The relevance of this research is due to the increased role of entrepreneurship against the backdrop of intensifying crisis phenomena. This is especially important for Russia in the context of financial sanctions of unfriendly countries. It is necessary to unlock the economic potential of the regions, strengthen internal competition and mutual assistance, and stimulate import substitution. It is possible to solve this task by creating powerful and self-sufficient sectors of small and medium-sized businesses in the regions. The research aims to consider the problems of small and medium-sized entrepreneurship and the modern directions of its support in Russia, which will make it possible to identify several socioeconomic factors and analyze their impact on business. The research used various methods, including analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, the search for cause-effect relationships, the relationship of historical and logical processes, the method of thematic multiple comparisons, methods of collecting and analyzing statistical information, and the method of calculating the linear correlation coefficient. As a result, the research revealed the strength and nature of the impact on small and medium-sized businesses of such factors as the dynamics and quality of labor resources, indicators of housing and social construction, the volume of investments in fixed assets and R&D, the ratio of income and savings of the population, and the growth of retail trade and debt relations in the market. This allowed the authors to better understand the processes of business functioning in the regions of Russia and suggest directions for stifling state support for business.