The more hours business owners invest in their firm the greater chance they stand of growing their business, a new study finds.
Research by Bank of Scotland Business Banking found that over half of small company owner-managers achieving over 10% growth in the last three years were run by someone who worked over nine hours a day.
Conversely, owner-managers working less than nine hours constituted 71% of those businesses achieving no growth.
The figures herald, in particular, the stresses faced by many start-up and young entrepreneurs who sacrifice quality time with their family, working while they are ill and over weekends and holidays in order to cultivate their fledgling businesses.
"The UK is Europe's most entrepreneurial major economy, with a business start-up rate that is higher than Germany, Italy or France," said Kevin Gillett, head of Bank of Scotland Business Banking. "The proportion of people looking to start their own ventures has also increased significantly in recent years.
"Almost 80% will fail in their first five years, and only one in 25 survive beyond 10 years, so it's no surprise that more than half of the business owners questioned in our survey admitted to suffering from serious work-related stress at some point during their life," he added.
"Businesses experiencing the highest levels of growth also have a higher percentage of owner-managers working longer hours. It seems there's no rest for the productive."
The study found, however, that women are better at managing a balance between their work and personal life.
Some 40% of women surveyed said they never put their business before the needs of their family, and only 20% said they work more than nine hours a day, compared to nearly half of all men.
