Stable and strong small and medium-sized business is necessary for the Russian economy. The state has an increasing understanding of the importance of developing and popularizing this kind of activity - in practice it turns out that being an entrepreneur is not fashionable. At the same time, according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), 74% of Russians approbate of entrepreneurs.

The business community sees three main factors affecting the low popularity of small and medium-sized businesses:

• 1) along with knowledge, the future entrepreneur has to steel himself for the intense rhythm of work, which is difficult to be taught;
• 3) simplification of business management is required to be more maximum than the state has been doing for many years, but this process goes very slow - this includes both legal and regulatory documents, control and supervisory functions, reporting, etc.
• 3) in the media the negative side of the business is covered, although this is a difficult and respected work, as entrepreneurs create jobs, products for consumers, dedicate taxes to budgets of different levels and bring a lot of important and useful for the country's economy in general.

The reasons of such a situation are significant costs due to unreasonable tariffs for monopoly services, high interest rates on loans, and growing tax burden. All these worsen the already difficult conditions for entrepreneurs and, first of all, for small and medium-sized businesses, for which the important conditions of "conveniently, profitably and safely" remain a dream.

Nowadays, small and medium-sized business is the basis of developed countries well-being. For example, with a share of employed of 35-48%, the contribution of small and medium-sized businesses to GDP in the UK, Hungary, France is 50% or more; in South Africa, the United States, Japan, China it is 60-63% at a share of employed from 42% in the USA to 77% in Japan.

Full-design study of small and medium-sized businesses in Russia is conducted once in five years by the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat). New data were formed according to the results of 2015, but final conclusion is not ready yet. Nevertheless, following Rosstat estimates, the share of Russia's small and medium-sized business, including microenterprises and individual entrepreneurs, in GDP was 19,9% in 2015, increased from 19.4% in 2011. The share of small and microenterprises increased by 0,7 percentage points and reached 13,8%. The share of employed in small and medium-sized businesses, individual entrepreneurs and their employees included, is just a little over 28% of all jobs in the economy.

To reverse the situation with small and medium-sized businesses, the state plans to hold 2018 as the Year of Entrepreneurship. The business community hopes that the general business climate will change and conditions for entrepreneurship will be facilitated in 2018. We expect organized meetings with the first heads of large companies and departments, forums, development of opportunities for b2b platforms. The draft decree of the RF President has already been agreed with the interested departments and sent to the Ministry of Justice. In September, a list of events for the Year of Entrepreneurship should be prepared.

When setting up the business, it is very important to find a free business segment. To date, according to Rosstat, the share of small businesses is high in retail trade, agriculture, individual housing construction and education. The Information and Analytical system Globas has opportunity to assess industries in terms of financial relations. By obtained results, you can find out about profitable industries and directions, assess risks, competitive environment, find partners and customers, and choose the sector of investment.

Information agency Credinform has prepared a ranking of the largest Russian private educational organizations. The enterprises with the highest volume of annual revenue (TOP-10) have been selected for the ranking, according to the data from the Statistical Register for the latest available accounting periods (2015 and 2014). Then they have been ranked by solvency ratio (Table 1). The analysis was based on the data from the Information and Analytical system Globas.

Solvency ratio (x) is a ratio of equity to total assets, and it shows the dependence of the company on external loans. Its recommended value: >0.5. A value less than a minimum one is indicative of a dependence on external sources of funds, which may lead to a liquidity crisis, unstable financial position of an organization in case of market degradation.

A calculation of practical values of financial ratios, which might be considered as normal for a certain industry, has been developed and implemented in the Information and Analytical system Globas by the experts of Information Agency Credinform, having taken into account the current situation in the economy as a whole and in the industries. The practical value of solvency ratio for private educational organizations in 2015 amounted from 0 to 1. The whole set of financial indicators and ratios of a company is to be considered to get the fullest and fairest opinion about the company’s financial standing.

*Data for 2016 is given for reference.

The average value of 2015 solvency ratio in TOP-10 companies is higher than the recommended value and lower than the practical value. Four companies of TOP-10 have an index value that is higher than the recommended one, and four companies have index value within the recommended value (green and yellow highlight respectively in column 8 of Table 1 and Picture 1). Two companies have a negative value (red highlight in column 8 of Table 1 and Picture 1). Seven of TOP-10 companies have a decrease in revenue or net profit as compared to the prior period, or have loss in 2015 (red highlight in columns 3 and 6 of Table 1).

Picture 1. Solvency ratio and revenue of the largest Russian private educational organizations (TOP-10)

Industry average values of solvency ratio in 2011-2015 are higher in general than in 2006-2008. The value of the ratio decreased in 2011 after a substantial growth in 2010 (Picture 2).

Picture 2. Change of industry average values of solvency ratio of Russian private educational organizations in 2006-2015.

Eight of TOP-10 companies have got a high solvency index Globas, that demonstrates their ability to pay their debts in time and fully.

Education of Children of Pre-school, Elementary School and Intermediate School Ages Nasledie (Heritage), Autonomous Non-commercial Organization for General Education has got a satisfactory solvency index Globas, due to information concerning the organization being a defendant in debt collection arbitration proceedings, and loss within its balance sheet structure. Index development trends are stable.

Educational Center EF English First CIS, Private Institution, Organization of Additional Education has also got a satisfactory solvency index Globas, due to information concerning the organization being a defendant in debt collection arbitration proceedings, untimely fulfillment of its obligations, and loss within its balance sheet structure. Index development trends are stable.