Which European country's small business owners are the hardest working?
UK entrepreneurs self-care the most, while the majority of Italians and French rarely skip their lunch break.
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Small business owners are the backbone of the European economy.
Micro and small enterprises (fewer than 50 employees) make up 99% of the EU total, according to Eurostat.
Small entrepreneurs are also hardest working in business. They tend to work at least 41 hours a week, compared to the EU employee average of 36 hours.
A new study by fintech company SumUp on nearly 4,000 small entrepreneurs in Ireland, Italy, the UK, Germany and France reveals huge differences in how they go about their working day.
Brits say 'no thanks' to lunch-breaks, Italians take over an hour
In the UK, 43% of small business entrepreneurs say they rarely take lunch breaks, according to the report.
That is in huge contrast compared to Italy and France, where only 11% and 17% skip lunch, respectively.
Italy had the highest rate (33%) of respondents who admit taking lunch breaks longer than one hour.
France trails at (15%), followed Germany (12%) and Ireland (6%), while the UK was bottom (5%).
Germans and French prioritise self-care, Brits like family-time
Although 38% of Brits like to spend time with their family when they're free, they're also those giving the least importance to their self-care (34%) among the countries surveyed.
Self-care is at 38% in Ireland, over 41% in France, 47% in Germany and over 52% in Italy.
"Small businesses in the UK have been hit by wave upon wave of misfortune, from COVID-19 to the cost of living crisis and a rise in national insurance in the budget. Owners are doing everything they can to stay afloat," says SumUp's Product Marketing lead Corin Camenisch.
"But without looking after yourself, you can quickly burn out or suffer physical symptoms. The glorification of constant work can lead to misconceptions about what it means to be successful."
Which entrepreneurs have the longest working week?
Eurostat data gives us a clearer picture of how many hours self-employed people actually work.
Looking at entrepreneurs across all company sizes - 99% of which are small businesses -the hardest workers are the Belgians, clocking in an average of 48.9 hours per week.
They are followed by Cypriots (47.5) and Greeks (47.3).
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At the other end of the scale, Baltic countries put in the least hours, with Latvia (37.8), Estonia (38.8), and Lithuania (39.3) at the bottom of the list.
The UK is not included in Eurostat data, however, the SumUp research says 41% of British small-entrepreneurs work over 40 hours a week, with 10% putting in over 60 hours.
Irish and Italian women more likely to sacrifice holidays than men
There is more consistency across the board in the amount of time off taken during the year.
Brits are the most likely to take less than one week's holidays. However, this rate is only 13.8%, followed by France at 12%, Italy at 11.9%, Germany (11.1%) and Ireland (8.1%).
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There is a gender gap in certain countries in this regard, however.
Italian and Irish female entrepreneurs are more likely to sacrifice their holidays for work than their male counterparts: +9.1% in Italy and +6.3% in Ireland.
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