Small business owners survive on 15 days holiday a year

More than a third of UK small business owners get by on three weeks holiday or less a year, new research suggests.

More than one in five SME owners would consider cutting their holiday short over concerns they were not meeting the needs of their clients. Picture: Contributed

A report by business lender Iwoca found 37 per cent of owners at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) took no more than 15 days of annual leave in the last calendar year, significantly below the statutory 28-day entitlement for employees.

More than one in five (21 per cent) respondents in the 1,000-strong survey would consider cutting their holiday short amid fears they were “not meeting the needs of their clients”, while concerns about missing business opportunities were also common. However, the report found that 22 per cent of SME owners took at least 36 days off last year.

Seema Desai, Iwoca’s chief operations officer, said: “Spending money on a holiday could make you – and your business – richer in the long term. Small business owners don’t have a set amount of days or a ‘use it or lose it’ annual leave policy, so they need to decide when to go away and stick to it.”