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Rachel Elnaugh’s net worth is reportedly worth $7 million. This means Elnaugh earns $2, 793.73 per day. That happens to be equivalent to $114.6 per hour!
Rachel Elnaugh is a successful businesswoman from the UK. Her net worth is thought to be around $7 million. This fortune is thought to have been earned from Red Letter Days, which is a gift company that she founded at age of 24 years old and sells experiential gifts such as spa days.
Who is Rachel Elnaugh?
Elnaugh is a successful entrepreneur from the UK and an investor, who is mostly known for her self made and founded a company called Red Letter Days, as well as her appearance on Dragon’s Den for several seasons.
Biography
Born 12 December 1964 in Essex, Elnaugh lived above an electrical sop owned by her father in Chelmsford. She attended Chelmsford High School for Girls, which was an all-girls grammar school. Initially, she had the desire to study art history at university. Unfortunately, Elnaugh was rejected by all 5 universities she had applied to.
Instead, she made her way up the corporate ladder from having a position as an office junior in a local firm of accountants to becoming a qualified tax consultant with Arthur Andersen which is located in London. She also did a lot of accounting work for dad’s business, which also gave her time to spend with him.
Red Letter Days
As for Red Letter Days, Rachel Elnaugh came up with the idea for experiential gifts one day as she was buying tickets for cricket matches for her father’s birthday. So, at the age of 24 years old on July 5 1989, Elnaugh founded Red Letter Days, a gift company to offer such experiences to clients.
Elnaugh has admitted and recalled that at first, it was difficult to convince retailers to get on board with her business simply because it was a relatively new concept. People did not fully understand the concept just yet as the company had just been recently founded.
After trying and trying again for one year, Rachel Elnaugh had a breakthrough after rebranding the company an idea as well as launching it in 1990. This was a successful strategy as the fortunes of her business turned around. She made 1.4 million in profit with a total number of 150 staff members. The company grew to an £18 million turnover and put her in the lineup of several prestigious awards as a result.
Did Red Letter Days go bust?
After seeing how well the business was doing, Rachel Elnaugh thought to expand it with a retail company much further. I mean you can’t blame her for wanting to take her company to greater heights. So, in 2002, the expansion began and failed drastically.
In 2005, the business was forced into administration even though it had £3.3 million in cash at the bank. She had to look to her colleagues with whom she worked on Dragon’s Den to get her out of administration for a sum of £250, 000. There was a reported loss of £10 million in the first year. Fortunes changed and the company was turned around and sold to Buyagift to Elnaugh’s relief as she once confessed that it seemed like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.
Elnaugh has said before that the business ended up failing because the person with whom she left in charge to handle operations were not fully operating properly. Not that they were incompetent but they just didn’t make the best decisions for the benefit of the company. She has said that they should not have printed £20 million onto the gift vouchers without securing and ensuring that everything was well in order. Over time it was revealed that things were not in order and contributed to the bust.
It has also been analysed that the business model was not as great as it should have been for a form such as the one that was dealing with such services. Elnaugh should have had a different model or should have evaluated the one they had and made sure the suppliers were fully being met with their needs and agreements that were initially made in order to make the business mutually beneficial for both Red Letter Days and themselves.
Others have turned down this theory of hers and have simply put the blame on the fact that she was busy being a tellypreneur on the Dragons den television show that was broadcast on BBC. She appeared for two series, very reluctant though.
‘Business Nightmares‘
After experiencing all these ups and downs, Rachel Elnaugh wrote and published a book detailing the fine line between success and failure in the business world. It was published by Crimson on 8th May 2008. The full book title is called Business Nightmares: When Entrepreneurship Hits Crisis Point. The book was based on her own experience with Red Letter Days.
Professional Speaking & Speaking Topics
Rachel Elnaugh speaks professionally on business especially with regards to what can make a business success which is based on her book that was published in 2008.
She also talks about metaphysics as she has recently grown into that community and has a business related to that.
The main topics she speaks on is marketing, entrepreneurialism, surviving recession, overcoming adversity, empowerment and other topics.
Was Elnaugh a Dragon?
The series Dragons den is a popular one within the UK. It is a reality television show in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas and innovations to a panel of venture capitalist with the ultimate goal of securing investment finance from them.
The show originated in Japan with a different name however, it has been franchised all over the world with several variations of the original Japanese name.
The UK version started airing in January of 2005 on BBC Two. The channel obtained exclusive rights to the show’s format from its Japanese producers. It is still regarded as one of the popular shows on BBC.
Elnaugh joined the show in the first two series between 2005 and 2006.
Elnaugh has been quoted to have said, “I wasn’t going to do the second series, but when the producers had problems recruiting another female Dragon, they came back to me.”
The number of investments made as a Dragon?
Rachel Elnaugh invested in a total of 5 innovative ideas during the course of her appearance on the show. These were:
Grails Ltd– a company offering made to measure suits for female executives. Elnaugh invested £60,000 together with Doug Richard who also invested £60, 000 for a 20% share in it with an option to buy back 10% of it at £100, 000. The investment happened in Episode 2 of season 1. Grails Ltd closed in 2006.
Le Beanock– a firm that produces hanging beanbag chairs. It is essentially a hammock beanbag. Rachel Elnaugh obtained a 49 per cent stake in the company for £54, 000. The idea of having a hanging beanbag that seems like a hammock impressed the angel investors on the show as it had an innovative spirit to it.
Custom Jewellery– this was an idea by Elizabeth Galton Ltd where custom made jewellery was made and sold to customers.
Snobone– a company that offered snowboard accessories. Elnaugh gave the company £75, 000 for 33 per cent of the company.
The business was offered an initial £7, 000 to be spent on branding, prototyping and a website. However, the deal was never fully finalised and Elnaugh pulled out if the deal meaning that the full investment was never introduced into the business.
Bedlam Puzzles-they produced 3D puzzles.
Most of these investments went bust after the show.
Most successful investment on the show
Le Beanock might be Elnaugh’s most successful investment on the show as the company still produces their products up till recent years.
Largest sum invested
The largest amount of money that Rachel Elnaugh invested was £100, 000. However, the deal fell through after the show. Most of Elnaugh’s deals fell through for one reason or another. Perhaps that could be one of the reasons she was asked to exit the show after only two seasons.
Rachel Elnaugh dragons relationships
Elnaugh was described to have had a very tumultuous relationship with her fellow dragons and investors.
Peter Jones and Theo
Fellow dragons Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis, went into business with Rachel Elnaugh when they pulled Red Letter Days out of administration. Peter Jones and Theo were partners in this regard. Bought by fellow dragons, Rachel Elnaugh entered a business relationship with the two.
There were apparent arguments and tension between Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Theo Paphitis and Elnaugh during her stint on the show.
Life after the Dragons Den
Rachel Elnaugh left the show after two seasons amongst a whole shrowd of rumours surrounding herself and the BBC. According to reports, the broadcast corporation urged Elnaugh to exit due to the collapse of Red Letter Days. The BBC did not understand how they could have a “failed” entrepreneur on its investor panel.
After leaving the show, Elnaugh has authored two books, one in 2008 and another in 2016.
Elnaugh’s investing spirit continued as she co-founded a digital publishing and marketing platform called SourceTv which centred on metaphysical concepts and guarantees readers to transform their lives through self-expansion, happiness, vitality and love. Weekly mentoring meetings are held relating to this platform. She has become a specialist in metaphysics.
What happened to Rachel elnaugh?
Rachel Elnaugh looked into different investments and opportunities. Along the way she found metaphysics and is in business dealing with that primarily. She also wrote two books sharing different experiences in both and has managed to make some money from the books being sold which she can reinvest in new ideas and businesses, which either she can come up with herself and someone else can come up with and all she has to do is provide the initial investing funds for the startup and then she gets a percentage in the company.
Personal Life
Elnaugh has a total of 5 children from previous marriage and relationships.
Rachel Elnaugh husband
Rachel Elnaugh is currently in her second marriage to Chris Little.