Today, the sphere of small and medium-sized businesses is an area with increased attention, because the development of small businesses for certain regions can become a strong driver for the development of the regional economy. But at the same time, today, a situation has formed in the economy when companies from the small business sphere are being closed with high regularity; from 2016 to 2020, more than five hundred thousand companies were closed annually. From a certain perspective, one could say that this process is the result of the crises of 2014 and 2020. But there are a number of examples showing that the crises have only intensified negative phenomena, but were not the reason for their appearance. This conclusion leads to the need to study the fundamental reasons for this negative dynamics in the economy. This material is devoted to a detailed study of practical examples of incorrect costing and pricing in small business today, as well as the reasons for these examples. This issue is designated as one of the most significant (basic) for business, the weight of this issue is comparable to such processes as determining the target consumer, analyzing the market and competitors, tools for implementing an advertising strategy. A fundamental study of this issue can be useful from the point of view of improving mechanisms and tools for supporting and developing small businesses.