Entrepreneurs struggle to cope with the reality of running a business due to unrealistic expectations when starting up, new research claims.

The YouGov survey produced on behalf of T-Mobile and Kingston University reveals huge disparities between the perceptions and actualities of running a business.

For example, almost half (46%) started a business to achieve a greater work/life balance but 38% said that their venture impacts on their relationships with family and friends, while another 36% admit to struggling to balance demands on their time effectively.

Other areas that prove unexpectedly challenging for small business owners include finding customers, overcoming setbacks and coping with feelings of isolation.

The Age of the Entrepreneur report also questions the portrayal of small business owners as aggressive pursuers of money. Only 4% said they started their business with the aim of making their first million, while 56% said they were concerned only with making a ‘comfortable' living for themselves and their families.

A further 33% were described by the report as ‘steady state' entrepreneurs who were not actively looking to improve their company.

The study also suggested that entrepreneurs have a higher status now than they did a decade ago, partly due to the popularity of television programmes such as Dragons' Den, Risking It All and Make Me a Million.

Almost half (44%) agreed that entrepreneurs were held in higher regard by the general public now, with only 12% thinking the opposite.

"Money is not the motivating factor that you would expect based on programmes such as Dragons' Den and Tycoon," said Professor Blackburn, director of research at the Small Business Research Centre at Kingston University.

"People enter business to take charge of their own destiny and to improve their work-life balance, although this report highlights that SME ownership has more of a negative impact on the latter."