Solo-entrepreneurs work almost 50 percent more hours per week than a regular employed worker.

No one has claimed it’s easy running a company; especially if you’re on your own, happen to get sick and don’t have the budget for a fill-in.

Nine out of ten Swedish entrepreneurs running a one-person company did not claim any compensation for days of illness from the Social Insurance Administration the last year, a study by the Association for small business, Företagarförbundet, showed Thursday. That doesn't mean that they are always well. Almost half of the entrepreneurs worked even if they or their children were sick.

“Entrepreneurs are so very tied up by their every-day work. They just can’t afford being sick if they don’t want their businesses to be damaged”, Camilla Littorin, Secretary general at FöretagarFörbundet, told The Swedish Wire.

“We demand a step up by the government. Most importantly, the security system must be adjusted to the entrepreneurs' reality”, she said.

The organization also wants the government to cut down on red tape and simplify bureaucracy procedures. To increase efficiency for business owners, Sweden’s Minister of Enterprise, Maud Olofsson, promised three years ago to reduce red tape related cost by 25 percent up to 2010. Up till now, little has been accomplished.

Also annual accounting audits and payroll taxes should also be scrapped for the smallest companies as it creates relatively more hassle for the entrepreneurs than it brings revenue to the state treasury, the organization argues.

Some 600,000 companies in Sweden are one-man-bands, making up two thirds of all companies in the country. They account for 15 percent of companies’ value added to the GDP. Still, only 150,000 of all solo-entrepreneurs claim they can make a living from their businesses.