For some people, the holidays are their absolute favorite time of the year. For others, the holidays are utterly dreaded for an assortment of reasons - including an increase in stress, anxiety and even depression.

Longer hours and increasing workloads means that the average weekend lasts just 39 hours and 42 minutes - rather than the full 64 hours - according to new research by female friendly insurer Sheilas' Wheels.

Researchers found employees do not relax and unwind from the office until the early hours of Saturday morning (1.48am) and start worrying about the week ahead from 5.30pm on Sunday. More than a quarter of Brits (29 per cent) surveyed claiming to never switch off from work at all.

You're far from alone in facing time pressures in your business life. In fact, over the past 11 years, I've coached hundreds of entrepreneurs and long-time business owners who have found themselves in the same exhausting position. Some were held back because they were scrambling to maintain the gains they'd made. Others wanted to sell their business and move on but found themselves unable to break free and wondering 'who'd ever want to buy this headache?

Did you ever wonder about the effectiveness of your advertising? How many times have you had to make a decision to place an ad only to ask, does advertising really work? Unfortunately, many small business owners miss the mark on advertising and then believe that advertising doesn't work. This is a sad misconception because when done effectively, advertising can be one of your strongest marketing tactics to drive customers to your doors. Chances are, if your advertising isn't working, it may because of one of these five reasons:

1. Too much information

Some managers have problems with time management most of the time. And it's some sort of a problem for most managers at least occasionally. Let's face it, all of us face extreme time pressures every so often. Four little words won't be of much help then. But they can make a great difference on a day to day basis.

The Four Little Words