Entrepreneurs working '50 hour weeks'

Small business managers whose companies are growing at more than 10% a year are working more than 50-hour weeks, a new survey has found.

The Bank of Scotland surveyed more than 1,000 small and medium businesses and found that those growing at such a rate were working an average of 52.3 hours per week.

More than seven in 10 of all businesses surveyed said they will take less than 20 days' holiday this year. Some 26% said they will take less than 10 days and almost a quarter (24%) said they won't even take a full week off.

Over a quarter (26%) said they expect to work even longer hours because of the current economic climate and 71% of managers said they were stressed, up from 54% in 2007.

Alan Tyrell, employment chairman for the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said that reducing administration could reduce stress and "create a fairer work-life balance".

"Administrative burden sucks small business owners' time away and is a big problem," he told More Than Business News. "Entrepreneurs spend seven hours a week filling in forms."

"In order to keep their businesses alive during a downturn, small business owners are having to make sacrifices in their work-life balance."