Rachel Elnaugh founded her first business, Red Letter Days, aged
24 in 1989. By 2001, Elnaugh had grown the company to a £17.5m
turnover, and she was a finalist in the Veuve Cliquot Businesswoman
of the Year, which led to her joining the BBC's Dragons' Den.
In 2005, the company went into administration and was bought by
fellow Dragons' Den judges Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis. Elnaugh
now works as a venture capital adviser and business speaker, and
has written Business Nightmares, a book about entrepreneurs' bad
experiences.
In this video interview the successful female entrepreneur talks
about the experience of being branded a "failed entrepreneur" by
society and what she learnt from her time at Red Letter Days. She
gives her view on why the company went from making a £1 million
profit one year to making a £4.7 million loss the following year
and gives expert advice to start-ups on how to avoid making the
same mistakes, including how to present management reports.
Elnaugh speaks of her time on Dragons' Den, how the £1 million
media value of the show offered priceless PR and why she thinks the
show has lost some of its integrity. Rachel offers her opinion on
the role of men and women in business and why it can be
advantageous to be a woman entrepreneur. She also advises on the
recession and the impact it can have on small businesses and
carries a warning of the fast pace in which businesses can
collapse.
- Find out more about Rachel here
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