Small businesses in the UK are being held back by basic IT problems, according to a new study.
A survey conducted by PC World Business (PCWB) found that 20 per cent of small businesses spend at least three hours a week trying to deal with computer difficulties, while, even more worryingly, some seven per cent have to extend their business by a whole working day simply because of technology issues.
David Gould of PCWB said: "The results of our survey show many small businesses are confused about what should be, in reality, essentially very straightforward and unproblematic IT issues.
"So commonplace computer and IT matters are becoming a much bigger issue for business owners and managers than they should and, ultimately, distracting them from spending time on more important aspects of their business."
The findings support a recent YouGov survey, which found that IT security failures were costing two thirds of the businesses surveyed an estimated £1,259 per year, yet two fifths of respondents had not even installed a basic firewall onto PCs and over half didn't automatically patch or update all the PCs in their business.
