Gallup has started a quarterly tracking survey on microbusinesses, which they seem to define as having less than 5 employees (their methodology section is a bit hazy on this).
The most recent survey was on how much vacation time microbiz owners take. The results were quite interesting.
Gallup focused on the fact that 1 in 5 microbiz owners took no vacation last year.
They also reported that the median microbiz owner took 12 days of vacation, which according to Gallup is comparable with the vacation habits of the general population.
But much more interesting to me is their finding that almost 1 in 5 (18%) microbiz owners reported taking more than 2 months of vacation last year.
These folks pulled the average amount of vacation time taken by microbiz owners up to 29 days.
Gallup refers to these people as "vacation "outliers" who take much more vacation per year than their peers."
We don't think they're outliers. We think these microbiz owners are taking advantage of the flexibility, autonomy and control being a microbiz owner provides.
We've long studied how small business owners define success. A large chunk see their businesses as "lifestyle businesses" and focus on creating creating a flexible work environment so there is time for other pursuits.
Success for these microbiz owners is not measured by sales or profit growth. It's measured by having a job that supports their lifestyle while providing them the time to do other things.
Our research shows about 25% of all microbiz and solopreneurs fit in the lifestyle segment. The Gallup results support this.
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