Small firms lose four days a month to administration

Over half of smaller business owners (55%) say their company growth is being held back by the amount of time they have to dedicate to administration, new research has found.

The survey from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) – answered by 1,685 business owners – found the average small business owner spend more than 33 hours every month on internal business administration, almost a quarter of an individual’s working hours.

In addition, the research discovered the average small business sees around 70 hours of employee time tied up in business admin alone.

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

Meanwhile, three-quarters of business owners (76%) spend more time than they would like on business compliance, including issues such as tax, employment law, insurance, workplace pensions, accounting tasks and health and safety.

Dave Stallon, commercial director at FSB, said: “The government has pledged to remove £10bn 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 Cutting Red Tape programme, the ‘one-in-three-out’ approach to new regulations, and steps to boost the Regulatory Policy Committee are all moves in the right direction.”

Small businesses will soon have to keep digital records and report, on a mandatory basis, electronically every quarter. The move is part of the government’s plans around tax reporting, announced in the 2015 Autumn Statement.