We might have heard about holidays, weekdays, or even weekends. But sometimes the term of business days still caught us off guard. However, as a business professional or aspiring businessman, we should know about this term.

What are business days?

Business days is a term used to refer to days where business is conducted. We don’t want to work everyday or every hour, we as humans also need some time to relax and enjoy life. That’s why the term business days arise to keep us productive in our business during those days.

What are considered business days?

Usually it happens during Monday to Friday, excluding Saturday and Sunday and also public holidays, from 9 AM to 5 PM. Other than that are not considered as business days. For example some people won’t do work at 7 PM even though it’s Monday because it’s time for them to rest.

Another example is some people won’t do work on weekends because it’s time for them to have time for their family or friends even though it’s still 10 AM. Moreover, some businesses are closed on public holidays, for example religious events or independence day, to celebrate the public holidays even though it’s Tuesday.

However, it’s different for every country. Most countries do have the unwritten rules of Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM, business days. But for some countries they do not. For example Middle Eastern countries. Most countries in the Middle Eastern apply business days from Sunday to Thursday, so on Friday and Saturday they have some time off. It is also different in countries like India, Mexico, and Columbia. They work from Monday to Saturday.

How long is a business day?

Normally, if we follow the standard of 9 AM to 5 PM of working hours, there are 8 hours long of a business day. However, there are some countries where people work less than 8 hours a day or even more than 8 hours a day.

For example in the Netherlands, people only work 29.5 hours per week, meaning they only work four days a week with roughly 7.37 hours per day. It’s obviously different in Mexico where people work 44.7 hours on average per week. It translates roughly to 7.45 hours per day with six workdays.

Is Saturday a business day?

Ordinarily, especially in western countries, Saturday is not a business day because this day is considered a weekend. But it also depends on the countries you work whether Saturday is a business day or not. For example, in Mexico, people work on Saturday. However, since these days you can also do business from home, for example you own a business by selling things online, you can organize your own business days without adhering to the prevailing norms.

How many business days a year?

Typically we have 260 business days a year. But it depends on every country. There are countries who have more public holidays than the other hence there are less business days than 260. There are also countries who have more working days hence there are more business days than the rest. It also depends whether the year starts or ends on the weekend or not. Or when the year is the leap year. It really varies from year to year.

How long is 3 business days?

Generally speaking, 3 business days is 3 working days, not including weekends or public holidays. So, for example, something has to take 3 business days to process. That means it needs 3 working days to resolve and that doesn’t necessarily mean 3 days. For example you order something on Friday and it needs 3 business days to process.

Since the next day is Saturday and Sunday, which is the weekend, your order can’t be processed. You need to wait until Monday, which is the second business day from Friday, and Tuesday, which is the third business day from Friday. And then your order will be delivered on Wednesday. This is also valid with public holidays.

From the explanation above, it can be concluded that business days are the days where you do your business. Whether it is working, studying, or other stuff. The amount and duration of business days is varied from year to year, also from each country. It really depends on the culture from the country itself. But if you take the general matter, business days usually happen from Monday to Friday, from 9 AM to 5 PM.