Red tape restricting small businesses

Over half of smaller business owners (55%) say their company’s growth is being held back by the amount of time they have to dedicate to business administration, according to new research¹ from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The findings show that a small business owner spends more than 33 hours every month on internal business administration – that represents almost a quarter of an individual’s working hours. In addition, the average small business sees around 70 hours of employee time tied up in business admin alone. Two-thirds of smaller businesses (67%) say the administrative burden is preventing them from focusing on their business’ primary purpose.  The study reveals that three-quarters of business owners (76%) spend more time than they would like on business compliance, tackling issues ranging from tax, employment law issues and insurance to dealing with workplace pensions, accounting tasks or health and safety issues. Dave Stallon, commercial director at FSB, commented: “The Government has pledged to remove £10 billion worth of red tape over the course of this Parliament. FSB welcomes this focus on deregulation, which should free up small business owners to spend more time doing business and creating economic growth. Initiatives like the cutting red tape programme, the ‘one-in-three-out’ approach to new regulations, and steps to boost the Regulatory Policy Committee are all moves in the right direction.”