Unless you have somehow managed to establish and build a home business where you never write anything or say anything to another living soul–grammar DOES have a role to play in your business. I know there are some of you out there who do not want to hear that, and you might even think that YOUR customers are tolerant and patient and don’t care if you use proper grammar or not. That might be true to some extent, but eventually if you do not have a handle on decent grammar essentials, it could hurt your business.
To set your mind at ease, I want to first say that there is never only “one” way to say or write things. This means that there is not just one right way and a bunch of wrong ones. This said, you should still spend a little time making sure that you understand the basics: parts of speech, how to put a sentence together properly, and the punctuation that makes your sentences and paragraphs easy to read and understand. You certainly do not need to use big words or put together convoluted sentences (in fact, complicated does not necessarily mean understandable or good), but watch out for incomplete sentences, made-up or misspelled words and unclear statements. When in doubt, look it up or go for something simple that you DO know how to write or say.
Finally, Mom and your eighth grade English teacher were right–slang words do not impress when it comes to business communication–even if you are just chatting at a party or networking event. It might be alright to use slang “words” like “ain’t” when you are talking with friends or family, but in the business world, they just do not make you look good. Good grammar will help you grow your business in ways that poor grammar cannot.
Also: Is Instant Messaging Ruining My Kids’ Spelling and Grammar?