Open data · CC BY 4.0
How many hours small businesses lose every week
Drawn from assessments of owner-run businesses of ten to fifty people. Free to cite, chart, or quote with a link back.
By trade
| Trade | Median hrs/wk | Largest single sink |
|---|---|---|
| marketing agencies | 11 | Monthly client reporting (4–8 hrs) |
| dental practices | 13 | Recall and reactivation calls (5–8 hrs) |
| e-commerce brands | 12 | Customer support tickets (6–10 hrs) |
By task
| Task | Trade | Hrs/wk |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly client reporting | marketing agencies | 4–8 |
| Writing briefs and scopes | marketing agencies | 3–5 |
| Chasing approvals and revisions | marketing agencies | 2–4 |
| Internal status meetings | marketing agencies | 2–3 |
| Recall and reactivation calls | dental practices | 5–8 |
| Insurance admin and claims | dental practices | 4–6 |
| Appointment reminders and rescheduling | dental practices | 3–5 |
| Clinical note write-up | dental practices | 3–4 |
| Customer support tickets | e-commerce brands | 6–10 |
| Writing product copy and listings | e-commerce brands | 4–6 |
| Processing returns and exchanges | e-commerce brands | 3–5 |
| Supplier and inventory email | e-commerce brands | 2–4 |
Method
Figures come from structured intake answers given by business owners, not from time-tracking software. They describe where owners believe time goes, which is the number that drives what they change.
Treat them as ranges, not measurements.
Using this data
Published under CC BY 4.0. Quote it, chart it, put it in a deck.
Attribution as shavehours.com/benchmarks is all we ask.
Your business
These are medians. Yours will differ.
An assessment gives your own numbers, against your own stack, with the tools that fix them named and priced.