LLC Owner Title 2024: What Should You Know?

If you started a limited liability company (LLC), you may have one so by yourself or as a single LLC member amongst other LLC owners. Either way, you may be wondering what to call yourself. 

Are you a chief executive officer? What about a chief financial officer? Or are you a member manager or a managing member? There are so many titles to consider as an LLC business owner it can be challenging to figure it out.

That’s why we’ve created this guide. It covers all of the titles LLC owners may want to consider using and provides the best options for small business owners with different types of manager-managed LLC companies.

Keep reading to learn more.

Read More: Best Registered Agent Services 2024

What are Official Titles for LLC Owners & Managers?

Your official name as the owner of a limited liability company is an LLC member. That’s true regardless of whether there are multiple LLC members (LLC owners) or you’re the only managing member.

However, if you have multiple LLC members, there are situations in which you may want to use other titles for yourself. 

For example, a company with multiple LLC members may want to distinguish between the chief financial officer, creative director, and chief operating officer. Assigning these LLC titles would make it clear what each person’s role would be as the owner of an LLC or manager-managed LLC.

You may also need to use LLC titles in your operating agreement for the purpose of legal documents like loan applications. Using an official title for each LLC owner will help you sign legal documents more effectively and qualify for more support from third parties such as loans. 

LLC Owner Titles to Consider

There are quite a few different official titles you may want to use as either a single LLC owner or one of several LLC managers. This is a list that includes:

• Chief operating officer
• President or vice president
• Creative director
• CEO
• Managing director
• Technical directors
• Owner

The truth is that some of these titles are interchangeable with one another. For example, calling yourself the president or managing director of limited liability companies will likely have the same connotation either way.

However, there are some slight distinctions between traditional titles that are worth keeping in mind. For example, a chief executive officer is not the same thing as a chief operating officer. These distinctions matter for management responsibilities and day-to-day operations in a member-managed LLC with more than only one member.

LLC Owner Titles to Avoid or Use with Caution

You have total freedom with corporate titles and officer titles when setting up a member-managed LLC. But there are some you should avoid as you think about what to call each member manager or owner of an LLC.

For example, you should avoid humorous titles as these could reflect poorly on your business partners. It’s better to use a traditional title for all company operations to ensure your business is viewed positively by the community.

It’s also important to use correct titles over inaccurate titles or vague titles. For example, if you only oversee the creative aspects of your company, calling yourself a creative director is the best option as far as C-level titles go. It wouldn’t make as much sense to call yourself a technical director.

Finally, you should also avoid made-up titles. You can use these internally if you want in multi-member LLCs with complicated daily operations. But on your business card for your LLC or S corp, all LLC managers should use traditional titles that people outside the organization will understand.

Choosing a Title for LLC Owners

When choosing titles for multiple members, it’s best to start by considering what aspect of business operations each managing partner will be responsible for doing.

For example, the person in charge of your website may be a technical director. And the person who oversees daily operations could be the chief operating officer for your business. If you called members something that relates to their responsibility as an owner, you can’t go wrong.

That being said, if you want a flexible business structure, then it could make sense to use more nebulous titles in your company’s operating agreement. For example, you could call each person an owner of the company or a founder.

These types of titles for LLC members may work best when you don’t know what each person will be doing as of the time you submit your operating agreement. It could make sense to adjust each member manager title down the line, but no matter what your LLC called, they can always be an owner of an LLC as their official title.

What’s The Best LLC Owner Title?

There is no single best LLC owner title. Rather, it will depend on how many members you have and what each will do for your company.

Every owner will likely have equal rights, so titles are just a way to communicate externally and internally the specific responsibilities that each owner has while running the business. A person responsible for helping you save money may be called a chief accountant, whereas the owner who oversees product designs could be the creative director.

The roles for a single-member LLC owner or sole proprietorship are a bit different. For example, if you’re a sole proprietor, you can simply call yourself the owner or founder of the sole proprietorship and be done with it since you don’t have to worry about defining roles for multiple members in an operating agreement or letting people outside the business know how people in the LLC refer to one another.

The Top 2 LLC Services

If you’ve been working with sole proprietorships and are ready to form either a one-person LLC or an LLC with more than one member, you may want to hire a company to help you fill out your operating agreement properly and submit it. Here are two of our favorite options for this.

ZenBusiness

ZenBusiness is a helpful company to partner with regardless of whether you have a single-member LLC or a business with multiple owners. They’ll help you secure personal liability protection for everyone in the business with an ironclad operating agreement.

ZenBusiness also stands out by offering after-hours customer support. This can be helpful if you ever need guidance with things like liability protection or titles outside of standard business hours. The company will help you out with accounting and taxes as well if you’re looking for that kind of support.

Northwest Registered Agent

Northwest is another strong option that can help you turn your company into a fully-formed LLC. They’ll help you with everything from figuring out what your LLC called to how the types of titles that should be used within the business for maximum clarity.

Northwest is slightly more affordable than ZenBusiness, which makes them a good fit for cost-conscious customers. But you won’t get as many different kinds of support from this company or access to after-hours support for your business.

Read More: Best LLC Services 2024

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is that most LLC owner titles are fine to use. The only things you need to think about while choosing titles for each member of your company are what their role will be and how you want to convey that to the outside world.

As a general rule of thumb, it’s best to avoid titles that are made up or unclear. But no matter what people inside the LLC called, clarity is the most important factor to consider. Keep that in mind as you make these decisions for your business and you shouldn’t have any problems.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)