At the moment, the issues of competitiveness of small enterprises are given insufficient attention, and the assessment of their competitiveness is considered at best, along with large and medium-sized enterprises. The ap-proach based on the theory of comparative advantage, which assumes that the allocation of production between countries should follow the law of com-parative costs, it is difficult to use, because the existing advantages charac-terize the competitiveness not only of a particular enterprise, but also the en-tire industry. The methods used do not contain simple and unambiguous cri-teria that would allow assessing the competitiveness of the enterprise. This provision applies particularly to diversified enterprises. To address this shortcoming, indirect generalizing indicators or the system of indicators are used. The approaches based on the theory of equilibrium and production factors, though can be used in order to evaluate the competitiveness of en-terprises, are still significant limitations in its application, including great amount of information because of the need in it. Thus, the creation of the methodology for assessing the competitiveness of small enterprises is very relevant and requires further research, both in theoretical and practical as-pects. It is necessary to formulate basic provisions and requirements for as-sessing the competitiveness of small enterprises, which will reflect the pur-pose of the assessment.