Job Position for your own business

[Barry]

Hi there,

I plan to set up a business which sells software that I develop myself. To advertise my business, the basic things is for me to print my own name card that I could distribute it.

The problem I face now is what position name I should put in the name card? (like Chief Executive Officer, CEO and etc)

Being a one-man-show in my business, it is kinda difficult to put a position for myself. I am the programmer, the sales person, the account officer and etc!! Or I just leave it blank, without putting any position.

Please advice.

p/s: Maybe can give your position you gave yourself for your own business. Just for reference purposes

Barry

[BusinessMan]

It depends who I am communicating with.

If it's with an American, I go for CEO or CTO. If it's in the UK, I go for the generic 'Director', or 'Executive Director'. Essentially I try to go for something that is not particularly descriptive, but carries the message that I am positioned to make decisions.

There are exceptions of course: if I am discussing techie, say regarding hosting, perhaps I might change to something more specific, but usually, a generic title serves its purpose.

[Netlyte]

You can try something like:

Founder and Lead Programmer
Founder and Lead Developer
Founder and CEO

- Sam

[aaronmp2003]

I would just go with "Owner" or "President". That implies management as well as control over the company's policies and work flow.

[Barry]

Thanks guys for all your suggestion.

aaronmp2003, I think it is a weird to put such a name as "Onwner" or "President" though it really implies management and decision maker.

But I rather prefer Netlyte suggestion that is to put something like "Founder" then your own position. Which sound professional and attractive as well!

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestion and if anyone of you have better ideas, or you face this problem before, share with us what you put for your own position in your own company. Thanks a lot

[sbatz72]

I give myself the tile of CEO. Because first and formost you are the CEO. The CEO is the one who makes all decisions in the company. Yes, in your position you make all decisions for every position and this is okay. But, as far as printing business cards I would go with CEO, or maybe even simply owner, sole proprieter, CEO sole proprietor.

[delusional]

Either go with owner or founder and then something technical. It shows people you did this and did it good. You got there yourself and you are there to get your business even further.

[oregano]

Either go with owner or founder and then something technical. It shows people you did this and did it good. You got there yourself and you are there to get your business even further.

I agree that in your case it could be good to put two different titles/descriptions on you business card to show that it's your own business AND that you're a technical expert. If you prefer 'founder' over 'owner' then go for that first. On the line below that you should put something that describes the technical service you provide. 'Lead software developer', 'lead programmer' or whatever you feel most comfortable with. The 'lead' part is good to have even if you currently work on your own, as you might take on another tech expert, or outsource some of the work, in the future.

[Hostinv.com]

I also share the idea of using "Director", "General Director", or "Excutive Director". I've also seen companies in other sectors (advertising for example) that use weird or funny position names, not very usual into the business world, but the environment they move on has several particularities of this type.

[janineaa]

Owner is the most basic title for a proprietorship. CEO sounds like it's a huge company already. I like the sound of Director or Managing Director because they will know you are in control of everything.