Stop doing everything: How small business leaders can reclaim 77 workdays each year
Leaders in small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) operate under constant pressure to deliver results with limited time, budgets, and staff. In a volatile market, they're expected to balance immediate execution with long-term strategy, often without the layers of support available to larger organizations. As a result, many leaders step in wherever the business needs momentum, stretching their time across roles that extend far beyond leadership.
In a November 2025 survey of 2,272 U.S. small business leaders conducted by Upwork, an online marketplace for hiring skilled freelancers, more than 7 in 10 said they manage responsibilities outside their job description every week. On average, they report spending about 30% of their working time on tasks outside their core area of expertise. That's roughly 77 workdays every year spent doing work that could be delegated.
The consequences impact more than their calendar. Leaders said that tasks outside their core responsibilities divert time from business strategy, and more than half believe they could achieve better results if they delegated more tasks. At the same time, being stretched thin leads to burnout for 73% of leaders, missed growth opportunities for 43%, and a sense of not being successful in their role for another 43%.
Yet there is a path forward. One solution is to engage skilled independent talent to take on work that can easily be delegated, such as writing, design, and IT. When the leaders in Upwork’s survey imagined reclaiming even part of their lost time, they said they would focus on long-term strategy, their own upskilling, and taking restorative breaks.
How much time do leaders lose to non-core work?
Non-core responsibilities now make up a substantial part of many leaders’ workweeks. These distractions take them away from the work they're best positioned to do and affect their ability to have meaningful impacts on business outcomes.
On average, SMB leaders reported spending 30% of their working time on tasks that fall outside their core area of expertise or job role, which translates to about 77 working days each year. This pattern holds across groups, including:
- Gender. Men in leadership roles estimated that non-core tasks claim about 31% of their time, while women in leadership roles put that figure at 29%, suggesting that both groups feel similarly stretched.
- Generation. Gen Z leaders reported that 33% of their time goes to non-core work, compared with 31% for millennials and 28% for Gen X. This suggests younger people in leadership roles are more likely to be working outside their responsibilities.
- Remote vs. on-site. Leaders in hybrid roles said they spend 32% of their time on non-core tasks, slightly more than remote (29%) and on-site leaders (29%).
- Seniority. Executives — including CEOs, CFOs, owners, partners, presidents, and vice presidents — estimated that 32% of their time is spent on non-core work. Directors reported 31% and managers 29%.
- Industry. Leaders in technology and marketing industries said 36% of their time is spent on non-core tasks, more than leaders in any other industry, while leaders in finance reported 34% — several percentage points higher than the overall average.
Nearly one in five leaders (17%) are well beyond the average, spending more than half of their working time (130 or more workdays a year) on non-core tasks. Gen Z leaders are especially likely to fall into this group, with 21% stating that a majority of their time is spent on work outside their core expertise.
Leaders in technology, finance, and marketing are also among the most overextended, with 24% in these industries devoting over half their work time to non-core responsibilities.
The number of workdays small business leaders spend each year on tasks outside their core role varies widely by state. The five states averaging the most overextended leaders are:
- Delaware: 108 days
- Arkansas: 94 days
- Louisiana: 93 days
- West Virginia: 93 days
- Rhode Island: 92 days
In contrast, leaders in the following states spend the fewest workdays — still totalling over two months on average — each year on tasks outside their core role:
- New Jersey: 62 days
- Montana: 63 days
- Michigan: 65 days
- Minnesota: 65 days
- Missouri: 66 days
When all of these angles are considered together, what becomes clear is that non-core work is more than a minor inconvenience. In most states and sectors, it consumes the equivalent of months of a leader's year.
Small business leaders who say they manage responsibilities outside their job description every week most commonly find themselves performing:
- Customer support: 19%
- Administrative tasks: 18%
- HR or recruiting: 17%
- Social media management: 16%
- Bookkeeping or accounting: 14%
Frequency, however, doesn't always match time spent. When asked which responsibilities consume the largest share of their workweek, leaders pointed to:
- Administrative tasks: 27%
- Customer support: 22%
- Project management: 20%
When leaders are pulled away from their core responsibilities, they not only lose focus of their own tasks, but also aren’t always the best qualified to do the added work they’ve taken on. By engaging independent specialists, leaders can maintain their focus where it’s most impactful, while relying on experts to handle those tasks that can be delegated.
The human and business cost of being stretched too thin
After examining leaders’ workloads and what the non-core work entails, Upwork also wanted to look at the human toll of overworking. This entailed asking leaders about three specific outcomes: burnout, lost business or company growth opportunities, and not feeling successful in their role.
Small business leaders were candid about the impact of trying to do everything themselves. Nearly three-quarters (73%) said being stretched too thin has led to burnout. The strain shows up across every work setting, affecting 76% of remote leaders, 75% of hybrid leaders, and 71% of on-site leaders.
These leaders have also seen a direct connection to business performance: 43% said that overload has contributed to a loss of business or company growth opportunities, and another 43% reported that it has prevented them from achieving success in their role.
The burden is not evenly distributed. Burnout affected 77% of female leaders, but only 67% of male leaders. And younger leaders are also especially at risk; Gen Z leaders (79%) and millennials (76%) more frequently reported feeling burnout than Gen X (69%).
Industry numbers add more nuance. Burnout is highest for leaders in marketing at 79%, followed by healthcare (76%) and technology (67%).
Looking across the U.S., in some states, burnout is nearly ubiquitous. For others, the situation, while still serious, is less extreme.
SMB leaders in the following states reported the highest levels of burnout:
- Mississippi: 84%
- West Virginia: 84%
- Kentucky: 82%
- Minnesota: 82%
- Oklahoma: 82%
- South Carolina: 82%
The states with the lowest levels of burnout are:
- New Mexico: 50%
- Texas: 56%
- Delaware: 60%
- Michigan: 63%
- New Jersey: 65%
Even in these states with lower numbers, at least half of leaders still report burnout, which indicates a national challenge.
Why small business leaders struggle to delegate
Delegating work can be challenging even for leaders who understand its benefits.
Over half of SMB leaders (58%) in Upwork’s report said that tasks outside their core responsibilities take up time they could be spending on more strategic aspects of the business, and 54% believe that delegating more would help them achieve better results. Fully 71% knew just which tasks they would offload first if they could.
This awareness of what to delegate — and recognition of its potential benefits — suggests that leaders are not stuck because they lack insight. Rather, they don’t know where to turn to find reliable people they can trust to do a job well.
Where independent talent is already driving results
Not every task is easy to delegate, and leaders are selective about where they start. Many leaders find that sourcing hard-to-find skills, or skills that are needed only for a short period, can free up considerable portions of their time while delivering real value to the business.
Leaders reported that they have found the most success in delegating writing and translation to freelancers, followed by design and creative work.
Technical and financial tasks also stand out. Leaders said engineering and architecture projects benefit from specialized independent talent, particularly when they require niche skills for a defined period. Development and IT support are also common freelance categories, helping small businesses build and maintain their digital tools without hiring full-time staff.
Finance and accounting work, such as bookkeeping, reporting, and forecasting, rounds out the list of top categories where leaders are already successfully working with freelancers.
These patterns provide both a practical starting point and a clear path for growth. For leaders new to sourcing independent talent, areas where peers are already seeing success can feel like the safest places to start. For those who already work with freelancers, the data suggests where they can find more avenues to win back their time across a wider range of responsibilities.
In either case, the message is the same: The tasks leaders are most willing to hand off today may be the foundation for reclaiming even more time tomorrow.
How leaders would reinvest the time they get back
Small-business leaders have a clear idea of how they would use time reclaimed through delegation. Their answers point to a strong desire for more strategic focus, ongoing development, and healthier ways of working.
Leaders have a strong desire to work more strategically and sustainably. Forty-two percent said they would focus on long-term strategy if they had more time, using freed-up hours to plan, innovate, and look ahead instead of reacting to daily emergencies. Another 40% said they would invest in upskilling, developing new skills and knowledge to guide their organizations more effectively.
Rest and well-being also emerge as important priorities. More than a third of leaders (35%) would take a break or disconnect from work if they had additional free time. Leaders also wanted more time to focus on improving team culture and retention (28%), as well as exploring new revenue streams (27%).
These choices show that leaders are not simply trying to reclaim hours but to create space for work that strengthens their businesses and their well-being. Delegation to others, whether it's a new full-time hire or a freelancer, becomes a way to shift from constant urgency to more intentional, future-focused leadership.
How to stop doing everything by leveraging independent talent
For leaders who see their own experiences reflected in this research, meaningful change can begin with small steps. A simple first move is to list the non-core tasks filling your week and identify those that could be handed off to a specialist. Administrative work, customer support, technical development, data analysis and reporting, and content production are common areas where independent talent can quickly add value.
From there, leaders can hire independent professionals with the skills and background they need. Instead of hiring a full-time worker, you can post clearly scoped projects in areas such as design, accounting, or IT. Beginning with a pilot project helps build trust and confidence, refine workflows, and expand your distributed team at a pace that feels right.
The aim is to do more than reduce your to-do list. It’s to create more space to guide the business with clarity and focus by shifting work to those professionals who are best equipped to handle it.
Methodology
Upwork surveyed 2,272 small business leaders in the United States to understand their workload, delegation habits, and use of independent talent. Respondents included managers, directors, and C-suite leaders at companies with one to 250 employees who have experience hiring freelancers to support their workflow.
This story was produced by Upwork and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
