For many small business owners trying to strike a balance between the hours that they invest in their company and maintaining a personal life is a constant struggle. It is all too easy to allow a company to take up increasing amounts of time until soon any personal free time evaporates.

While the vast majority of us have, at some point or other, moaned about how many hours we work, it is worth sparing a thought for the 1m or so workers in the UK that are now working part-time because they can not find a full time job.

This figure - 927,000, to be exact - was revealed this week by the Office for National Statistics. It is the highest number since the ONS [1] began collecting data on this in 1992 and represents an increase of a third from this time last year.

The current economic climate has changed the business landscape - and those of us with jobs, or with businesses to run need to roll up our sleeves and put in whatever extra hours are necessary.

And it's a fair bet that if you're not putting in these extra hours [2] then your firm will go backwards as the majority of your competitors will surely be putting in extra effort.

The next time we all feel frustrated at an extra long day at work, we should all take a deep breath and remember those 1m workers who would love to be given more hours.