Small business owners putting in extra hours

19 August 2008

Owners of small firms are working on average 50-hour weeks, a new survey has found.

According to the survey, carried out by the Bank of Scotland of over a thousand entrepreneurs, the average working week for owners is now three hours longer than at the same point last year.

One consequence of the investment of even more time in their businesses is that entrepreneurs are taking just 15 days of holiday per year. A quarter reported that their annual leave was down to less than 10 days.

Another result of the longer working hours has been an increase in stress levels among owners. Seven out of ten said that they felt stressed running their businesses compared with five out of ten in the previous survey.

Some 25 per cent of respondents feared that the credit crunch would mean spending even more time at work in the months ahead.

However, the extra hours appear to be paying off. Those businesses with longer working weeks were also those enjoying higher levels of growth.

Peter Wood, head of strategy and products at Bank of Scotland, said: “Given that the stakes are so high, it comes as no surprise that Britain’s entrepreneurs are burning the midnight oil to try and make a success of their business.

“Unfortunately, however, there is a clear downside to the pursuit of success for some small business owners with increased stress levels.”