BRITISH entrepreneurs are clocking up 50-hour working weeks and many are unlikely to take a full week’s holiday this year, a new survey reveals.

Small business managers are on average working a 50-hour week, almost three hours more than than this time last year, according to a survey by the Bank of Scotland Business Banking.

The research into the work-life balance culture of Britain’s small business managers shows a quarter of entrepreneurs believe they will have to work longer hours for the remainder of the year as a result of the economic climate.

These time pressures mean a quarter of small business owners are unlikely to take a full week’s holiday this year.

A quarter take less than 10 days holiday a year, while 72 per cent will take less than 20 days, the statutory minimum for UK employees.

“Owning and running a small business is an extremely time-consuming but ultimately rewarding experience,” says Peter Wood, head of strategy and products at Bank of Scotland Business Banking.

“Given that the stakes are so high, it comes as no surprise that Britain’s entrepreneurs are burning the midnight oil to try to make a success of their business.

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

Seven out of 10 owners claim to feel stressed by running and managing their business, compared to just over half last year.

“We know, from our own experience of working with small business, that one of the biggest problems they face is the amount of time spent dealing with administration and regulation,” Wood says.

Small businesses in Scotland work the longest week – clocking up an average of 52 hours – while entrepreneurs in the South East work an average of 47 hours a week.

“These days, most organisations are increasingly not very good at saying ‘no’ at management level and rules are becoming far more ambiguous in terms of who is responsible for what,” explains Gordon Tinline, chartered occupational psychologist and director at business psychology specialists Robertson Cooper.

“Quite often, people work across multiple projects and assignments and the strategy from the top is often not as clear as it should be, so I think middle to senior managers can find themselves taking on more and more without feeling in control of it.

“Another obvious reason for feeling overloaded is the fact managers can be working anywhere and at any time – there’s no escape from the BlackBerry or the mobile phone and if you are working abroad, there are all kinds of problems with coping with the time differences as well.

“Essentially, managers end up feeling swamped and overloaded and, although the money aspect is great, it doesn’t compensate for that and their work-life balance can really suffer,” he adds.

Tinline says it can be very difficult for managers to switch off and find time and space for themselves.

“Managers have got to start to exercise their own control, because work is endless and so they can’t really attempt to work through their in-trays and go home happily – it doesn't really work like that any more,” he advises.

“Work comes in from all sources very quickly and communication is instant, so you have to make your own rules about how far you are going to push yourself and allow yourself to get overloaded or you will be in trouble.

“Many senior managers don’t do this until they reach crisis point or ‘burn-out’ and their health or relationships suffer as a result,” he adds.

“I think the people are slowly realising that there is more to life than work alone.”