I "tweet" interesting links and useful information only. Can't believe it? My country is getting used to all those abbreviations and weird names: CEO, PhD, MBA etc. Since we have a lot of firms coming from other parts of the world with their own hierarchies, you can imagine everyone is an Executive Manager, or General Manager .. Many of the employees “run” after these titles and like using them even when they look a bit … out of place.
While I can always understand the need to know where you stand in a serious corporation, call me weird, but I can’t see why in a small firm or self-employment situation you need to be “somebody”.
I had friends with family business where ALL family members were some sort of a “CEO”. No one was less than a huge butt kicker Manager, even if they could barely survive as a business and their entire operation was home based. Their business cards were amazing. You’d think they sit at the right of the “father” Bill Gates at least, or run Google Inc. Anyway, something huge, at least from what you would read there.
The truth is they are small. The truth is I AM SMALL. Right now I function as a freelancer. I do have my own small web design firm I run from my bedroom. Or from my BF’s bedroom or from a hotel. Wherever I go with my laptop, there’s my amazing office. Yes it’s small. Yes I have nothing to brag about, except for the fact I do earn my living and am no longer taking ..rap from any boss. I am my own boss and the CEO for my business.
And now I ask you: how would it appear for me to get a pompous name for my “job”? In a one-man-show firm I am the worker and the boss, the maid and the executive. Wouldn’t it look funny to put a nice long job title next to my name? Of course you know the size of my business, but hey, I can be “big” too, can’t I?
Well ..
No. I am “nobody”. My business cards have my name on them and 2-3 words about my services. A nice design, the email/site address/normal address and phone number. I am afraid you won’t be impressed with my business cards since I am just Ramona Iftode on them.
My title isn’t important. I don’t have other employees I need to “set apart” from, I don’t need my business cards or titles to say anything about what I can do or not. I have my clients to testify for my skills, I have my portfolio.
So, are you a “nobody” too?
I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work
When I opened my first e-commerce site, I was also nobody. But I learned quickly that, at least in the trading goods industry, this nobody thing doesn’t work. Apparently, people don’t trust someone who can be a webdesigner, a sales person and the technical department at the same time.
Especially with the technical department thing there was a problem. I was selling electronics (photo and video cameras, computer parts, printers, etc. – what can I say, i thought I could do better than emag
). Sometimes, I talked on the phone with customers who wanted to know technical stuff about the product. I couldn’t tell them ‘ Hey, let me check google and i’ll tell you all you need to know’ (i tryed once and the customer never returned). So I told them something like ‘Let me contact the technical department and I’ll give you a call in 5 minutes’.
With the distributors of my products there was another problem. As I look 10 years younger than my real age, I got a lot of “be a doll and make us a coffe” kind of looks
Well, it was a fun year after witch I sweared I will never again sell a product who didn’t came directly from my own hands/mind. I actually like better being ‘nobody’
I have a few titles (insurance-related) that I never use. I figure it will just confuse my clients more than anything!