CEO? President? Partner? Director? Founder? Owner? As a small business owner or a startup owner are you undecided on what should your job title be?
Are you a small business owner or a startup owner and is undecided on what should your job title be? Can’t decide if it should be CEO, President, Partner, Director, Managing Director, Founder, Owner, etc
Before you can determine a job title, understand the associated roles each of these titles and how they differ from each other. Once you are aware of the tasks, it will be much easier for you to decide what is the right title with the role you are playing in the company.
1. CEO
The CEO is one who manages a few project managers each managing a few teams.
CEO / CTO’s or any chief officers or CO’s is the person that has few teams to manage.
As a small business owner, never use CEO or CTO as the title when you are starting and are the only employee or have few employees working for you.
2. President
The President has a CEO, CTO, and board of directors and is the public face of the organization.
The role of a president is often giving press releases, presentations in annual meetings, interviews on behalf of the company, etc.
It isn’t something that a small business owners title be.
3. Partner
In India partner as a role isn’t typical in private or public limited companies but more in a partnership firm which is more like a joint venture.
Joint ventures form because they have preferred not to create a private limited company.
Often the partner is a preferred choice of a job title for many small businesses or startups.
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4. Director
Every private limited company in India has directors and are the shareholders of the company. If I have to form the company, in ROC or registrar of the companies, I am a director of my private limited company.
So if you are forming a private limited company, you are official a director of the company, but the way I like it is to keep the Director title only in official documents where I sign for the company and not otherwise.
5. Founder / Owner
They both are very interchangeable here in India. Owner and founder are in charge of the complete operation of the business.
If you are the sole owner (or single founder), the title is Owner (Founder) else you are a co-owner (co-founder).
There is a slight variation among founder and owner. All owners may not be founders in a company. It can happen when a new owner or a new partner joins after the company much later. Similarly, a founder may not be the owner because he may prefer to be an employee and not own the company.
So though technically they are different, at a startup, they both can mean the same.
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The Title I Use
I prefer to avoid the job title and don’t have it on my business card either but if I had to I use Business Owner or Partner.
People use CEO (or CTO if they are technical) as the title because they think it may look cool on the business card, but it isn’t. On top of it, you are trying to be something that you aren’t which may give your client and customer a wrong impression.
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