My name is Mike and I've been married for twenty years , I have four children, aged fifteen, thirteen, eleven and nine.

For the last eight years I have been running my own business - which has its advantages and disadvantages! Being the boss means, in essence, that I can work the hours I choose and I have no one to impress for promotion. In reality, however, I'm in work by eight (which means I can drop the older children at school) and I work without breaks on an average day until about five thirty.

The downside to this is that if a client rings before I switch my mobile off at home and asks me to jump I have to say 'how high?', normally while trying to stop the dog from barking in the background!

I not only have a responsibility to my family but I also have a responsibility to my employees. I started off on my own but the company has now grown and I'm very aware that it's my contacts which helps to put the food on their plates - I can't afford to lose any clients.

It would be easy to work all hours under the sun and not spend any time with my family - there is always work to do. I try, however, to have a definite line between work and home time so that I'm not forever chasing my tail and feeling guilty, if work needs to be done I would rather stay late at the office than bring it home and shut myself away from the family.