Mother-of-two Kate Bennett swapped a two-hour commute for more time with her family by setting up her own business.

The 40-year-old from Woodstock worked in an administrative role at Oxford university and it took her an hour to travel there in the mornings.

Now, the Cassington studio where she takes dance and exercise classes and works as a personal trainer is just seven minutes away, giving her more time for six-year-old Verity and Tristan who is four.

Ms Bennett is one of a growing army of women, known as mumpreneurs, who are choosing to go it alone, rather than struggling to fit their families in around corporate life.

Chancellor George Osborne has made no secret of the fact that the Government is keen to encourage more women to start their own businesses.

And for many mothers, the flexibility of being able to work their own hours and be their own boss is extremely attractive After Tristan was born, Kate Bennett was asked if she would like to go back to working full time at the university.

Instead, she opted for voluntary redundancy, using the cash to retrain and set up on her own.

Last year, when a cowshed on the farm where her husband Scott, who repairs grandfather clocks is based, became available, she decided to grab the opportunity.

She said: “It had nothing in it at that point except a light bulb, so I turned my hand to some DIY and transformed it into a fantastic studio, including laying the wooden sprung floor myself. It looks great now and clients love coming here.

“Many of them are women like me in that they are self-employed and work their own hours, so can take an hour out during the day to come and see me.”

She is in no doubt that she has done the right thing in leaving a job to become self-employed.

She explained: “If one of the children has something on at school, or needs to be somewhere, I can juggle things so I can be there. I can also pick them up from school every day, which is great.”

Another example of an enterprising mum is professional photographer Hayley Porter whose daughter, Darcey, is five.

Ms Porter, 45, had a high-flying career in estate agency and was managing a busy central London branch.

She explained: “I really enjoyed my job but I was regularly putting in a 55-hour week and it would never have worked once I had children “I would not have been able to be the parent that I want to be.

“But it was important to me that I continue to have a career, because that is part of my identity.”

While on maternity leave she “did a bit of soul searching” and decided to retrain as a photographer, signing up for a two-year HNC course at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College in Oxpens Road when Darcey was nine months old.

After graduating 18 months ago, she launched her own business and now specialises in lifestyle photography, including outdoor shots and weddings.

She believes the skills she learned in the corporate world, such as managing her time and marketing, are invaluable and the fact she has a child encourages her to use her work time more effectively.

She added: “I knew going back to my old career just would not suit family life.

“Now, I am able to work around my family and my husband, Darren “Being a mum is actually helpful when photographing a child because I have one of my own, so I know how to keep them interested and even make it fun for them.

“Working for myself gives me this fantastic balance between my work and home life.

“I am able to walk Darcey to school in the mornings and pick her up when she finishes and take time off when I need to.

“I often do more work, for instance editing images, in the evenings after she is asleep.

“Darren helps out by looking after Darcey at the weekend if I have a wedding to shoot, so it works really well and I find what I do extremely rewarding.”