At the age of 24, Rachel Elnaugh created the market leading experiences brand Red Letter Days, from the front room of her home. Red Letter Days made over £100million in turnover in the 16 years that she ran it, earning her an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2002.
Then, in early 2005, Rachel shot to fame as one of the original Dragons in BBCTV's cult show, Dragons' Den. During 2005, Red Letter Days crashed.
In this short video (that forms part of a longer talk), she tells her story.
'Being an Entrepreneur is like being on a roller-coaster, your life will be filled with tremendous highs and tremendous lows'.
As entrepreneurs, we often hear about the stats for small businesses that fail to get off the ground. Then there are those that do, and then run into trouble - for various reasons. This is one of those heroic stories of someone who started from nothing, built a successful business, crashed and came out even better on the other side.
Rachel Elnaugh - creator of Red Letter Days in her talk on 'Business Nightmares'
Her first book 'Business Nightmares' was published by Crimson in May 2008.
Innocent smoothies
A great video from Richard Reed - 1 of the 3 founders of Innocent Smoothies.
He talks about how they set up Innocent. What's really interesting is their approach to business.
He talks about their sourcing from ethical suppliers, being carbon neutral and plowing 10% of their profits back into projects in the developing countries where they source their fruit. This is all good, but it is not what drives their sales, what drives their sales is the talented people who want to work for a company that does these things.
The people who work for them are both commercially and socially aware. They are employees who are concerned about how the business they work for, interacts with the community they are a part of.
How many talented people leave the corporate world to pursue a career in charity or environmental issues. Would it not be more profitable for company's - big and small - to be progressing down the Innocent route, in order to attract the biggest talent to their table?
This video was done before Innocent sold 58% share of their business to Coca-Cola (estimate around £75m) in 2010. They do say that there is 'no change in the commitment to natural healthy food, to sustainability and to giving 10% of our profits to charity'.
That's good!
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Richard Reed - 1 of the 3 founders of Innocent Smoothies
Apple & Pixar
Steve presented the 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. A really inspirational presentation of his life and work.
