Writing in entrepreneurship

Writing is a crucial part of being an entrepreneur. Learning how to write in an effective manner depending upon the situation can help one go a long way in their planning, organising or assembling of information. In its essence, writing is a form of expressing oneself, and this is a crucial skill for in the field of entrepreneurship. Before an entrepreneur starts a business he/she must have an idea, one that needs to be written down and brainstormed. Subsequently, It must then be organised into analytical business proposals, summative powerpoints, or even informative contracts. Most of these types of writing skills should be mastered by an entrepreneur that wishes to be successful especially during the beginning stages of starting a business as he/she is unlikely to have sufficient capital to hire other people to help complete the tasks.
History of Reading and Writing in Entrepreneurship
Even though the primary method of communication is through speech, reading and writing has always been a very important type of communication in human history. Reading and writing is inseparable, the only reason we write is to convey a message to the readers, and vice versa, the only purpose we learn to read is to be able to understand information that writers are trying to express.
Historically, reading and writing has always been an essential part of human interaction; needless to say, reading and writing has always been crucial in entrepreneurship. However, as technology advances we have learned to adapt or adjust to different ways of reading and writing.
Changes in ways of Reading and Writing
Entrepreneurship has, to some extent, always been part of human history. Writing up a contract in order to ensure security has also been one of the necessities before starting a business. However, it wasn't until the late 1950's that contracts began to be written on computers. It is due to our technological advancement that our method of drafting a contract has changed.
The process of reading a contract has also changed drastically over time. Nowadays, before signing a contract we must read through it very carefully. In fact, entrepreneurs often hire lawyers to review contracts with them side by side. This is an act of protecting ones' interests and rights. Also, as a result of globalisation, many entrepreneurs also require help from translators and lawyers from different countries and different cultures to help them review the necessary readings. Evidently, entrepreneurs are required to read much more in depth due to the social paradigms of today's society.
Changes in types of Reading and Writing
In today's society we see more and more brilliant young minds upsurge in the many new fast-growing economies. In turn, the general phenomenon is that many new entrepreneurs are being bred, and hence the market competition is intensifying. Therefore, entrepreneurs today are encouraged to make changes in the ways that they approach writing. Today, one may reach out to another through an email instead of letter, and may present a product in a powerpoint instead of a typical written proposal.
One of the most commonly used quotes by entrepreneurs is "Time is money." Entrepreneurs tend to use this phrase very frequently as they often find themselves swamped in their day to day operations with seemingly insufficient time to delegate. Entrepreneurs now require a larger arsenal of reading skills, ranging from skimming, summarising, and deep reading depending upon the different types of writing.
Changes in purposes of Reading and Writing

Many people have different strengths but similar interests. So what happens when a strong writer is interested in entrepreneurship? Truth is that many people have found ways to utilise their writing strengths for entrepreneurial purposes. The top three most trafficking sites in the world is held by Google, Youtube and Facebook, which are all websites amassed with large number of different types of writings. Furthermore, a shift in today's job market also reflect upon this phenomenon. In recent years, the sales department have introduced a new job title, the internet salesperson. These are people that are salesmen that attempt to sell their product online through different platforms. Therefore, evidently the purposes of writing has also expanded beyond simply conveying information
If you had asked a random person "why do you read" in the 1990's, they would most likely answer "for pleasure." However, since the introduction and widespread of the internet, we have seen a significant change in the purpose of reading. As many more entrepreneurs launch their businesses online, we see a growing number of costumers online. In today's market, more and more customers turn to the internet for shopping, and instead of reading novels for pleasure, they are now reading product descriptions and customer reviews in order to make a judgement on whether or not to purchase a specific product.
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Reading in Entrepreneurship
Chinese entrepreneur Yifu Liu draws upon his own experience to summarise the four major types of reading skills an entrepreneur should master. These skills include:
* Skimming
* Summarising
* Deep reading
* Conclusive reading
Skimming is one of the most important types of reading skills required in today's business. This type of skill is typically used when an entrepreneur is surfing for information and trying to skim through different sources in order to quickly determine the relevancy of the source and whether or not to continue reading in depth.
Entrepreneurs are typically the best thinkers among us. In order for them to select and absorb information from a piece of writing, they tend to summarise the content in order to better understand it as a whole. Entrepreneurs often utilise this skill when it comes to reading a year-end evaluation or an extremely informative and detailed piece of writing.
Deep reading is what separates many of the successful entrepreneurs from the unsuccessful ones. Entrepreneurs that excel in deep reading usually have the propensity to discover the little, yet important details that others may leave out; such as a loophole in a contract or a potential lucrative market. This type of reading is routinely used when it comes to reading a contract or market analysis.
Finally, concluding is another major part of reading as an entrepreneur. Whether it's concluding the mistakes made or the reasons one succeeded, digging to the roots of the problems and righting the wrongs is fundamental to becoming a well-rounded entrepreneur. Therefore, conclusive reading is regularly employed when reading a summative report.
Writing in Entrepreneurship
Within a corporation there are many different types of writings that has to be done on a daily basis. According to Chinese entrepreneur Yifu Liu, there are four big categories in the types of writing in entrepreneurship that include:
* Summative
* Evaluative
* Analytical
* Legal
Summative writings are usually completed for authorities to view information such as their schedule, employee evaluations and general descriptions of products or services. These writings are often completed by assistants or secretaries.
Evaluative or conclusive writings are usually completed at the end of a project or period. Reports are written up to reflect the performance of a product or service the company offers. Evaluative writings also cover employee evaluations and year-end evaluations. These reports are usually completed by someone with higher authority such as department managers.
Analytical writings are very important to running a business. Before launching a product, extensive market researching must be completed. After assembling the information, an analysis report should be completed in order for executives to make more informed decisions. This task is often completed by members of the marketing department and then filtered by the manager before handing it in to the executives.
Legal forms writings mainly include contracts, banking records, registrations and even lawsuits. If an entrepreneur is to establish a legitimate company, he/she must go through several legal procedures. Furthermore, he/she must also take into account the establishment of ownerships, shares and potential lawsuits. Many times these documents are outsourced to be completed by a law firm, although at times a large company may have its own legal department.
Importance of Reading and Writing
Writing may be very important in entrepreneurship, but exactly how important is it? Yifu Liu says that "'without writing the world will be in chaos." Liu argues that writing is documented, and it's reliable, it is a form of communication that is just as important as verbal communication in the business world.
Carbonmade CEO Spencer Fry says "I don't have a clear picture in my mind of what I'm going to say. I've got a topic I want to talk about and a stance, but there's always wiggle room for me to formulate my thoughts. Writing everything down assists me through my thinking process and gets me to make strong calls on a topic."
Liu and Fry also confirmed the importance of reading. To them, reading and writing is like the chicken and the egg, without one the other would cease to exist. Therefore, reading is equally important as writing.
Future of Reading and Writing
Admittedly, the reading and writing in today's business world has changed drastically due to technological advancement, so how will reading and writing turn out to be in the future?
Liu states that "no matter how reading or writing changes in the future, it will always remain important"
According to Liu, language is the primary method of communication. Therefore as long as language exists, a method of recording information, hence writing and reading will always remain. In today's society, even though technology has already advanced significantly, we still choose to write up contracts and proposals instead of making a video or expressing it in a different type of way. This is because writing is the most effective way of recording down information. Furthermore, videos or powerpoints can be altered or forged, whereas writing in-print and signed in ink is always the most secure form of covenant that will exist.
Although Liu also pointed out that in his vision, there will be less and less writing in the future. Similar to the writing strategy "show not tell," as technology advances, more things will be done visually, such as electronic proposals, video-walkthroughs etc.
Furthermore, Liu says that he can see high-tech cognitive reading machines taking over some of the reading loads being implemented in the future. Nevertheless, the most important readings will still have to be done by human, as the process of drawing conclusions and inspiring ideas cannot be overtaken by machines.
Conclusion
Many people look at the well-accomplished entrepreneurs and they don't see them reading or writing at all, apart from signing contracts or giving a keynote presentation. In most cases this is true as the successful ones have no need to do the reading or writings by themselves. However, that does not defy the importance of reading or writing in entrepreneurship. It is very common to find a successful entrepreneur capable of writing in many different formats and reading in alternative methods, simply because they had to master those skills in the beginning stages of their business. Furthermore, as the decision-makers they also need a deep level of understanding of the writing in order to comprehend the different types of reports presented to them. Currently, in our business world, writing is arguably the best way of communicating, and reading is the only way of comprehending. It is convenient and universal, and therefore easy to utilise. It is also much more formal than any other types of communication. Regardless of the future of reading or writing in entrepreneurship, it is evident that both always have, and will continue to serve as a very important part in entrepreneurship.
Works Cited:
Liu, Yifu. Personal Interview. 02/10/2012.
Watters, Audrey. "Why Entrepreneurs Should Write." Read Write Web/Start. 01 08 2010: n. page. Web. 10 Oct. 2012. <http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/08/why-entrepreneurs-should-write.php>.

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