Small and medium enterprises are significant for entire economy of a country regardless on the level of its development. During the last decade a significant rise in the number of small and medium enterprises has been marked as opposed to large enterprises whose number is decreasing. Due to insufficient research of its performance between 2008 – 2014 i.e. in the time of the economy crisis and their growing influence on the economy development, the research in this paper was aimed to get the insight in their performance in the time of the economy crisis and it was researched on the sample of the announced financial reports of 400 small and middle enterprises from Croatia proper during the economy crisis; and also from 2015 to 2018 in order to get the insight in their performance after the year 2014 too. The research was conducted using empirical research based on mathematical and statistical methods in the analysis of their business performance, liquidity, leverages as well as investing in new long-term assets i.e. in investments. It has been concluded that the negative effects which had impact on the economy of small and medium enterprises during the time of the economy crisis were also visible in their business activity after the economy crisis, i.e. after 2014, because some small and medium enterprises from the research pattern exhausted by long-term crisis subsequently terminated their activity. The research in this paper has showed that the observed enterprises are overindebted and non liquid, and that the consequences of the economy crisis related to liquidity and debtness are also visible in the years after the economy crisis. It has also been proved that in the time of the economy crisis investments in new long-term assets (investments) were reduced and that from 2010 to 2014 the number of employees in the observed small and medium enterprises was also being continuously reduced. This paper contributes to understanding of consequences of factors that rise in the time of the economy crisis and have influence on business activity of small and medium enterprises. Thereby, conclusions presented in this paper may be of use to the founders of economy measures in planning, decision making and implementation of specific activities with aim to mitigate consequences of possible future negative economy trends.