Uriel Corrales

ENGL1010/Kilpatrick
December 5, 2015

DO ENTREPRENURS NEED READING AND WRITING?

Many business owners that I know only use basic reading and writing
skill, stated Ana Elise, a restaurant business owner. Like many others Mrs.
Elise stopped her educational journey after high school. According to Forbes,
a substantial amount of entrepreneurs today in America do not have a
college degree. About 40% of business owners did not pursue a higher
education, but still manage to succeed (Tice). There are 28 million small
businesses in the USA. By this statistic we can see that about 14 million
entrepreneurs do not have a college degree and still continue to run a
successful business. Also over 50% of Americas population works in small
businesses. (Nazar) So we can see how impactful these business owners are
to Americas economy. But owning a business is not an easy task. The
business field is very competitive and complicated. Entrepreneurs need to
study and know the product they are selling. They also need to know how to
market, finance, and get on top of all the competition. With the broad variety
of businesses in America, there most likely are diverse types of reading and
writing throughout this field. Demand for higher education is rising in every
field and having more than basic reading and writing skills only improves

ones abilities. I will discuss why reading and writing is important to

entrepreneurs.
Previously stated evidence has shown that entrepreneurs have
succeeded without much reading and writing. But if entrepreneurs are
passionate and dedicated to their business, having more than just basic
reading and writing skills would not hurt. Reading and writing improve
communication and critical thinking skills, which all entrepreneurs need.
These skills are needed to understand problems and resolve them, and to
efficiently communicate with employees and customers. The type of writing
done in business is fairly simple. Entrepreneurs write business plans,
inventory papers, professional online communications with employees, and
even advertise their own business. Many entrepreneurs write daily routines
for themselves and their employees. Having goals and plans written down is
advised because it reminds the entrepreneurs what they want and where
they are. Some entrepreneurs even blog about their business. They write
things like pros and cons about owning a business, and what is working and
not working for them in their business. Most of these types of writing is done
on a daily basis for entrepreneurs. Business owners write to stay on top of
everything dealing with their business. When an entrepreneur needs an
employee to come in, they have to communicate with them through call or
online source. They have to be clear and easy to understand. Also
entrepreneurs write to see what products they need more or less of. When

they go out and check their inventory, they need to see which product is
popular and unpopular with consumers.
The audiences for the writing entrepreneurs do are employees,
customers, and other entrepreneurs which is mostly public and professional.
Business owners have to communicate efficiently with their employees to set
up schedules and teach them how to communicate with customers. If the
entrepreneur takes the initiative to advertise by himself, he has to know that
it takes a lot of creative writing. The advertisements have to not only attract
the customers, but make them buy it. Also entrepreneurs speak to each
other. They write articles about the changes they see in their field and how
things can be improved.
All entrepreneurs should read to keep up with trends and learn new
knowledge about owning a business. Some publications entrepreneurs read
are Fast Company, The Accelerators, Inc., The Washington Post, The
Huffington Post and of course, Forbes. Throughout these publications, advice
is given about how to start up a business, ideas, marketing knowledge,
management strategies, and how to stay on top. The individuals behind the
masthead of these publications make it their mission to publish relevant and
timely pieces that help business owners and entrepreneurs stay wellinformed of changes and trends in the market, states Forbes author Paul
brown. (Brown)

After all the research Ive attained, I learned that writing is in fact
important but not used as much as other fields. Many of the articles stated
that most entrepreneurs have basic reading and writing skills, but it is a one
up if they have more than basic skills. The academic Journal I read did not
target entrepreneurs but was written about entrepreneurs mentality. The
Journal also used complex language that a regular audience would not
understand. The audiences for the academic journal are professors and
psychiatrists. The reason for this audience is because it was written as an
academic journal, found in a database. This piece was written by business
and psychology professors for other professor and researchers. This article
states a lot of facts, statistics, and evidence which shows credibility, and by
the complexity shows that it would be hard to understand for the public.
The professional article was easier to understand and was targeted for
other professionals. Kraig Kramer is the author for this article and is credible
because he has been the CEO of 8 different types of companies. He has
experience all the negatives and positive of owning a business, and is an
expert entrepreneur. This source was published on a website called Vistage.
Vistage has been a top site for entrepreneurs to share ideas and strategies
since 1957. It is a mostly private site that needs membership sign up, which
is why this article is for other professionals in business field. The article is
straight forward, uses business terminology, and shows entrepreneurs new
strategies of how to run a successful business. From reading a couple of

professional articles, I have observed that most of the articles show facts and
evidence about entrepreneurs, with very reliable, experienced authors.
The public source is available to everyone but also targeted for
professionals. Forbes is known to be one of the best public sources for
entrepreneurs. Even though it is available to anyone, their authors are
credible because they are informed about the business field. Forbes is a
website that is recommended to entrepreneur that wants to learn about
business for a credible public site. The author of the professional article I
chose is Panos Mourdoukoutas, a journalist and a Professor and Chair of the
Department of Economics at LIU. He has published books about
entrepreneurship and is well recognized in the business world. When it
comes down to public websites, there are more reliable sources than others.
Forbes is a great, public source for all types of people.
How do entrepreneurs communicate with other entrepreneurs and their
customers? They use the Rhetorical Appeals. For my public source the author
tried to communicate with the audience by telling stories of entrepreneur
failing, which displays an emotional connection. Many entrepreneurs have
failed so they know how it feels to not succeed. He then goes on to give
advice about what business owner can fix and strategies to follow to be
successful. Entrepreneurs used emotional appeals to attract customers. For
example, commercials display values we all have to sell their products.
Things like family, safety, and entertainment are some of the shared values

always shown in advertisements. The academic journal I found has the logos
appeals written all over it. In the journal there are stats, mathematical
equations, evidence, and studies done. At the end it all connected but it was
hard to understand. The journal gave statistics about mindset in business
owners. The appeals were used differently because there were different
audiences for each of the sources I found. Some were for professionals and
the public and others were for researchers and professors.
The jargon between the sources I studies were different. The academic
journal used a lot of complicated words and equations; this is because the
targeted audience is other professors and researchers. Some examples of
complex terminology are words like incremental and entity theory,
Appendices A,B, and C, and malleable. All the research and math equations
is also very complex for the regular audience. The Professional article was
the source that used the most jargon than any other source I found. The
author used phrases like: reasonable but reaching budget (RbR), walk the
four corners (w4c), and bigger more audacious goal (BAG). It was all
business terminology that I did not understand but other entrepreneur would.
I would stay that this article was written for experience business owner.
Finally, the public source didnt use much business terminology. The author,
even though very credible, wrote this article fairly straight forward so that
everyone could understand it. Some phrases uses in this article are
consumer centered, ultimate goals, and clear vision.

There are multiple challenges most entrepreneurs face. An issue that

entrepreneurs face is of course failure. 80% of business owners fail within the
first 18 months (Wagner). The most common reason for failure is finances,
but other reasons are lack of uniqueness, disconnection with customers, and
failed business models. Other trending topics are about right ways to run a
business, strategies, marketing, dedication, finance, and many more. Most of
the topics in this field are based around experiences and how to run a
business the right way.
After doing all this research for my desired field, I learn a large quantity
of things. I learned that writing is used for different purposes. The way
writing is the most useful is through advertisements. When advertising, the
owner has to be creative and use proper language. They need attention
grabbers to attract their customers. If the entrepreneurs advertise correctly
profits will increase for his/her business. Entrepreneurs also use writing to
improve skills like communication skills and critical thinking. Without these
skills an entrepreneurs would most likely fail to run their business. While
doing this report, I found out that entrepreneurs are a different kind of breed.
They need to possess multiple traits and skills, they need to be dedicated to
an extreme level, and they need to adapt to the changes in the field. I found
all of this interesting because I did not know many of these traits. Experience
is also something that I learn I need before going into the business field.
Some of the things I learned confirmed my understanding of business. Like
dedication, good advertising, and good communication. There were also

contradictions that I came across. Networking, reading blogs, and no

personal life are some of the things that I thought about completely different.
I will look at these challenges and implement them to my life positively
In conclusion, everything that Ive learned will be useful for my future.
After all the things that Ive, learned I will approach my field more confident,
simply because of all the knowledge Ive implanted into my mind. I will have
to take more courses to become a better entrepreneur. Classes like
psychology and debate will improve my critical thinking and communications
skills even more. Something significant that I have learned is that most than
half of Americas business owners didnt peruse a higher education.
Hopefully with my business degree I will have a higher paying career and
more knowledge about business than others. Education is something
everyone should include in their lives. It only improves us as individuals. It
makes us more aware and smarter to deal with any type of situation. I would
recommend to everyone to acquire a college degree. Experience is important
in this field, but adding an education to the experience will make an
entrepreneur bullet proof.

Works Cited
Brown, Paul. "23 Things Every Entrepreneur Must Know." 22 September 2013.
Forbes. 1 December 2015.
Nazar, Jason. "16 Suprising Statistics About Small Businesses." 9 September 2013.
Forbes. 25 November 2015.
Tice, Carol. "Does College Matter For Entrepreneurs?" 11 September 2011.
Entrepreneur. 3 December 2015.
Wagner, Eric. "Five Reasons 8 Out Of 10 Businesses Fail." 12 September 2013.
Forbes. 3 December 2015.