I went for “visual strategist” - full disclosure, I read about this on another site - but it certainly goes beyond just, “graphic layout dude” or “code monkey”. Gives a better coverage of all that is involved in all aspects of design.
that’s my 2 cents
For a while I used ‘lord of the web’ but there was a typo and ended up looking more like ‘lard of the web’. So now I don’t use anything. 
If you are in big firm then it is OK, otherwise it may seem a bit much.
I put Chief executive and Production Manager on my current Business card 
While running www dot flyingiranch dot com (Flying I Ranch - 2000-2006, site still up for posterity), I was “Technology Wrangler”, and the co-founder / my biz partner was “Design Wrangler”.
In any business, honesty is key. So the best policy is to call yourself the title that you are legally known as. Most small companies fall under the Sole Proprietor category, which, if it’s your company makes your title the “Sole Proprietor” or “Proprietor”
If, however, you incorporated your company, your title is whatever you had your lawyers put on the papers. In most cases that would be “President”. The term CEO implies that you have a board of directors or financial governing body that you have to answer to. CEO is far too often misused.
Hope that helps.
I bill myself as a freelancer, and have different business cards for different purposes, so I just have ‘Freelance XYZ’ on each card.
Back when I was part of a Ltd Company, I had Director. Before that company went Ltd, I was a ‘Manager’.
I totally agree, go with no title. I also think it’s sad when there’s a 1 or 2 man show and somebody is the “President & CEO”. Nobody cares about your title, now get back to work :).
Proprietor Director (official title i suppose since its Ltd company, put on few bank applications)
Sys Admin (better describes my role)
Chief Technical Monkey Slave (how i explain my job in a pub conversation)
WTH, For the past two years I have the same question haunting my mind. Sometimes I get an urge to print a business card but when the question what the hell should I call myself here comes I get too confused and skip the card IDEA. Still surfing through 27 responses I have not got a clue…So am i doing something in this world which can be shown or said to others…
@Arvind_Reloaded: Dude, get your act together. Just leave the space open if it bothers you so much. But get those cards printed and start spreading them. 
If you leave it open, people might ask what you do. Eeeexcellent opportunity to market yourself and your skills.
I have CEO now, but in the future I’ll only ever use Founder. Ultimately a title should be used for three reasons:
And, to me, those are in order. The primary purpose of a title for someone who owns their own business is to convey authority. It’s the same reason sales folk want Account Executive over Account Manager, or Sales Director instead of Sales Manager. Anything that makes them sound slightly higher up the totem pole makes closing the sale that much easier.
#2 is basically related.
#3 is what the whole “chief bottle washer” thing stems from… however you need to actually carry the humble title with humility and class, otherwise it’s actually false humility… which doesn’t look good on anybody.
Ultimately Founder means you can one day hire a CEO, gives you the clout that’s necessary and is a conversation starter.
There’s no reason anyone needs any other title, unless they’re trying to impress people (in my humble opinion, but feel free to disagree).
In future companies, I’ll only ever use Founder - unless I’m hired as a professional CEO after the fact - in which case, having the CEO title makes your job easier.
I used to hate forms that required a title field. Nothing seemed quite right as owner of my own business.
These days I use “Impossibility Remediation Specialist.” It’s actually a reasonably good description of what I do, it’s funny, and I can back it up.
I suppose it might actually lose me some work from people with no sense of humor, but I consider that a good thing. Those are not the clients I’m looking for.
I find being honest is not a bad choice.
I have my name and underneath it I put “IT Consultant” which is what I am. I can pretty much do any type of work programmatically/graphically!
It’s a fitting title if I must say so!
Regards,
MC
CEO really implies a large organization. I recommend Founder or just have a business card with contact info, company name and no title.
I do not put a title on my business cards even though I would consider myself a “Managing Partner”.
Is there any issue writing these arbitrarily chosen titles on something like a bank account application, though?
Say you have an LLC, do you legally hold any title other than “member” if you never officially held a meeting (with yourself if it’s a single member company) and took minutes appointing yourself to some other title?
At some point in the near future I’ll be launching my career as a freelance web designer and registering my business website as a small business in the UK. So on my business card, it’s likely to be my name, Founder and then my actual job title i.e. Web Designer, and then the name of my business followed by the URL of my business website.
So then potential clients will know I own the business, and they will know what my actual job is i.e. designing websites.
I use CAO - Chief administrative officer but hate to mention it. I avoid using it wherever possible… Just My Name with the Business Name in the Business Cards.
As it is a consulting business, I’ve used “Principal Consultant” on mine. Maybe not the most cool or clever solution, but it works for me.
Have him go to a professional resume writer, or don’t admit to being an owner, just an employee of the former company that happened to have the same name and be humble, not bitter.