If you run a micro business, you already know how much of yourself you pour into your work.
The ideas, the energy, the decisions and the customer care.
You carry the responsibility for keeping things moving.
You decide what gets done, when it gets done and how it gets done.
And you do all of this while holding the rest of your life together too.
What we rarely talk about is the physical and emotional load this creates.
The toll it takes on your energy.
The fact that your health is not a “nice to have” but the foundation of your business.
Micro business owners carry the weight of this every day, even if they do not recognise or acknowledge it, yet it is reflected nowhere in the systems designed to support micro business wellbeing.
At the moment, adults in England aged 40 to 74 are invited for an NHS Health Check once every five years.
It is a good service and it saves lives, but it is nowhere near enough for the realities of running a micro business in midlife.
This gap becomes even more striking when you look at the bigger picture.
At the start of 2024 there were about 5.5 million private sector businesses in the UK and around 5.2 million of them were micro businesses with between zero and nine employees.
That is roughly 95 percent of the entire business population.
These micro businesses employ about 31 percent of the workforce and generate around 20 percent of private sector turnover. (Source: House of Commons Library, Business Statistics 2024)
They are not a fringe group sitting at the edges of the economy.
They are the economy.
Yet when it comes to health support, prevention or wellbeing guidance, micro business owners receive almost nothing targeted to their circumstances.
Research from Loughborough University highlights growing concern that micro enterprises and sole traders are being increasingly locked out of the wider UK growth agenda.
Government funding and regulation are described as being out of step with the reality of running a micro business, shutting off the potential for these businesses to boost GDP growth. (Source: Loughborough University Press Release, June 2025)
When you put these pieces together, the gap becomes hard to ignore.
We rely heavily on micro business owners for employment, innovation, community stability and national economic strength.
Yet we offer them minimal structural support to maintain the one thing their business depends on most.
Their health.
This is why micro business wellbeing should be treated as an economic issue, not just a personal one.
A healthier micro business sector would support GDP.
It would ease pressure on state pensions and benefits.
It would reduce long term strain on the NHS.
And it would help micro business owners maintain the energy and resilience needed to keep doing the work their communities rely on.
There is a strong case for offering micro business owners better access to annual health checks, tax breaks for proactive wellbeing investments and clearer prevention pathways that recognise the physical, emotional and cognitive load of running a business alone.
These are not perks.
They are practical, preventive measures that protect both the individual and the wider economy.
Because the cost of waiting until someone becomes unwell is always higher than the cost of helping them stay well.
While we wait for systems to catch up, each micro business owner still faces a choice.
To notice how they are.
To check in with their body, their energy and their stress levels.
To catch things early.
To create habits that protect capacity, consistency and clarity.
To take small steps that support the ability to work and live well in the long term.
This is not about doing more.
It is about being supported to keep doing what you already do so brilliantly.
This is why micro business wellbeing matters.
And it is why I do the work I do.
P.S. If you’re a midlife micro business owner who wants a body and a business that can truly go the distance, you may be interested in Age Well — my new wellbeing programme designed to help you stay energised, resilient, and ready for the long term. Discover more →