Rachel Elnaugh delivers Enterprise Spotlight at the University.

The very honest account of the highs and lows of being a high profile businesswoman gave the audience of over eighty students, staff and local businesspeople a real insight into the world of the entrepreneur.

At the age of twenty-four Rachel created the market leading experiences brand Red Letter Days on a shoestring budget from the front room of her home. Red Letter Days went on to generate over £100million in turnover in the sixteen years that she ran it, and in doing so pioneered the UK's £250 million experiences sector. In 2005 Rachel lost the business and since then she has been working in the small business sector, inspiring, motivating and helping entrepreneurs to achieve personal success, including writing her first book, Business Nightmares, published in May this year.

Rachel said that we are now seeing the emergence of a new type of entrepreneur in this country, the social entrepreneur, those that still make a profit but not at the expense of everything else, they realise the importance of social responsibility, she said: "It shouldn't all be about greed - it should be about collaboration rather than competition."

Tonia Harvey, who opened the event on behalf of the University, said: "We are bringing inspirational speakers on to campus so they can share their experiences, ideas and insights with likeminded people and they are particularly inspiring to our students. Rachel provided just what we look for in a good speaker as she spoke from the heart, was very honest and gave some really useful, tangible tips that I'm sure those in the audience will use in their working lives."

The next Enterprise Spotlight event is on Thursday 29 January 2009 when Nick Jenkins, founder of the online personalised greeting card company moonpig.com will share his story. This event is open to the public, email Enterprise.Spotlight@herts.ac.uk to reserve a place or visit: go.herts.ac.uk/enterprisespotlight for more information.