The First lady of Dragons' Den Reveals Her Business Nightmares

Rachel Elnaugh

Full Seminar Details

Entrepreneur Rachel Elnaugh has experienced the entire lifecycle of a business — seeing it grow into a multi-million pound brand to seeing it fall into financial difficulties — she talks about the problems entrepreneurs face at every stage of their business journey, including stories of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs from her new book 'Business Nightmares'.

Rachel Elnaugh's Biography

Rachel Elnaugh is one of Britain's highest profile female entrepreneurs.

Having started her working life as an office junior, at the age of 24 she created the market leading experiences brand Red Letter Days on a shoestring budget from the front room of her home. Red Letter Days went on to generate over £100million in turnover in the 16 years that she ran it, and in doing so pioneered the UK's £250 million experiences sector.

This earned her an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2002, as well as being short listed for the 2001 Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year award and the Growing Business Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2002.

Then, in early 2005, Rachel shot to fame as one of the original Dragons in BBCTV's BAFTA nominated cult business show Dragons' Den.

After the well-publicised crash of Red Letter Days in 2005, which followed the ill-advised expansion of the business three years earlier, Rachel stepped away from the media spotlight and has been working in the small business sector ever since, inspiring, motivating and helping entrepreneurs to achieve personal success.

Rachel has spent the past four years working in the Enterprise Sector inspiring, motivating and empowering entrepreneurs on their journey towards success.

She is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the British Library Business & IP Centre, an Ambassador for the Prince.s Trust; in 2008 she won the IAB .Champion for Entrepreneurship in the UK. award and in 2009 was runner-up for SFEDI.s .Champion/Supporter of Other Enterprises. award.

Her first book 'Business Nightmares' was published by Crimson in 2008 and the paperback version was released in April 2009. She is now working on her second book for release in Spring 2010.

Rachel advises and mentors many entrepreneurs one to one and also launched a low cost online business coaching service in February 2009 featuring a members. forum and weekly webinars with celebrity entrepreneurs and industry experts. She launched Rachel Elnaugh Events in June 2009 and her acclaimed first event .Marketing Magicians. is now available on DVD. The next event .Wealth Wizards. is running on Monday 5 October 2009 at the British Library Conference Centre London.

Rachel lives in Bakewell, Derbyshire with her husband Chris and five sons Mark, Paul, Eddie, Michael and Jack.