profile
Sally celebrates 20-year Chamber anniversary This year marks a special milestone for Sally Smith. It’s the twentieth year since she joined Hounslow Chamber of Commerce and is the pinnacle of an eclectic career that has seen her drop out of university, run bars and breweries, raise three children, return to university to get a degree and offer practical help and advice to hundreds of grateful local businesses. Her current job title is chief operating officer of the Chamber but it doesn’t really tell the whole story of what she does. Her role involves everything from hosting events for local companies to building contacts and networks, improving the Chamber’s membership offer and in the past certifying export documentation for organisations that trade internationally.
and we treat every one of them with the same importance. We lay on events and provide sponsorship opportunities but we also offer little extras – such as goodie bags and vouchers for companies at our business awards. We’re a highly active organisation that wants to help businesses make connections and feel part of their local community.”
More recently, she has also been doing her utmost to help businesses get through the worst health pandemic in living memory.
Sally has been instrumental in pioneering several Chamber-led initiatives including Safer Business Hounslow, which aims to drive down crime and make the borough a safer place to work, shop, live and invest. She’s also encouraging businesses to apply to take on a young person for six months under the government’s Kickstart Scheme, a £2 billion initiative to create high-quality work placements for 16-24-year-olds so they don’t have to rely on Universal Credit in the long term.
Sally says: “I’m so proud of what we’ve done for businesses in this pandemic. Many of them are suffering and are coming to us for help. We’re here to support our members but we also provide assistance to non-members as it’s vital to have thriving business communities in Hounslow, Ealing, Hammersmith and other areas of London.
“We have currently have around 450 members, from sole traders to GSK [GlaxoSmithKline]
“We’re always on the look-out for different ways in which we can support businesses and individuals,” says Sally. “We’re agile and can turn on a sixpence.”
Born in Knutsford, she studied French and Italian at university but didn’t complete the course.
“I was booted out,” she recalls. “At that age, perhaps I didn’t have the rigor that I do now.” After a stint at a PR firm, she found a fun job as “an executive gofer” working for David Bruce of Bruce’s Brewery, who ran a number of Firkin pub/breweries in London and Bristol. She stayed with the company for eight years, before leaving to have her first child. Two more children followed before the lure of education and self-improvement persuaded her to study part-time for a degree in English literature at Brunel University London.
“My husband was a solicitor and worked long hours,” she says. “Although raising a family is a full-time job in itself, I needed something extra to stimulate my mind.”
In this COVID-19 pandemic I’ve become more comfortable using technology – I’m a bit of a Zoom expert now – and I’ve done interviews with London news outlets. I’m the friendly face of the Chamber and I’d like to think I’m approachable, while being honest, straight-talking and trustworthy. I always endeavour to deliver what I promise and I’m always at the end of the phone to help local businesses.
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