Applicability of risk assesment methods for small business enterprises in Russia

At the moment, the economic situation in Russia is extremely unstable, and it’s characterized by a high degree of uncertainty. In particular, the uncertainty shows itself in strengthening of weakening of the ruble against the dollar and the euro, increase in loan rates and rent prices, decrease in consumer demand, changes of accounting, tax and civil legislation, repeal of benefits for a number of business entities, etc. All of this leads to an increase in risks for businesses of all sectors without exception, and as a result it increases the role of a risk management process in general and risk assessment in particular. Especially it applies to small business enterprises, since a risk level inherent in implementation of economic activity is initially higher than in medium and large organizations. In addition, the position of such enterprises is escalated due to the lack of competent specialists or the lack of their motivation, insufficient level of material and financial resources for formation of reserves in order to minimize possible consequences of a risk action or combating with its implementation. In this regard, the timely development of a set of risk assessment methods is particularly important for small businesses. The article is focused on the problem of choosing risk assessment methods for small business organizations. The author analyzes the risk assessment methods, described in standards “Information by the Ministry of Finance No. ПЗ-11/2013” and COSO, in order to select those, which can be applied to small enterprises based on characteristics of their business models.