For several people, starting a business is a long-held passion. Many think about it pretty all the time they work on a job and eventually, start using ways to give wings to their dreams. This is especially the case when it comes to a 9–5-type job, which typically gets more mundane with each passing day. In a recent survey, several of those who have become owners of small and medium-sized businesses have revealed the reason why they left their jobs.
To Have No One Bossing Them Around
Owners of a small business love the idea of running things on their own. In fact, they even abhor the idea of staying on in a corporate environment as an “intrapreneur”. Unlike a businessman who works from within an organization or under someone and makes a secondary earning using whatever resource is available to them, an entrepreneur is someone who has the requisite freedom and resources to make things happen on their own. In other words, a small business owner does not have anyone controlling them or their venture.
The survey authors deduce that novices into entrepreneurship are likelier to consider going back to the comfort of corporate life the more they learn the ropes; some simply place unrealistic hopes in entrepreneurship, to begin with.
Working Relatively Comfortable Hours, Especially at a Stretch
When you pay attention to the time aspect in your work life, it generally pays to be an SMB owner, because that group of people is seen to strike the best balance of all. Most of them end up working a lot fewer than the 40 hours which a typical employee slogs through each workweek, with about 55% of them even working less than 30 hours each week. Out of those, you have over half working anywhere between 5 and 20 hours weekly. This does not mean all SMB owners follow a part-time system though – over a quarter do spend 40 hours or longer each week working, with 9.4% even stretching their weekly work time past 60 hours.
The study did find discrepancies in the answers it got from new business owners, and more experienced ones. People who have owned a business for under a year were found likelier to work significantly less time than ones who are relative veterans. That could point to the general scenario of an established business requiring more input in terms of work hours.
To Have Better Work-Life Balance
The survey asked about the time small business owners get to spend with their family and friends each week. Over fifty-five percent of respondents said they got five hours or less for this, while some gave a figure between six and ten hours, and others over eleven. They also responded to questions regarding working patterns outside business hours. Over 90 percent of SMB owners admitted that they occasionally or often worked on weekends, with more than 35 percent of them spending over six hours a weekend on their work.
Even when they are not working, most entrepreneurs in the survey think about their business. Fewer than half of them take time off from that. Around 26 percent said they do not stop thinking about it at all, and around 23 percent said they stop it only after they fall asleep. This is not surprising, given that small and mid-sized business owners say their priorities are to grow their business, find time to get all goals accomplished and acquire new prospects while they are at it.
Finding the Right Balance
All of this makes it seem that SMB owners typically fail to achieve good work-life balance, although 91.6% find the matter to be important personally. This is still subjective, but most SMB owners said they would use any extra 10 hours which they got off work doing the following.
- Growing the business
- Educating themselves and building their career
- Being with friends and family
- Maintaining a healthy lifestyle
- Finding time for hobbies
- Training staff to substitute for them task-wise
