When Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, revealed that he worked 80 hours a week on his businesses (sometimes more), it was shocking enough to make headlines.
Speaking on the Recode Decode podcast, he said he had in the past done “something nutty” like 120 hours. “Nutty” it may seem but no doubt there were some entrepreneurs nodding in agreement. While Musk is an extreme example, founders and business owners do work hard. According to Gallup, 62 per cent of them work 50 hours a week. Business-support organisation The Alternative Board found that 19 per cent work for 60 hours.
The “always on” nature of entrepreneurship means that today, small businesses need to be able to work from anywhere. The days of being chained to a desk are over. A recent BT survey of small businesses found that 59 per cent of their leaders rate the mobile phone as the number one device for managing their companies. In addition to this, mobile data usage among BT Business customers grew 16 per cent year-on-year in the three years leading up to 2023.
For someone who relies on the ability to work anytime, anywhere, good connectivity is absolutely essential. “As digital entrepreneurialism goes from strength to strength, our networks are processing more data than ever,” says Chris Sims, managing director of small and medium-sized business at BT. “That’s why we’re committed to providing the very best broadband availability, speeds and mobile connectivity for all of our customers.”
Although the idea of working long hours may put some people off, starting and running a business does afford you a certain amount of flexibility. Unconstrained by traditional working hours, entrepreneurs can choose when and where they work. Indeed, in the BT survey of small businesses, 26 per cent cited breaking free of the nine-to-five as the main reason they started a business, followed by the ability to work from anywhere in the world (22 per cent).
Now business is ‘always on’, how do entrepreneurs maximise 24/7 connectivity and avoid burnout?
58 per cent of business leaders would welcome digital skills training
‘My work desk is anywhere – my office is
an airport’
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Always-on businesses need a technology partner that never sleeps. BT’s dedicated 24-hour IT support means that whatever time of day you’re working, BT has got you covered. When you partner with BT, you can be confident that you are protecting and nurturing your essential connections with customers, suppliers and remote-working teams.
Increasingly, some smaller companies are opting out of even having an office, preferring to work from coffee shops, co-working spaces, kitchens and airports. “My work desk is anywhere,” says Sappho Events founder MaryAnn Wright. “I might work out of an event space, my home – and because I spend a lot of time back in Australia, my office is often an airport.”
All of this has been made possible by the digital economy, improved technology and connectivity. Social media has played an essential role here. BT’s survey found that social media is now used to drive sales by 76 per cent of small companies and is cited as the top sales channel for a quarter of small UK businesses.
The lure of social media as a powerful platform to build a business is strong. But it does require the necessary skills to make the most of it. This is something many small business leaders have acknowledged in the BT survey, with 58 per cent saying they would benefit from digital skills training, 24 per cent saying they would like help targeting customers online, and one in five looking for support in understanding social media.
In a world where digital technology is advancing at lightning pace, business leaders and teams alike need a technology partner that is one step ahead and can take the lead in supporting the implementation of that tech – especially when new technologies can play a vital role in tackling significant business challenges.
