What’s the single thing that holds many women back when they’re thinking of starting a business?

Or, if they do take the plunge, what stops them from growing the business to its true potential?

Many would say it’s finance. Some would say it’s time.

A lot of the women I’ve worked with during my time in business support will often name those two things as their biggest barriers. And of course, money and time are huge considerations when deciding to go it alone, or to take a business to the next level.

But in my opinion, there’s one barrier that’s actually sitting behind those two - and that barrier is confidence.

Confidence can be interpreted in different ways. I’m not suggesting that women lack confidence in their abilities. Rather, I’m suggesting they may lack confidence that, for example, they’ll be able to juggle running a business with family life. This then manifests as a worry that they won’t have enough time for a business of their own.

Or they may lack confidence that they’ll be able to secure the funding to grow a business - that’s the money concern.

Another common fear amongst the women I’ve worked with is that they won’t have access to the right networks to help them - or a lack of confidence that they’ll fit in to what they perceive as the standard business ‘scene’.

The Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, written by NatWest CEO Alison Rose, highlights all of these (and more) barriers to women starting and growing businesses. It calls for action to support women to overcome them, including access to more relatable role models.

This is why I joined forces with USW Exchange to launch Inspiring Women Wales, a podcast which tells the stories of female founders, giving women really relatable role models that they can listen to and learn from and feel that they’re talking the same language.

In the podcast we hear the high points and the challenges of start-ups and scale-ups - and there are plenty of examples of these founders having to find the confidence to take their business forward.

Take Natalie Isaac of 44 Group who, on returning to her home town of Cowbridge from life in London, saw a gap in the market for a wine bar that a single woman would feel comfortable going to. Her confidence in that concept has led to a family business with numerous bars and now a city centre hotel.

Or Frankie Hobro, Director of Anglesey Sea Zoo, who, after years working in conservation on exotic, far-flung islands, was confident that the qualities she’d built of resilience and resourcefulness would stand her in good stead in the business world.

Lianne Weaver of Beam Development and Training, whose story also features in the podcast series, defines confidence as ‘trust in yourself’.

By showcasing these brilliant female founders of Welsh businesses we want to inspire others and ultimately to give them pause for thought. We want them to come away with confidence, with trust in themselves, thinking: “These women sound just like me and if they can do it, then so can I”.

Inspiring Women Wales is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.