How to Write Your Title on Your Business Card

In this age of electronic communications, the simple business card still has an important place in marketing you and your enterprise. It's surprising how often handing out your card at networking events can result in new business or new opportunities. In designing your business card, you want to go for something eye-catching, but you still want the basic information — including your job title — to be clear and easily understood.

If you're in charge, you need to decide what title properly captures the image you want to project. If it's something simple, like "Founder and CEO," you're all set — this is easy to format and can be scanned quickly and understood easily by the reader. However, some business owners are going with a more creative slant, such as "Chief Troubleshooter" or "Magic Maker." Essentially you should think about your target audience. If you want to start a great conversation or stand out from the crowd in a hot field, then a creative title is a good choice. If your company is in a more traditional industry and you want to be taken seriously, stick to something more conventional.

If you are a freelancer or a consultant, you have a different challenge in picking a job title. The essence, for a business card, should be something succinct and easily understood that encapsulates your most important skills and makes people want to hire you. Hence "writer" might be too vague. Go with something slightly more specific — for example "screenwriter" or "journalist," depending on your skill set. You can add more than one title if it's important; for instance, "chef and restaurateur," or express your title in terms of specific skills — "marketing and web design."

Your company's name and your name will be the most prominent features of your business card — one in a graphic logo form, the other in text. For a conventional look, your title should appear justified on the line below your name, in the same font but a couple of points smaller.

You may want a more modern or stylish look for your business card, particularly if you are in a creative profession. In this case you can play around with how you present your job title in relation to your name. You could have your name in lowercase italic, with your job title in bold and all caps on the same line. Or you could present the two in different colors. Alternatively you could have both pieces of information stacked conventionally but justified on the right-hand side of the card.