Hello!
As the title already suggests I was wondering what a good job title is to promote yourself with. (business cards, websites, LinkedIn etc.)
I already asked around some of my connections and these are some of the title’s used: Creative Director, Owner, CEO and Self Employed.
So now the big question, what do you guys use as your job title and which one would you prefer??
I prefer not to use one. In a one-man-shop, you are the business, so the company name = your title. Titles like CEO or Director sound pretentious, and imply management of other people.
That depends how you legally form your business. If you form your business as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or llc you’re an Owner. If your form your business as a corporation you’re also a CEO. At least, that’s how those titles work in the United States. I see you’re in the Netherlands.
God 
My official title is President, but in reality, it’s more like SLJO (Sh*tty Little Jobs Officer). 
Game developer
I normally use Developer or Owner
Head Honcho (and sub honchoid).
Sometimes Supreme and Exalted Overlord works well, but my damed cockatoo can’t pronounce that.
BTH
Secretary
I concur.
Same here. If I must put something, then usually “Owner”. Things like CEO and President are reserved for corporations, I think.
If it doesn’t matter (i.e., magazine subscription, website registration), I put something funny, like “Lord and Master”, or “Programmer Supreme”.
I have 8 employees but i use Owner/technical director.
VP of doing everything.
I’d suggest not calling yourself the Owner but instead something like Vice President or Development Director or something which implies that you have someone above you who you must answer to. That way you always have an excuse when people are trying to sell you stuff - “I’m sorry, I’m not authorised to make those decisions” or “I’ll have to ask my manager about that”
I use Owner. Heirarchical titles implies structure, regardless of business legal form. I know of smaller companies (with staff) where the owners use various titles, but that really doesn’t help when working with others. If you’re dealing with larger companies, then you don’t really have the shared experiences (at least with your own company) of their equilivent management, which doesn’t (in the end) help you.
What I mean by that is, if you call yourself CEO, while you do have CEO things you need to do (set direction, ensure operations, budget, et al), you have little in common with EA’s CEO say, who has to answer to the board of (shareholder) directors. Now, that said… if you run your business like a large company, and go out and assemble a board of directors (you don’t need shareholders to do that), actually have some staff and business you’re running day to day, then you may have a good case for the title. In the end, the reason to use a title is to denote some role you are primarily responsible for doing. Where that fails for most is when A) you really aren’t doing that job, and other’s think you’re just “over marketing yourself” and B) when working with people who do have that job, because you may be radically off base in talking with them by simply not fully understanding what the role is. Any job with C at the front of the title is a financial job, first and foremost, that’s a mistake many people make when talking to CIOs or COOs.
Owner (in my opinion) is the most accurate title… you get to do everything (like it or not)
Hope that helps,
Galen
If you’re married… that’s the truth!