Four days a month spent battling red tape

Over half of small business owners claim their company’s growth is stunted by the time they have to dedicate to business administration, according to new research¹ from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

Research also showed that owners spend over 33 hours each month on internal business administration. In addition, the average small business sees around 70 hours of employee time tied up in business admin alone.

Two-thirds of smaller businesses (67 percent) say the administrative burden is preventing them from focusing on their business’ primary purpose.

The study reveals that three-quarters of business owners (76 percent) spend more time than they would like on business compliance, tackling issues ranging from tax, employment law issues and insurance to dealing with workplace pensions, accounting tasks or health and safety issues.

Dave Stallon, commercial director at FSB said: “The Government has pledged to remove £10 billion worth of red tape over the course of this Parliament. FSB welcomes this focus on deregulation, which should free up small business owners to spend more time doing business and creating economic growth.

“Initiatives like The Red Tape challenge, the ‘one-in-two-out’ approach to new regulations, and steps to boost the regulatory Policy Committee are all moves in the right direction.”

1) FSB surveyed 1,685 smaller business owners online between 17^th-28^th February 2016. 69 percent had 0-4 employees; 16 percent had 5-9 employees; 9 percent had 10-19 employees; and 5 percent had 20 or more employees.