the amount of wages and working conditions offered by business.

Entrepreneurship on a small enterprise scale has a number of qualitative features. First of all, it is worth noting the unity of ownership and direct management of the enterprise.

The second characteristic is the so-called visibility of the enterprise: the limited scope of its scale causes a special, personal nature of the relationship between the owner and the employee, which makes it possible to achieve real motivation for the work of staff and a higher degree of job satisfaction.

The third is relatively small markets for resources and sales, which do not allow the company to have any serious influence on prices and the overall industry volume of sales of goods.

The fourth is the personalized nature of the relationship between the entrepreneur and clients, since, as noted, a small enterprise is designed to serve a relatively narrow circle of consumers.

Fifth, the key role of the manager in the life of the enterprise: he is fully responsible for business results, not only because of the property market, but also due to his direct involvement in the production process and everything related to its organization.

The sixth specific feature is family management of the business: it is inherited by the owner’s relatives, which dictates the latter’s direct involvement in all the activities of the enterprise.

Finally, the seventh feature is related to the nature of financing. If the “giants” obtain the necessary resources mainly through stock exchanges, then small businesses rely on relatively small bank loans, own funds and the “informal” capital market.

With Russia's transition to market relations, the share of small enterprises has sharply increased, both through the disaggregation of previous enterprises and through the creation of new companies with a small amount workers.

A large number of specialized, high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises in the market compete with more inert large businesses. This competition acts as a stimulator of its activities and prevents the formation of a monopolistic market structure.

Among the functions of a small enterprise, first of all, it is important to note economic functions, determined by his role as, firstly, an employer; secondly - a manufacturer of products and services, thirdly - a catalyst for scientific and technological progress, fourthly - a taxpayer, fifthly - an agent of market relations.

Social functions are no less important. Firstly, through small forms of entrepreneurial activity, many people reveal and realize their creative potential. Secondly, it mainly uses the labor of socially vulnerable groups of the population who cannot find employment in large enterprises. Thirdly, small enterprises are the main producer of industrial training places. Fourthly, small enterprises, primarily in the service sector, satisfy people's needs for communication.

The environmental function of small businesses, which already takes place in countries with developed market economies, is already relevant today and will continue to be updated.

Today, 9 million people are employed in small businesses. To stimulate the development of small businesses, measures have been developed, including simplification of the procedure for registering small enterprises and a special tax regime. A positive result of these measures is the growth of small enterprises to 25 thousand units per year.

The most attractive from an investment point of view are enterprises engaged in construction, real estate operations, wholesale and retail trade, and employed in manufacturing industries. The highest level of concentration of small enterprises is observed in the field of information science and computer technology, in manufacturing plastic windows. Small enterprises produce 60% of plastic windows, 70% of chilled fish and seafood and 60% of agricultural products in Russia. As for small enterprises in the housing and communal services sector, compared to large enterprises, they are much more efficient.

Thus, entrepreneurship is an independent activity carried out at one’s own risk, aimed at making a profit from the use of property, sale of goods, performance of work or provision of services by persons registered in this capacity in the manner prescribed by law.

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Types of business activities

Depending on the content of entrepreneurial activity and its connection with the main stages of the reproduction process, they distinguish different types entrepreneurship: manufacturing, commercial, financial, intermediary, insurance, consulting. All these types of entrepreneurial activities are independent and complement each other, that is, one type of activity can be contained in another.

1. Manufacturing entrepreneurship.

Industrial entrepreneurship includes activities that involve the production of products, goods, the provision of services and work, the collection, processing and provision of information, the creation of certain spiritual values, with the aim of their subsequent sale to consumers. The production function is the main one in this type of entrepreneurship.

Production and entrepreneurial activity can be traditional or innovative in nature. This means that an entrepreneur can produce and sell traditional or innovative goods and services. At the same time, any entrepreneurial activity is innovative in nature, which means that the production of traditional goods and services involves the use of new production technologies, new ways of organizing activities, and new methods of selling goods.

The starting element of industrial entrepreneurship is the choice of the main area of activity, which is determined by the personal preferences of the entrepreneur and his availability of the necessary financial resources. Choosing an area of activity involves studying the demand for the product or service being produced, its magnitude and trends, analyzing the possible price of the product, production costs and expected sales volumes.

The end result of production and entrepreneurial activity is the production of a product and its sale. Implementation is carried out personally or with the help of intermediaries. The entrepreneur must enter into a deal for the supply of the product before production begins. This is a necessary measure to reduce the risk of bankruptcy. Activities for the sale of products are the final stage of industrial entrepreneurship.

Manufacturing entrepreneurship is the defining type of entrepreneurial activity, since it is in this area that the production of consumer goods and industrial and technical products is carried out. At the same time, this type of entrepreneurship does not bring high profits as quickly as other types of entrepreneurial activity, and therefore needs effective state support. It can take the form of various entrepreneurship support programs, tax benefits, providing guarantees and subsidies.

Some entrepreneurs engaged in the production of goods or the provision of services strive to make a profit in a short time, which often leads to a decrease in the quality or falsification of goods, the use of dangerous production technologies, and pollution environment. Therefore, industrial entrepreneurship needs not only state support, but also state regulation, which is expressed in the form of licensing of activities, standardization, restrictions or a complete ban on engaging in certain types of production activities, etc.

In Russia this type entrepreneurship is the most risky, since our country does not provide conditions for its development. Also, industrial entrepreneurship is hampered by the inaccessibility of some resources, the lack of internal incentives and the low level of qualifications of novice businessmen, fear of difficulties, and the presence of more accessible and easy sources of income.

2. Commercial entrepreneurship.

The basis of this type of entrepreneurial activity is commodity-money relations and trade and exchange transactions involving the resale of goods and services. Thus, the entrepreneur acts as a merchant, a trader, selling goods to the consumer that were previously purchased from other persons, and his income is determined by the difference between the selling price and the purchase price of the goods, therefore this type of activity does not need to be provided with the production resources necessary for the production of products.

The initial element of commercial entrepreneurship is the choice of purchased goods and sales markets. It must be taken into account that the demand for the purchased product must be sufficient, and the selling price must be significantly higher than the purchase price. Commercial entrepreneurial activity is characterized by direct economic ties with specific consumers of goods and services, and therefore this type of activity is mobile and quickly adapts to changing consumer interests. Also, the advantages of commercial entrepreneurship include the speed of organizing activities and high profitability.

But at the same time, this type of activity is associated with relatively high risk, especially when organizing trade in products for cultural, household and household purposes, as well as durable goods. A commercial entrepreneur takes on risks associated with changes in demand, purchasing prices and the needs of society, as well as risks associated with high dependence on market conditions, in particular on the level of development of production in the country.

3. Financial entrepreneurship.

Financial entrepreneurship is a type of commercial entrepreneurship, since its essence consists of financial relations and trade and exchange transactions in the financial resources market, consisting of the sale and resale of money, currency, shares, bonds, vouchers and other securities.

Subjects of the financial resources market are commercial banks, stock exchanges, enterprises, organizations and even individual citizens - entrepreneurs. Their activities are regulated by both general legislative acts, and special laws and regulations Central Bank of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. In the stock market, entrepreneurial activity is carried out by professional participants, the state represented by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, municipalities and commercial organizations that issue securities.

An entrepreneur engaged in this type of business begins his activities by analyzing the financial market, searching for and attracting potential buyers, and establishing the source of goods. At the initial stage of his activity, such a source can be the entrepreneur himself, if he has previously accumulated money, currency or securities. In this type of activity, an entrepreneur can act both as a seller, selling goods for a certain fee, and as a moneylender, providing goods to the consumer at a certain percentage.

One of the types of financial entrepreneurship is the issue of securities, such as shares, bonds, credit notes, monetary obligations and bills. An entrepreneur sells and places issued securities under certain conditions as a “financial product”. This type of financial entrepreneurship is mainly carried out by banks and enterprises, but not by individual entrepreneurs.

The most common type of financial entrepreneurship is the purchase and resale of securities by an entrepreneur. Thus, an entrepreneur acts in the financial market as a dealer, and his income is determined by the spread.

The advantages of this type of entrepreneurship include high mobility of resources, flexibility, and the ability to quickly accumulate resources; the disadvantages are significant dependence on the state national economy, state financial policy, and international financial markets, as well as the need for large initial capital and low profitability.

4. Insurance business.

The insurance business consists of the fact that an entrepreneur (insurer) guarantees the insured, for a fee, compensation for possible damage to property, valuables, and health as a result of an unforeseen adverse event. The entrepreneur receives an insurance premium, which is returned only under certain circumstances - upon the occurrence of an insured event. Since the probability of an insured event occurring is low, the remaining portion of the contributions forms the income of the entrepreneur.

Directly related to the insurance business are such forms as property insurance, personal life and health insurance, as well as risk and liability insurance. Social insurance not directly related to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is associated only with voluntary forms of insurance, when services in the form of insurance protection are sold.

Insurance business in Russia is not as developed as in the West. More than 90% of all possible risks in Russia do not have insurance coverage at all. This type of entrepreneurship is characterized by a high degree of dependence on the state of the national economy, a lack of highly qualified personnel, poorly developed legislative framework in the field of insurance.

5. Intermediary entrepreneurship.

Intermediary entrepreneurship is characterized by the fact that the entrepreneur does not produce or sell goods, but acts as an intermediary between the seller and the buyer, facilitating the transaction.

Intermediaries are individuals or legal entities representing the interests of the seller or buyer, or acting on their behalf, but are not themselves such.

Intermediation increases the level of efficiency of the manufacturer, since it makes it possible to concentrate its activity only on the production itself, transferring to the intermediary the functions of selling the goods to the consumer. In addition, the inclusion of an intermediary in the relationship between producer and consumer significantly reduces the capital turnover period, and therefore increases the profitability of production.

Intermediary business activity is largely risky, therefore the intermediary organization sets the price level in the contract, taking into account the degree of risk when carrying out intermediary operations.

6. Consulting business.

Consulting business (consulting) is the provision of services to clients to provide them with the necessary information, make economically sound management decisions, advise on a variety of economic and financial matters, problems of investment, services related to attracting foreign capital, audit, investing in the most profitable securities.

Consulting services can also be provided in the form of oral one-time advice. However, most often they are provided in the form of consulting projects, which include the following main stages:

* identifying problems (diagnosis);

* development of solutions, projects;

* implementation of decisions, projects.

The final stage, depending on the scope of the project, can take from several days to several months. Sometimes contacts with clients can last for many years.

In the last decade, the consulting business in Russia has been developing rapidly, but the level of use consulting services in our country is much lower than in the West.

entrepreneurship small regulation state

Lecture outline:

1. The concept of “entrepreneurial activity”, its brief description. Differentiation of the concepts of “entrepreneurship” and “business”.

2.Functions of entrepreneurship.

3.Small and medium-sized businesses. Individuals and legal entities in entrepreneurship.

4.The concept of the business environment. External and internal business environment.

5. The concept of “market”. Types of competitive behavior. Methods of competition.

6. Organizational and legal forms of entrepreneurship in the Republic of Belarus

Literature:

1. Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship / Ed. V.M. Vlasova. – M.: Finance and Statistics, 2005.

2. Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship / Ed. Yu.M.Osipova. – M.: Humanitarian knowledge, 2002.

3. Market economy. Business Basics. T. 2, part 1 / Ed. A.D. Smirnova. – M.: Somintek, 2002.

The concept of “entrepreneurial activity”, its brief description

Entrepreneurship is possible only in market conditions, with the right to private property and economic freedom. Private enterprise is the most common form economic activity, based on private property and carried out by private individuals in their own interests in individual, collective and corporate forms.

Entrepreneurial activity is defined in the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Entrepreneurship in the Republic of Belarus” and the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus as an independent initiative activity of legal entities and individuals, focused on making a profit from the use of property, the sale of things produced, processed or acquired by these persons for sale, as well as from performing work and providing services, carried out independently on its own behalf, at its own risk and under its own property liability.

An entrepreneur must rely on his own strengths, capabilities and abilities. He should constantly and professionally search for changing market needs and continuously adapt to them. This is what determines the strategy of a small business and its success.

Entrepreneurship is characterized:

Independence in decision-making on key business issues;

Activities at your own property risk;

Limited ability to correct your own omissions and errors;

Focus on tactical current tasks and strategy of short-term actions and decisions;

The limited scope of activity by the regional sphere and the size of the market niche;

The combination of an entrepreneur, investor and manager in one person;

The predominance and reliance on personal contacts among staff, including the manager;

Focus on finding new opportunities for successful business management, quick results, freedom of maneuver, and the use of informal connections;

Finding ways to carry out activities at lower costs and prices than competitors;

Giving priority to exchange (purchases and sales) as a source of benefit and a factor in performance and opportunities further development;

Uncertainty associated with the difficulty of obtaining sufficient information about situations;

By chance, by risk.

The main goal of an entrepreneur is to satisfy his own needs through maximizing the ability to do so.

Entrepreneurial activity can be carried out in the form of individual labor activity, as well as in various organizational and legal forms of enterprises (legal entities).

Term "business" translated from English “business” means business, occupation, trade, commerce. A businessman is business man striving to make their activities profitable. The word “business” is not used in legislation, but the term “entrepreneurship” is widely used.

So the term "business" due to the lack of legal interpretation, it remains a commonly used word.

Business is a broader concept than entrepreneurial activity, since business refers to the completion of any single one-time commercial transactions, in any field of activity, aimed at generating income (profit).

The main task of entrepreneurial activity is to ensure the effective functioning of a company or the activities of an individual entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship as an independent activity presupposes freedom, firstly, in choosing the type and scope of entrepreneurial activity; secondly, in the choice of directions and methods of this activity; thirdly, in making business decisions and choosing means of their implementation; fourthly, in the formation of production programs, selection of sources of financing, suppliers of products and services, sources of labor resources; fifthly, the choice of methods and distribution channels; sixthly, in establishing systems and amounts of wages and other types of income for employees; seventh, in establishing the level of prices and tariffs for products and services; eighth, at the disposal of the profit (income) from entrepreneurial activity remaining after paying taxes and making other obligatory payments.

Business activities may include the following types activities: innovation, production and sales, trade and intermediary, consulting, patent and licensing, trade securities etc.

The scope of entrepreneurial activity includes both intra-company relations and relations with other participants in the market economy, namely, financial, legal, settlement relations, relations related to the distribution of goods, insurance, storage, rental of goods, advertising of products and services, etc.

Entrepreneurial activity carried out by individuals refers to individual (private) entrepreneurial activity.

Entrepreneurial activities carried out by legal entities are classified as collective entrepreneurship.

Legal entities in entrepreneurial activity there are all types of enterprises: business partnerships (full and limited) business companies (joint-stock OJSC, CJSC, LLC, ALC); production cooperatives and unitary enterprises.

What is better: to create a private enterprise or a cooperative, the entrepreneur will decide for himself. We will consider in more detail the differences and advantages of one legal entity from another in a special section.

Functions of entrepreneurship

Under functions of entrepreneurship refers to the implementation of production and exchange activities between the entrepreneur and other subjects (elements) of the economic environment.

Functions include:

1) Production– transformation of raw materials and other supplies into a type of product that is suitable for sale to the enterprise’s customers.

1.1. Business planning or intra-company planning.

1.2. Organization and functions of production management.

1.3. Analysis of business activities (analysis of results, production costs, operational efficiency, analysis of the product on the sales market, analysis of competitive success).

2) Logistics support.– Purchase of raw materials, machinery, equipment and other supplies necessary for business activities.

3) Personnel. Selection and hiring according to business needs.

4) Maintaining finances and accounting.

4.1. Mobilization of capital at the expense of investors and (or) creditors.

4.2. Accumulation of sales income.

4.3. Use of sales proceeds and capital within and outside the business.

5) Marketing.

5.1. Determining consumer needs and managing the exchange process between the enterprise and its counterparties.

5.2. Pricing.

5.3. Organization of sales.

6) Research and design work.

Activities to develop and implement new technological processes or new products to improve business.

7)Public relations (public relations).

Implementation and management of relations between the enterprise and public structures or the media.

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The main characteristics of entrepreneurial activity include:

Economic goal. Profit maximization.

Independence. An entrepreneur is independent in making decisions in the field of organization, management and financing of his activities.

Innovation. The main source of entrepreneurial activity is the entrepreneurial idea, which involves innovation in the field of goods and services, production and sales technology, management of the company and its capital, new schemes for the movement of financial resources. The economic essence of innovation lies in the fact that an entrepreneur develops and implements a new combination of production factors.

Initiative. An entrepreneur takes the initiative to develop and implement a business idea, selects partners, organizes resource provision, and builds a management system.

Profitability. Long-term economic goal business activity – profit maximization. Successful business activity must ensure income growth and, accordingly, an increase in profits. Not only the entrepreneur himself is interested in profit, but also those who invested in his activities in order to obtain a profit on the invested capital

Risk. The implementation of an entrepreneurial idea involves investments of funds (personal or borrowed), sometimes quite significant. At the same time, the entrepreneur operates in conditions of uncertainty, because It is impossible to predict with absolute certainty the reaction of the market and to foresee all the obstacles that may arise when implementing a business idea (including the reaction of competitors). Therefore, investing funds is necessarily associated with risk: the invested funds may not give the expected profit or may not pay off at all. An entrepreneur always takes a conscious risk: the greater the expected profit, the greater the risk.

Public interest. The financial success of an entrepreneurial idea is only possible if the proposed product or service is in market demand. Taking into account demand, identifying and creating demand, stimulating and activating it is the most important task of an entrepreneur, the solution of which allows us to move from the narrow formula “demand determines supply” to the entrepreneurial vision of the market “supply determines demand.”

Subjects of entrepreneurial activity can be both individuals and their associations (private entrepreneurship), as well as state and municipal structures (state entrepreneurship).

It is necessary to distinguish entrepreneurship from business, i.e. economic activity for the purpose of making a profit based on personal gain. The concept of entrepreneurship is narrower than the concept of business. An entrepreneur is always a businessman, but a businessman is not always an entrepreneur. When starting his own business, a businessman acts as an entrepreneur, but most often (especially in a small enterprise), having brought it to a stationary mode, he engages in routine management activities to maintain his business in this mode and, until a critical situation occurs, avoids innovation.

Businessmen who reform their business, mastering new directions and methods, become entrepreneurs again. The complexity of such entrepreneurship lies in the need to overcome business inertia, which is greater the larger the company.

After the transition to a market path of development, entrepreneurship became the leading factors in the economy of our country, performing the following functions in it:

General economic. This most important function entrepreneurship has “universal, integral and system-forming significance in building an effective structure of the Russian market economy.”

Resource. Entrepreneurial activity ensures the use of resources, primarily labor. Ensuring employment, and therefore the solvency of the population, largely depends on entrepreneurial activity.

Organizational. An entrepreneur initiates the process of creating or reforming a company, personally exercises strategic management of a business or part of it, organizes the process of production of goods, provision of services, commercial activities and financing.

Innovative. It is known that the main factor economic growth is innovation (innovation). Entrepreneurial activity begins with the promotion of innovation in the form of an entrepreneurial idea, which changes the microeconomic situation and, if successfully implemented, causes an influx of capital.

Entrepreneurship is the most important component of the economy developed countries, its basis. Under the dominance of market relations, entrepreneurs become the main subjects of economic activity - the production and sale of goods and services.

The significance of the general economic functions of entrepreneurship for the Russian economy is confirmed by statistics. In 2005, there were 4.8 million enterprises (legal entities) in Russia. Of these, almost 3.8 million enterprises (or 80.5%) were privately owned (owned by citizens and legal entities). Moreover, over the period since 1996, the number of all enterprises has increased by 112%, the number of private ones - by 169%. In 2005, 53.4% of all workers, or 35.7 million people, were employed in the private sector of the economy. Over ten years, the number of people employed in the economy fell by 0.8%, but the number of people employed in the private sector increased by 154%. Private entrepreneurship has become one of the main sources of economic growth in Russia.

In the Russian Federation, the right to entrepreneurial activity is guaranteed by the Constitution; the Constitution also guarantees the right to private property and equality of all forms of property (private and state). Private property manifests itself in sole (individual) and collective property. State property exists in the form of federal, federal and municipal. The presence of property allows it to be used for business purposes to make a profit, i.e. capitalize property. Property capitalization is the property and monetary basis of entrepreneurship. In accordance with the forms of ownership according to the Civil Code, entrepreneurial activities can be carried out by private individuals (individual entrepreneurship), associations of individuals (collective entrepreneurship) and state enterprises(at the federal level, the level of federal subjects and the municipal level).

The presence of private property determines the formation of a market, because Thanks to the isolation of individual commodity producers, the possibility of division of labor arises and production, of necessity, takes on a commodity character. The entire experience of world history has shown that the greatest economic success and the most high level Life has been achieved by countries whose economies were and are based on private property and freedom of enterprise. Attempts to limit entrepreneurship or even completely eliminate it, placing the responsibility for ensuring economic growth on the state bureaucracy, ultimately led to stagnation, backwardness and impoverishment of the population. The sad experience of Russia's recent history has clearly demonstrated the complete ineffectiveness of all-encompassing state ownership.