5 situations where you shouldn’t call yourself CEO

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In this day and age, entrepreneurship is trending. The availability of jobs is diminishing. Fortune 500 companies rarely hire internally. Instead, they are hiring contingent workers through temp agencies. Plus, with the glorification of billion-dollar sups like Facebook and Instagram, entrepreneurship is becoming the cool new thing to do.

Because of that, more people are starting their own businesses, like you may have done for yourself.

As the founder of a company, you have big shoes to fill. You are in charge of everything from operations to finance to sales to marketing and strategy. All the weight lies upon your shoulders.

You may decide to call yourself a founder, or give yourself a different title. You may want others to recognize you as the big and powerful CEO. But in certain situations, that title comes with a downside. Why? Because when you have all the power, you have none of the power.

Here are five situations where you want to avoid calling yourself a CEO.

1. When you meet anyone with whom you will have to negotiate.

Let’s say you are the owner of a company that makes waffle makers and you have source out a manufacturer. You go into a meeting, and they tell you that you will have to pay $50,000 for 10,000 waffle maker units, plus another $5,000 for the casting.

Being the CEO, you have all the power in the company. You can’t say you don’t know what your budget is. You can’t say you need to go check with your CFO. You can’t say anything except yes or no.

You may think you have all the power going into the negotiation, you actually end up powerless.

I mean, you can try, but you’ll look weak when you negotiate by saying things like “I can’t afford it” or “This is too much for my company to pay.”

Who wants to give priority treatment or work that hard at signing a new client who is showing signs they may not be able to reorder in the future?

So while you may think you have all the power going into the negotiation, you actually end up powerless.

When you aren’t addressing yourself as CEO of the company, you have ambiguity on your side. You can say that you need to go check with your partners. You can leave the room, make a few phone calls, real or fake, then come back to the table with a counter offer that comes from “above.”

2. When you attend networking events or a trade show.

3. When you make your first few hires.

4. When you have less than five employees or revenues under mid seven figures.

5. When dealing with customers.