TEDxSalford

Speaker Announcement – Rachel Elnaugh

Former Dragon’s Den panellist and creator of Red Letter days, Rachel Elnaugh is a resourceful business woman and has managed to turn what could have been a crushing loss  through the administration of her business into a positive way forward.

Born in Chelmsford, Essex, Rachel started up her first business, “Red Letter Days” at the age of 24. Red Letter Days provided unique experience gifts such as driving tanks and F1 cars as well as flying various types of aircraft and bungee jumping.

The business did extremely well for 16 years, creating a turnover of £17.5 million and brought her to the attention of the BBC and a place on the panel of Dragon’s Den. Not only this, she also was a finalist in Veuve Clicquot’s Business Woman of the Year 2001/2002 and Ernest & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year.

Unfortunately, the business faltered in August 2005 and went into administration which led to Red Letter Days being bought out by fellow Dragon’s Den stars Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones.

Though Rachel did not let this setback get her down, she found another path through. With so many in financial difficulties after the recession, Rachel has used her experience to help others recover from financial problems and even when they are just starting out as she has been there and can understand what it is like.

Through her book, “Business Nightmares”, Rachel’s part autobiography, part entrepreneurship guide, she explains what happened to her company, as well as helping small businesses succeed.

Alongside this book, Rachel is a public speaker and business mentor, helping people not only through her book but also with her mentoring program, Business Alchemy. The program works by sending videos via email every month with self-help style exercises to promote better business ideas and positive thinking.

We are pleased to announce that Rachel Elnaugh will be speaking at TEDxSalford 3.0 on the 10^th of November at The Lowry, Salford Quays. You can find out more about her on her website. Also, don’t forget to  check on our other guests over on our speaker page.