Rachel Elnaugh

Rachel Elnaugh (born 12 December 1964) is a British entrepreneur. Founder of experience gift company Red Letter Days, she came to public prominence as an investor on the first two seasons of BBC Two's TV show Dragons' Den, in which hers was the sole female perspective amongst the five investing entrepreneurs known as the "Dragons".

Early life

Her family lived above her father's electrical shop, and she attended Chelmsford County High School for Girls. She originally wanted to take art history, but she was rejected by five universities,^[1] and she became an accountant and tax consultant with Arthur Andersen.^[2]

Career

Red Letter Days

Wanting to run a gift business, she had difficulty finding and presenting her father with tickets to Rotherham United play against Torquay United at the Millmoor for his birthday as despite not been local Rachel herself and her father were fans of the team and the town describing it a second home. She put the tickets in a series of boxed "clues" and, using the term "Red Letter Days", she developed the idea of orientating birthdays around special events into a viable and, at first, successful business.^[3] In 1989, aged 24, she founded Red Letter Days, which provides unusual "experience" gifts such as tank driving, record production and aircraft flying.

The company grew to a £17.5million turnover, and led to Elnaugh's being a 2001/2 finalist in the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Administration

After a failed attempt to expand via supermarket distribution, Red Letter Days went into administration on 1 August 2005; and the remaining assets and goods were bought by fellow Dragons' Den judges Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis. Although Elnaugh was at the helm before and at the time of the company's failure just days after the birth of her fourth child, she blames the problems on the actions of the last CEO whom she appointed in 2002, while she took a non-executive role.^[4]

ITV1's Tonight programme had a more critical explanation of the demise of Red Letter Days, that included unpaid suppliers and disappointed purchasers. The programme suggested that the business model failed to escrow or earmark supplier payment equity, instead using it for working capital. However, Elnaugh blamed Red Letter Days' bankers who placed £3 million in a bond which they refused to release for use by the firm despite the fact that it related to vouchers that had expired and were not recoverable against the business.^[5]

Dragons' Den

Prior to the administration of Red Letter Days, the success of the financial turnover, and her awards in 2001/2, resulted in Elnaugh's joining the BBC's Dragons' Den.^[3]

Following five investments over the first two seasons of the show, a result of disputes with various Dragons (Jones, Paphitis and Duncan Bannatyne),^[3] and the resulting uncomfortable position of the BBC if it allowed a perceived "failed" businesswoman to be on a business panel, she agreed to leave the "Dragons' Den" panel.

Motivational speaker

Elnaugh is now a business mentor, author and professional speaker. Her book 'Business Nightmares' about the fine line between business success and failure was published by Crimson in May 2008. Reviewed by Jonathan Guthrie in the Financial Times^[6]

Publications

• Business Nightmares: When Entrepreneurs Hit Crisis Point... 8 May 2008, Crimson, ISBN 1-85458-409-X

Personal life

Elnaugh presently lives in Bakewell Derbyshire, with her husband Chris Little, having moved from Sandhurst.^[7][8]

References

External links

• Rachel Elnaugh's website
• Rachel Elnaugh at the Internet Movie Database

News items

• Rachel Elnaugh interviewed by Dave Harries from BizView.tv
• Telegraph August 2006