Snowed under by legislative changes
The year flies by, and I spend hours trying to squeeze staff holidays (which seem infinite) into a finite amount of time before the end of our financial year.
It must have been easy for my parents when they started Eriska 28 years ago. They only employed staff on a part-time, seasonal basis, so holidays never figured. Over the past 10 years this has changed, and most of our employees are increasingly working all year round.
At first this was simple to accommodate: the hotel closed for certain periods of the year, so that everybody could take their holiday at the same time.
But how times have changed in terms of the stresses and strains of running a business. Now, Government legislation forces us to offer holidays to not only all our full-time staff but also our temporary and seasonal staff, according to their length of employment.
I have enough trouble working out their wages, never mind the holidays that are due.
When Aunty Eleanor, our redoubtable book-keeper, passed the wages on to my plate three years ago, she must have known of the Government's intention to interfere.
There is no point in making a mountain out of a molehill. All we can do is ensure our temporary workers know that their salary includes holiday pay - their current rate of pay is sufficient to cover this.
But it does draw attention to how squeezed we are by forces outside the market - and to the fact that the forces affecting our spending are out of our control.
No sooner was the minimum wage under way - in our case complicated by the fact that most staff live in - than we had the holiday issue to contend with. And following closely behind are paternity and maternity leave changes.
Small wonder that we managers of small businesses spend less and less time looking after our clients and more and more time snowed under behind the scenes.
I used to believe my role was to combine the physical aspects of the business, staff and facilities with customers' needs. Our business is not big enough to split this role - in fact, its success so far has been based on this balancing act.
However, I do wonder whether, were we a slightly larger operation that was able to divide the administration roles, we could all have an easier life and I would have more time to ensure that I got my fair share of holiday and pay as well.
BEPPO BUCHANAN-SMITH is director of the Isle of Eriska, a privately owned hotel on the west coast of Scotland
