[Inspired]

Are there any "converted to LLC" owners that post here? What do you call yourself now that you've converted?

Are you still the owner? Manager? Director of Celestial Sales? CEO? All the titles I can think of sound so much like a suit that it makes me somewhat uncomfortable.

Anyone else feel the same?

[Greensmith]

My business cards and related official papers say president. I still wear all the hats though

[Nebraska]

Officially in our LLC I am the Managing Member. I prefer to use the title of Operations Manager, as it allows me to defer to "upper management" when necessary.

[Mac]

Nebraska, I really like your defer idea. Im going to become managing partner in a few years but may choose to title it op. man. after hearing your thought.

[Matt Kulp]

Why would you be embarrassed to let people know you are owner or president? You work hard for the business you are building and there is no shame in telling people who you are. I personally think that customers feel a sense of security knowing that the owner/president/CEO is personally taking care of them.

We went Inc. last year and I officially took the title of President. That being said, I don't wave it around on a flag, but if someone ask I will tell them.

[jamesn162]

i gotta go with nebraska on this one i have found that people like the feeling knowing that there are others behind me that in part could be due to my age which is 25. people feel a sense of security thinking that there is a group of people beyond the 25, goodlooking sales guy so i also use the title of COM, chief operations manager.....this is the first year i switched to using this title and i have a 37% higher closing rate....call me crazy

[Inspired]

Matt:

I guess technically I'm not the owner anymore now that we are an LLC. Do you have "President" on your business card?

[Matt Kulp]

Originally posted by Inspired
Matt:

I guess technically I'm not the owner anymore now that we are an LLC. Do you have "President" on your business card?

I don't know a whole lot about LLC's (we are a S corp), but I would imagine you are issued stock when you form the entity, or am I wrong? If you are issued stock, you are still an owner. It doesn't matter if its 10% or 90%, you still own stock in the company, therefore you are still the owner.

To answer your questions though, yes I do have "President" on my bus. card in small letters. I don't want to bring attention to it, but its there if anyone cares.

[Inspired]

Officially my title is "Statutory Member". It sounds like I'm a club secretary or something.

[Mac]

Matt, its the same reason I chose not to use my name in my business name; I dont want this thing to be about me. So, I saying Im an operations manager, it is just another way in saying its not about me. Im just one piece in a wheel that keeps turning. But also as Nebraska said, as a last resort, it allows you to buy some time in the case of a very challenging issue.

[Matt Kulp]

Mac,

Just because I use the title President on my business cards does not mean that I think its about me.

Your right in the fact that we should be a piece in the wheel, however you are the piece that holds the wheel together and steers the way. I also will never shy away from my responsibility as a business owner or whatever you call me, to deal with very challenging issues. The fact that an owner would say that he is something other then he is to get out of a uncomfortable situation surprises me, it sounds like something my employees would say. The title is not for vanity, but more for identifying my position in the company. I give my employees all the credit for the success of our company. They will be the first to tell you its not about me, but more about our customers and them.

[TrickyDick]

We are an LLC with two members. I usually use the term owner or partner though I don't think either of those are technically correct. There is no stock, there is no board (and therefore no President or Secretary, etc.) Ocassionally you are forced to call yourself President or something on a form that doesn't have a box to check for LLC members but other than that we make it up as we go, as with most LLC related stuff.

[kinnanscaping]

I formed as Kinnan-Scaping, LLC...my last name is Kinnan. I DO want people to recognize my name/company. I want the quality, integrity and passion of my company and employees to be direct reflections of those characteristics in me. I think that everyone that forms a company has an ego to some degree. Obviously there are tax and liability incentives, but ultimately we want to be the boss, run the show and be recognized. If you started your OWN company, how is that not about you? To simply say that you are a part of the wheel is not even being humble; it is just being plain passive. Deference seems to be pretty passive, too. I am not sure how much time you really buy yourself by "deferring to higher ups." As I will continue to defer, though, I am a newbie owner, and I may re-think this all too soon. By the way, nobody says that you have to have any sort of title designated to your business cards. Mine do not have a title...of course they all say Kinnan-Scaping, followed by my full name!

[Nebraska]

I personally think that customers feel a sense of security knowing that the owner/president/CEO is personally taking care of them.

My role as the Owner/President/CEO is not to personally take care of my customers. This is why we hire foreman, crew leaders, and account managers.

I think that everyone that forms a company has an ego to some degree. Obviously there are tax and liability incentives, but ultimately we want to be the boss, run the show and be recognized..........To simply say that you are a part of the wheel is not even being humble; it is just being plain passive. Deference seems to be pretty passive, too.

Personally, my ego does not come from this business. This business does provide the means by which I can "feed" that ego though. If the occasional deference allows me minimal interruption from my focus, then I'll defer all day if necessary. I'm sorry if your interpretation of deference is passive.

[Stonehenge]

This is an interesting discussion - in the world of search engine optimization, there seems to be a severe case a small-man's disease sweeping the industry, as anyone who has even 2 employees calls themselves a CEO. I went on a rant about how to be a CEO you must first have EO's, and to have that you need managers, laborers, etc, and how if you call yourself CEO of a 2-man show, it makes you look like you're making up for, say, a deficiency somewhere.

But to the point, LLC "owners" are called members. GTX is an LLC, but calling myself a member when we're all members is kinda weird. So I call myself the administrator. My landscaping company is an S corp, I have no title on my business card, but when asked I call myself the president.

As I learned from the shortcomings of those in the SEO industry, titles are tossed around like nerf balls. Pick one that suits you and run with it. If you can choose one that gives you an out for certain situations like Nebraska, more power to you (kind of a cool idea). Or you can make it funny. Call yourself "Master of the Universe". Whatever. I don't think the client will have as many hang-ups over it as we will.