I’ve been looking forward to reading Rachel Elanugh’s book since she announced that she was writing one. Although her business Red Letter Days ended up in administration before being bought by two of her fellow Dragons I believe there’s a lot that aspiring entrepreneurs could learn from her experience.

So I was disappointed when I first saw the chapter list on the book’s website, as each chapter appeared to be about a different entrepreneur (Simon Woodroffe, Ivan Massow, Nick Wheeler, Michelle Mone, Doug Richard, Lord Jeffery Archer, Brain Souter, Dame Anita Roddick, Al Gosling, James Murray Wells, Donald Trump, Laura Tenison, James Dyson, Emma Harrison, Peter Jones, Lord Karan Bilimoria, Sir James Goldsmith, Dawn Gibbins, Gerald Ratner and Felix Dennis).

Fortunately there is one chapter and various interjections throughout the rest of the book that tell her story, albeit briefly. I would have liked however to have heard more about her other experiences since Red Letter Days, such as becoming the CEO of EasyArt.com for just three months, her endorsement of Your Home Page In and her business The life Changers , not to mention her latest venture Rachel Elnaugh Ltd.

Unfortunately just about every mention of Red Letter Days seems to be accompanied by either an excuse that blames someone else for its failure or an attack on someone Elnaugh deems to have been ill-behaved. In particular outing Activity Superstore’s previous owner Angus Grahame for sending copies of Red Letter Days accounts to key buyers strikes me as on a par with what he did, besides putting it into perspective all good buyers will make sure they see your accounts anyway.

I find it disappointing that Elnaugh does not accept more responsibility for the failure of Red Letter Days. In my opinion, if your business fails while you still own it then it’s your fault. Yes you might have had a weak operations director/marketing director/financial director/managing director or your bank/supplier/staff/systems might let you down, ultimately however you were responsible for who you hired, you are responsible for your relationships with other businesses and the banks and you are responsible for managing the risk your business faces.

Not being the book I hoped Elnaugh would write isn’t however fair criticism, so what did I think of this book? I liked it. The chapters are conveniently short so it’s easy to dip in and out of so you don’t have to set aside long periods of reading time and the mix of entrepreneurs does mean that there’s at least one that you should be able to relate to your business.

I think it’s great to be able to read about the mistakes, problems and difficulties faced by these entrepreneurs. It’s a great opportunity for future/budding entrepreneurs to learn from their mistakes, and if reading it helps you avoid making the same mistakes it could pay for itself many times over. I would suggest all budding entrepreneurs buy a copy and read it.

You can buy it from Amazon UK or Amazon USA.

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