USING OF STRUCTURAL FUNDS BY SMES AND START-UPS IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

Business environment is connected with Slovak economy and according to the last decade of years are Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) the biggest GDP creators. SMEs cover 99.5% of the enterprise population so they are considered as the indicator of economy. Start-ups belong to SMEs, but there are specific due to their scalable and repeatable business model. There is increasing rate of SMEs and Start-ups in recent years. It is clear that Slovak republic has a high innovation potential and a very significant development begins in the area of Start-ups. Financial resources including funding are usually inevitable for the development of Slovak SMEs. There are two main types of capital sources in companies: external and internal resources. External capital can be gain from multiple sources and there is an opportunity to use funding by government funds and European funds. A noticeable problem is the lack of knowledge about funding options for business projects by government and European Union. In the following paper, we will define the sources of financial support of SMEs in Slovak republic focusing on structural funds. We will analyse the knowledge of entrepreneurs about mentioned funds. We will summarise the knowledge of entrepreneurs about their options receive grants. The goal of publication is to identify percentage of using state and regional funds by Slovak SMEs and particular problems of this issue. The theoretical part of publication will work with a literature review. The empirical part of the article will be based on the real case study.