Business Nightmares by Rachel Elnaugh, published by Crimson

Whereas the Sugar biography disappointed me, this book exceeded my expectations. I was not a ‘Dragon’s Den’ fan when Rachel was on the programme for the first two series but I had heard about the bankruptcy of her firm ‘Red Letter Days’ and the inevitable flak that she took from those who expressed schadenfreude at her fall from grace.

The book is well written and is structured around a number of other business people - some well known, others less so - who experienced crises during their business careers. Most of them overcame the problems and achieved great success; Elnaugh’s argument is that the crises strengthened their resolve and enabled them to learn lessons that led to later triumphs.

There are also, at the end of each chapter, some practical bullet points summarising the lessons learned and providing advice for budding entrepreneurs. Though these are sometimes repetitive and not always related to the content of the chapter, I thought they were valuable and down to earth, so much so that I am making sure to hand on my copy to a young relative who has founded his own business. Clearly the advice to be careful whom you appoint as Financial Director and the warning of the dangers involved in bringing in someone from outside to run your business, were heartfelt but no less valuable for that.

Rachel weaves her own rise and fall story into the chapters at a number of stages and you begin to realise why she is so bitter. It is not just around financial directors and imported CEOs, it is also about wicked banks who failed to support her when she needed it. It was at this point that I wanted to hear the other side of the story though, in contrast to the Sugar book, it is easier to accept a one sided account from the person involved. And it is not all one sided; there are times when she admits fault, in particular her naivety and inexperience as the business grew rapidly in the early stages.

The book suffers from one or two chapters where the stories are week and where more research could have been done. One felt that some names - Jeffrey Archer,
Donald Trump and James Dyson - were there because of their fame rather than the lessons their stories provided. Rachel also seems to have some questionable ideas about men and women in business - women go into it for passion but men to make money for instance - but the short and content filled chapters manage to keep your interest pretty well.

The author should be congratulated for turning defeat into a victory of sorts, she now claims to be happier ‘speaking, writing, consultancy and mentoring… inspiring others to achieve business success’.