Who’s afraid of the recession? Not women apparently – the number starting up their own businesses has risen this year. We spoke to local businesswomen about the highs and lows of being their own boss.

Research for Simply Business has found a 12 per cent increase in female-run start-ups this year, with women now accounting for 37 per cent of all start-up businesses. So what is making a legion of women trying to go it alone?

Case study 1: Lisa Cherry.

PRIOR to “jumping off the cliff” into self-employment, Lisa Cherry, 41, had a comfortable and well respected job in education with a healthy monthly salary, six weeks of leave, sick pay and a car allowance.

But while going it alone brought much hardship, she says she wouldn’t change a thing.

The mum-of-two from Witney, pictured with a client, explained: “In 2009 my husband left.

“I realised that things were going to have to change drastically.

“I had two children in school, a two-hour daily commute to work in Aylesbury and it was now up to me to fund everything. I looked at our lives and pared it all back. Everything we didn’t need, had to go, but even so that left us with no disposable income and by that I meant none – no money for shoes, school trips and just enough to put food on the table.

“I remember my children looking at me and saying: “What do you mean ‘no new shoes’ – that really made me cry.”

She quit her job and used money from her final salary to plough into finding business contacts.

She said: “I knew I wanted to practise complementary therapies from home and so I joined all the social media sites, networking, doing everything I could.

“I used my credit card to undertake more training and started blogging, emailing companies and getting my business, Holistic Health, known.

“Luckily for me friends invited us around for meals and gave me odd bits of work I know they didn’t need and then slowly business came in. But it was tough and there were times when I wondered how we would cope. But a year later, my business is doing well and although it has been very hard I wouldn’t and couldn’t be back in a full-time job, away from my children for anything.

“I am very motivated and I like to think I am just one of many women in the county who said: ‘I will do this!’ and have.

“My advice to anyone thinking of setting up themselves would be: ‘Stop thinking and start doing’.”

Case study 2: Lorraine Cheney.

LORRAINE Cheney, from Fringford, admits she was “a bit clueless” about what was out there when she left Bicester Community College.

The 37-year-old said: “I kind of went through the motions and though I was arty and would have liked to be a graphic designer, I ended up working in customer services and sales. But I remember being stuck in a very long traffic jam one day and thinking: ‘Is this it?’ ”

When the mum-of-two’s employer went bust she was ‘almost relieved’ because she knew she needed a push to start up on her own. “The question was: “What would I do?” she said.

“I took an 18-month distance learning course with the National IT Learning Centre and it was that organisation that really steered me into web design.

“My husband told me to go for it, but I was scared to take the jump. I eventually joined networking groups, worked out my products, my target markets and had lots of sleepless nights about whether I could really do what I was telling people I could do, but it has paid off.”

Ms Cheney’s company Navitas Design started in September 2010 and has built websites for the likes of Vale Life Magazine and Kelly Jo Photography. She also trains other small business owners to get business from their websites and is booked up with work until March 2012.

She said: “I work 9am to 3pm, when the children are at school. But I can often be up at 6am on my laptop and also work when they are in bed.

“Being an employed mum puts you under pressure with fixed working hours and childcare and that comes at a price.

"Being self-employed is hard work. However, the benefit is that I can be there for my children and the sense of achievement that I have started my own business, makes every minute worth it.”

Case study 3: Vivienne Cudahy.

VIVIENNE Cudahy, 37, had a job that many would envy – as a fashion buyer for Harrods. But when she became a mum and moved to Oxfordshire five years ago she was determined to make her dream of running her own business a reality.

She said: “I found my product early on – the Bobble is a water bottle from America that has a filter in its spout and is the first real alternative to buying bottled water. I basically saw it and said: ‘Wow!’ “I negotiated with the owners to get exclusive distribution rights for the UK and Ireland and six weeks into setting up I was joined by my friend Jenny Dahlman, who had been made redundant from her job in recruitment and was looking for a challenge.”

The two mums, from Deddington, started Auteur a year ago in August and have since seen sales in excess of £1m.

Mrs Cudahy said: “The most difficult thing has been getting money from the banks.

“Banks have a lot of money, but they are not prepared to lend it to a lot of small businesses. Nearly all our cash flow has had to come through private sources.

“I think it’s fair to say I didn’t sleep properly for about six weeks when we first started out. But we really went for it, we now have more staff and we haven’t looked back.

“I think people do appreciate our non-aggressive attitude to sales and feel we are maybe more genuine as a result. But basically it’s about working hard and having a great product.

“We have a great work/life balance and we are very excited about the future.”