Why Small Business Owners Work Extra Hard and Longer Hours?

Small business owners are highly overloaded with time consuming paper works and to conform to the ever changing compliances, rather than spending their valuable time on strategic thinking and business development.

Research by Barclays; found that the average entrepreneur spent 16 hours a week on administration, four hours dealing with regulatory requirements and just eight hours on actually developing their business. One in ten of those questioned spent no time at all building up their business.

The most time-consuming tasks for responders included IT management, payroll, invoicing for accounts, health and safety and complying with legal requirements.

Barclays found that small business owners spend a far larger proportion of their time on ‘core activities’ and less time on development than larger firms.

According to the study, small business owners worked, on average, 63 hours a week, nearly 60 per cent longer than the average full-time employee, who spends just 37.5 hours a week in the workplace.

Entrepreneurs in the South West worked the longest week in the UK, with the average small firm owner spending 70 hours a week on his or her business.

Other findings in the survey included:

• The main two reasons given by entrepreneurs on why working hours cannot be reduced were that they wanted to remain in control and that no-one else would be able to undertake their tasks.
• If entrepreneurs had an extra hour each day, two thirds of them would spend it on leisure.

Grant Phillips, of Barclays, said that small business owners have to work extremely hard to succeed.

They often feel they are the only person who can take on a task, have difficulty developing decisions and get bogged down in minutiae.

Making the right selection of a professional firm of accountants and tax advisers will take away the complication of the red tapes and deal with piles of paper works that consumes a valuable time of small business owners. Enterprisers should need to make an informed and timely decision based on the facts and figures; therefore it is vital to make a right choice of support service provider which elevates the load and make a difference to the quality of life and to the growth of their business. Firms such as “Account Me In “are providing all-in- one accountancy service and give a complete freedom from those tasks identified by Barclay’s research. We will greatly reduce your burden and free up your time for activities you love doing and developing your business