How can you choose the most appropriate job title when wearing many ‘hats’ in your company?

Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose.  I am a speaker and author. I am an expert in time and project management.

I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff.  I have a knack for turning big ideas into on time and profitable projects.

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

Today’s comment came from a busy business owner:

As a very new small business, anyone I bring on to my team is going to be responsible for more than one area of expertise. How can I name or define their positions when they are going to be doing much more than one thing?

Regardless of the title – you should have a full job description and even a Personal Business Commitment (PC) Plan for each of your employees (SMART Goals for the coming year).  Their PBC’s should be based off your PBC’s and shows specifically how their role and responsibilities will help you achieve your PBC’s or SMART Business Goals for the coming year.  Then during your quarterly performance reviews, you can easily measure their performance against their yearly goals – and give the appropriate tweaks and encouragement.  Explicitly spelling out their roles and responsibilities is slightly different that giving their position a title.  If you need help creating PBC’s, lets chat.

When giving titles, I recommend select a title that best supports or helps achieve their business goals. Consider the end-user of their business cards.   For example – if you have a employee that is a developer, but he also goes on the road with the Sales Staff to setup the demos and man the trade-show booths; I would give him the title of Subject Matter Expert or Technical Sales Engineer.  Something – when given to the customer assures the customer that he is knowledgeable about the client’s use of the product as well as encouraging the client to call them about making the sale.

What if your project manager also does the accounting and bookkeeping for your small business?  This person also answers the phones and fills in as the receptionist.   Although this person wears many hats, the title on their business card should be Project Manager, because affluent clients receiving that business card are more apt to carry on business dealings and conversations with the Project Manager over a book keeper or receptionist.

If you only have one sales person on your team and they also man the tech support line, their title on their business card should be Sales Manager – because an affluent client feels more important talking to the Sales Manager – than either sales person or a technical support person.  They feel that the Sales Manager can actually get something done in the company.

Think about your business goals – and which title (from their many hats) is going to support bringing in the money.

Also – there is nothing wrong with creating multiple business cards with the different job titles.  Then you give out the appropriate card at the right occasion.  I don’t recommend doing 1 business cards with all the titles like:  Project Manager/Developer/Tester.  You want to present clarity, confidence and expertise to your potential client.  Showing them that you are a jack of all and master of none will defeat the purpose.

Photo by Jose Aljovin on Unsplash