What is admin
actually costing you?
UK small business owners lose around 8 hours a week to admin - ten working weeks a year, gone. Put your numbers in below and see what that’s worth to your trade business.
These figures are opportunity cost - the value of billable work you could be doing in place of admin. Default values reflect the UK Admin Drain Report 2026 (HeyBRB, 167 UK SMB owners surveyed March 2026).
Where the numbers come from.
The 8 hours/week figure comes from the UK Admin Drain Report 2026 (HeyBRB), which surveyed 167 UK small business owners in March 2026. We default the calculator to 48 working weeks/year - allowing for 4 weeks of holiday and bank holidays - but you can adjust if that doesn’t match your reality.
Hourly-rate suggestions: a self-employed electrician typically charges £40–50/hr, a plumber £45–60/hr, a joiner £45–55/hr, a builder £55–65/hr for labour. A small firm with overheads often needs to clear £65+/hr to be profitable. Use the figure you’d actually invoice a customer for an hour of work.
The output is unbillable opportunity cost - the value of the billable hours you didn’t do because you were on the laptop instead.
Now you know.
Want it back?
Qenn is an AI assistant for UK joiners and builders that drafts your quotes, invoices, and customer messages on WhatsApp. First month free. From £49/mo.