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Decision-makers spend over two months a year out of office

May 14 2008

A total of 60 per cent of small business senior decision makers spend a minimum of five hours a week out of the office – the equivalent of 32.5 working days a year, T-Mobile research has revealed.

When combined with the average UK holiday entitlement of 25 days, small business directors and managers are potentially out of contact for over two months each year – hampering their teams’ ability to get quick decisions from them when required.

T-Mobile surveyed over 540 small to medium-size enterprise (SME) owners across the UK. Despite the popularity of mobile communications, as many as 65 per cent of respondents said they have no mechanism in place to control the cost of international calls from employees’ mobiles – opening themselves up to excessive bills.

James Caan, CEO of private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw and 'dragon' for BBC Two's Dragons' Den says: ‘Myself and my team are now more reliant than ever on our ability to communicate with each other and our customers on the move.

'It’s not until you actually add up all of the time spent out of the office that you realise it has the potential to put a real strain on business resources.'

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