Friday, February 05, 2010

Small Business Owners face less Stress- Really?

So this was in the Toronto Star today:

A recent survey conducted by Desjardins Financial Security reveals that while self-employed Canadians tend to have more debt than the average Canadian employee, this is having limited effect on their stress and work levels during this recession. A survey of small business owners found:

5 per cent of Canadians have more than $50,000 of debt compared with 21 per cent of self-employed Canadians who have more than $50,000 of debt.
54 per cent of self-employed said they didn't have enough disability coverage.
80 per cent said they were not familiar with business insurance.
56 per cent of self-employed Canadians feel their stress level is higher now compared to a year ago.
44 per cent of self-employed Canadians feel it is harder to be competitive now compared to the start of the recession.
72% of self-employed Canadians have not felt the need to work significantly more hours since the start of the recession.

I agree with the debt part. Fortunately I don't have anywhere near that amount- cross your fingers!
I completely agree with the disability coverage, and in fact until last week I had never even considered disability ( One too many trips over the marrow bones and slamming my finger in my door- convinced me). Now I'll be signing up for it!
I am familiar with business insurance, and as soon as I step out of the freelance business I will be looking at that for sure!
So where does the less stress come in? How is there less stress if 56% feel more stress now than a year ago?
I think it's always hard to be competitive when you run your own business!
And I completely disagree with the 72% have not felt the need to put in more hours. HELLO? Did they ask me what I thought? No!
As a small business I am averaging about 12-13 hours a day. That is NOT less hours.
So why do I have my own business? Because I get to do what I love, and duck out for lunch whenever I like!!


 
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1 comment:

Rebecca A Emrich said...

the lunch part is true, but I agree with your point of more work not less. Still I wouldn't trade this life for anything.