Her entrepreneurial spirit was clear to see from an early age as she made sixpence outside her home in Wales offering local kids a ride around the block in her old pram. It resulted in a nice chocolate bar and a slap on the legs from her mum for taking the money off the other local kids.

But it taught Wendy a valuable early lesson. “If you’ve got something others are willing to pay for, you’ve got a business,” she said.

Her life yo-yoed between Wales and Warwickshire due to her father’s work and she picked up valuable skills along the way, from learning to sew at school and learning to sell in her first job at shoe-shop Freeman Hardy Willis.

She had stints at the DHSS and Halifax Building Society and after getting married and having her first child Wendy ended up back in Wales where she put her sewing skills to good use by setting up a club to make clothes to raise funds for a local school.

Wendy also landed a job in the supermarket where her aptitude for supporting people was recognised and a senior colleague suggested she become a trainer.

She would go on to support hundreds of young people across the Welsh Valleys.

Several jobs and two more children later and Wendy was back in Warwickshire – now in Rugby – and had run several businesses too.

It included everything from delivering a four-year National Lottery training programme for training the voluntary sector in Rugby through to spotting a gap in the market and sourcing a supplier in Spain for travel safe socks when DVT hit the headlines.

She also helped the Chamber to set up an enterprise programme to support retail trainees in the region as well as establishing one of the first Job Clubs in Coventry.

And, the last 20 years – helping many hundreds of businesses across the region to get started and grow – have been among her most satisfying professionally.

“I don’t think there’s a single thing I haven’t done,” said Wendy. “I’ve worked in retail, online sales, creative businesses, you name it. For me, it’s the basics. How do you know if somebody wants it? What research have you done? Have you done your numbers? What do you want out of it?

“I always say to start-ups: if you want £200 a week, how many do you need to sell? How much does it cost the business to run? You then work out what needs to be done.

“People get scared of words like business planning and mission statements. Just keep it really simple and work out how you are going to get through your first year.

“Work out what you want to be known for. The biggest and best businesses keep it really simple. Are you cheap and cheerful or top end? Make it really simple for your customers to understand.”

Wendy launched a hugely successful business on the back of a chance conversation ahead of her daughter’s wedding.

The wedding co-ordinator at the hotel where their reception was due to be held said the chairs required covers because they weren’t up to the standard expected.

Wendy took the measurements, put her sewing skills to use and created the cover that went down a storm. So, she worked with a contact at a small factory to make 100 for the venue.

Other locations got wind of Wendy’s work, and orders came flooding in and, by the time it reached its peak, Millhouse Events was offering a range of products and was covering around 150 weddings a year, before she sold the business around a year before the pandemic.

It’s this kind of insight that Wendy has been able to bring to those businesses she has supported.

“One of my favourites was a young lad who repaired mowers,” she said. “His grandad gave him four cow sheds to convert. When I visited, I had to stand there with my mouth open because he’d turned them into beautiful wooden buildings with a slate entrance where he could develop his business, which is doing really well.

“Another time, I met a lady buying material at a show and we got chatting and she was using it to make bows for dogs! We got chatting and it turned out she was based in Rugby so I could support her.

“I advised her not to put all of her focus on bows and, when they then banned dogs from wearing them in shows, it helped her to pivot towards other items and it turned into a £100,000 a year business.”

It means Wendy has got plenty of top tips for entrepreneurs as they make their way in business.

She said: “In no particular order, I would say if you find a gap in the market, then fill it. That’s what good businesses do. Try to limit disasters but learn from them when they happen and move on.

“You have to be resilient but always love what you do because then it doesn’t feel like it is work.

“You have to keep learning new skills because business never stops, you have to keep moving and you have to stay curious. If you love what you are doing, age doesn’t matter one bit!”

And, as she reflects on two decades with the Chamber at the same time as having her own successful ventures, Wendy looks on it with great fondness.

She said: “I’ve been lucky to have two jobs I loved in the past 20 years both at the Chamber and being self-employed. Some people have a job they hate and always want to leave. I’ve loved both.

“It’s always about the people for me and we’ve had some great times even when programmes have come and gone.

“The team at the Chamber are wonderful and we have all helped each other out over the years.

“I even had to put my sewing skills to the test when one of my colleagues got an almighty rip in his trousers just before heading off to an event. I sewed them up for him and he was on his way!”