Business Strategies for Dyslexic Entrepreneurs

Dyslexics Entrepreneurs excel at big picture thinking, leadership and communication. These traits are perfect for Leadership positions, like CEOs, Directors, etc.

However, promotion to these roles is only likely through achievement or attrition.

Signs of achievement are often based on linear strengths some dyslexics do not have.

People with linear skills excel in corporate structures and other institutions, including school. 

However having dyslexia means that some weaknesses, like lack of detail, structuring reports, nonlinear thinking will never see you being promoted to jobs you would naturally excel at.

It makes no sense to me to recruit a leader base on non-leadership skills.

Here is your Dyslexia Entrepreneurial Playbook.

Dyslexia—difficulty with organisation, learning, working memory, Parker C. (1998). British Dyslexia Association handbook. Reading.

1. Delegate!

This may also be linked to the trend reported in this study that dyslexics are more able to delegate. This ability to delegate is an example of the ‘coping strategies’ dyslexics employ to overcome their difficulties (Everatt et al., 1999).

You may go on to build a permanent team or of people, you can rely on. And perhaps create a business.

2. Build a team!

Dyslexics employed more staff than non-dyslexics and this too was statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. The mean number of staff employed was 17 for non-dyslexics and 25 for dyslexics.

If the number of staff employed is taken as a measure of company size and turnover.  This together with evidence that suggests that dyslexics have been running their companies for less time, and may have more than one company, may suggest that:

dyslexics are able to grow their companies more quickly. 

"What is an Entrepreneur?: There is a fundamental difference between owner managers and entrepreneurs. "If owner managers of small businesses were really entrepreneurial, the businesses would not remain small for long." 

Bolton, B., & Thompson, J. (2000). Entrepreneurs: Talent, temperament, technique. Heinemann Butterworth."

3. Communicate!

Dyslexia literature suggests that dyslexics compensate for their lack of written skills by developing enhanced communication skills (Nicolson & Fawcett, 1999).

Communication skills are an essential business tool.

4. Be positive!

Despite under-achievement, many US Entrepreneurs perceived school as a positive experience. The reason for this may be linked to early identification and remediation in the US, which has until relatively recently not been the case in the UK.

The lack of intervention in the UK and the resulting consequences may be the reason for the difference in the incidence of dyslexia in the UK and US entrepreneurship populations.

However developing a positive self-image was the deciding factor.

5. Get a mentor

It a bit like haveing a mirror of your future self. The role of a mentor was identified as being a key factor in the decision to embark on an entrepreneurial career for the dyslexic. Does this suggest that those dyslexics who had a mentor had gone on to succeed? Morris (2002) discusses the role of mentoring.

However, a successful role model (often the father) seems to be the key. 

It is very possible that the fathers of the dyslexics in this study (who were successfully running family businesses) were also dyslexia (it is hereditary) and therefore proved to be very powerful role models.

6. Get a grammar spell checker

Thirty-nine respondents experienced difficulty with spelling and pronunciation of long words and sequencing. 

I use grammarly. An inline spellchecker and grammar nerd built into my browser.

7. Micro Delegate

Ask people to leave that message in a way that helps you. Thirty-six out of had difficulty taking down and passing on messages. 

So why not ask people to send me an email, text, or put them through. 

8. Get an electronic calendar

My micro delegation tool is calendly.com. The other most common problems included learning tables and mixing up appointments. Some respondents had answered no to ‘Do you muddle dates and times?’ and ‘Do you mix up dates and appointments?’, but actually said they could not manage without their electronic diaries. 

I get clients to book their appointment straight into my google calendar using calendly.com

9. Fail fast

Many of the Entrepreneur had early large businesses. 

Compare to non-dyslexics who had small long established businesses. Also, dyslexic entrepreneurs had more than one concurrent business.

10. Take risks

The main report indicates that Dyslexics often have ADHD. ADHD is often linked with risk taking, one of the traits of being an Entrepreneur.

All entrepreneurs were likely to say that they had a high level of risk taking. 

Taking risks is not often associated with corporate jobs.

11. Avoid Corporate! 

If you disliked school then don’t go corporate. Start your own business. 35% Of US Entrepreneurs are Dyslexic 19% for the UK. Less than 1% US, and 3% UK of corporate managers reported as dyslexic or extremely dyslexic.

This raises question:

• Is corporate environment is conducive for ALL dyslexics (Fitzgibbon & O’Connor, 2002)?
• Are there barriers that prevent dyslexics reaching management levels within these organisations?
• Are these the same processes we see in schools?
• If something changes in schools will we see the benefits in society for Dyslexics?

Dyslexics find it very stressful to cope in a structured company environment and are more comfortable managing a situation in which they can control the variables and therefore may prefer to focus their energies on the startup phase (Fitzgibbon & O’Connor, 2002; Taylor & Walter, 2003).

12. Leave a Comment

Thanks for reading. Many entrepreneurs found that the comments they left helped and others. Comments became inspirational for other dyslexics. Leaving comments to help you understand what you have learnt. And it helps me the writer, write something better.

Leaving comment shows that you are positive and are gaining self-confidence.

And finally, if you think leaving a comment is a risk, set up a separate Gmail account and leave a comment that way...

Please let me know what your:

• Top dyslexic entrepreneurial strategy. 
• Leave any tips for and anyone else reading. 
• Any constructive feedback below.
• Any requests

Also if you have a learning disability I am looking for blog contributors. I don't have any criteria, video, text, pictures, sound, just contact me.

Credits

Thet stats for this blog post were taken from - Dyslexic Entrepreneurs: The Incidence; Their Coping Strategies and Their Business Skills by Julie Logan

Cass Business School, Bunhill Row, London, UK

PDF link here: http://www.cassknowledge.com/sites/default/files/article-attachments/419~~julielogan_dyslexic_entrepreneurs.pdf