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Over half of all bosses in small leisure and hospitality companies have been forced to miss important personal engagements, according to new research.
The YouGov survey, commissioned by First Data Merchant Solutions, found that that 63% of decision makers within small leisure and hospitality companies are so busy, they have been forced to miss significant personal occasions, including weddings, anniversaries and engagements with their children.
The study, which questioned 1,000 key employees across small businesses within a full range of sectors, including hospitality, leisure and retail found that decision makers in the hospitality and leisure sectors are more likely to miss personal occasions due to workload, than any other industry.
One in five has even had to sacrifice their own birthday celebration, in order to run their business.
This is despite 40% starting up their own business in this sector because they ‘wanted more flexible working hours’.
The report found that in many cases, expectations of small business life were not met, with 45% admitting running a business is more challenging than expected, while 70% claimed it was a constant challenge.
Tasks within the industry, which are often found more challenging than anticipated include managing staff and keeping track of their work (39%), promoting the business (29%) and accounting and tracking finances (26%).
Raj Sond, general manager at First Data Merchant Solutions, said: “Running a small business in the leisure and hospitality industry requires hard work, but behind the scenes admin tasks shouldn’t be eating into personal time. These time-consuming tasks can come as a shock to people, as they launch businesses in this sector and can overshadow the benefits of running a small company.
“Simplifying these processes, so that tasks can be more easily shared between employees, can free up time to help small businesses in the hospitality and leisure sector to allow them to enjoy some personal leisure time too.”
