Time pressures could be holding back businesses in the North West 90% of businesses surveyed spend less than two hours a week on business planning British businesses are missing out on potentially improving productivity gains because time pressures are making business planning take a back seat, according to research released today from DTI's Achieving best practice in your business.

Nearly 95% of the business managers and directors surveyed recognise that investing more time in day-to-day planning would improve overall business performance. However, 90% of businesses admitted to currently spending less than two hours each week on business planning with almost a quarter of these saying they simply don't have enough time in the week to plan properly.

The vast majority of the businesses surveyed (84%) are worried that they are not able to spend enough of their time planning to improve their business in a more proactive way.

Businesses can look at these ideas and through case studies, introduce them into the way they work http://www.dti.gov.uk/bestpractice/assets/ideas4busman.pdf.

Alternatively, the publication can be ordered via www.dti.gov.uk/publications or by contacting the Publications Orderline on tel 0870 150 2500, fax 0870 150 2333 or Minicom on 0870 150 2100 (calls to these numbers are charged at national rate).