The majority of small business owners (63pc) in the UK will continue working between Christmas and the new year, with 39pc on the job even though their businesses will be officially closed during that time, new research from business software and service provider Sage UK suggests.
The Sage Omnibus survey of more than 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from its 800,000-strong UK customer base also found that only 12pc of small business owners resent having to work over the holidays.
More specifically, 5pc intend to work on Christmas Day, 7pc will be labouring away on St Stephen’s Day, and 10pc of small business owners will spend the first day of 2010 working.
According to Sage’s research, while 10pc of entrepreneurs will be using the holiday period to plan for 2012, the majority will use the time to get on top of key business processes, such as finances and payroll (62pc).
Even though many employees will be taking a breather over Christmas and new year, a lot of small business owners cite benefits to working over the holidays. The main perk is being able to focus on tasks without distractions, and as a result 84pc of respondents said they are productive or very productive at this time of year.
The downside of working over the holidays, however, are banks and key suppliers being closed and IT support being unavailable to the small business owners, the survey revealed.
