The focus should probably be on microbusinesses and the self-employed: this is the most unprotected area of entrepreneurial activity. They really do not have any money today. They live between cash gaps on a daily basis. And allocating even a small amount of money to implement IT tools is critical for them — Alexander Svinin, Trade Representative of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Singapore.
They are not willing to spend their own money. Why are not they ready to spend their own money? Because we still have a parallel state policy of digitalization, and they are obliged to implement those mechanisms <...> They simply do not have any money left to digitize their business from the inside, there is simply no possibility <...> The second problem is human resources, it is in general one of the most important ones for small and medium businesses now. Now there are no people who will develop these processes. They exist, but they cost a lot of money, and small businesses cannot afford them — Yulia Shishkina, Department for the Implementation of Special Projects, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.
Small business competes not so much one against another, it competes with big business and with state business. <...> Is it ready? Ready, but often times there is no resource, because there is no money. They got to pay wages, to pay rent, and it is very difficult to allocate any resources or free funds for digitalization — Maxim Parshin, Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation.
In any discussion about small businesses, it is important to clearly understand the portrait of the person we are talking about <...> most businesses are really very, very small, often consisting of one or two or three people, and you understand why they have no time to study. They are running around in circles. They are dealing with their domestic problems. They have to deal with the tax office, the landlord, the cashier who did not come to work. They have to go to the wholesale market in the evening to buy and deliver the order tomorrow <...> they have an internal protest against [digitalization], because there is no such problem — Roman Chernin, Head of Small Business Services, Yandex.
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