Knowing how to build a successful notary business can lead to a fascinating and financially rewarding career. Notaries are professionals who verify the accuracy of documents, including contracts, wills, loan agreements, and other personal or business legal documents.
Because notaries must have high standards of personal integrity and trustworthiness, they must meet state-specific requirements regarding education and background before becoming licensed. It’s important to understand the details of this profession as it is a challenging one to enter, but once you get your bearings, it’s also quite lucrative.
If you’re thinking about becoming a notary public in order to launch a new career path as a notary professional, then this article will provide you with some helpful advice and tips on how to start a successful notary business.
How to Build a Successful Notary Business?
There are two different ways to approach being a notary business owner. You can choose to work at a single location and build clientele through referrals, or you can work as a mobile notary public.
If you choose the former–working from a single location– you’ll get to know your regular customers better over time. You’ll also be able to form relationships with your clients and build a loyal client base that recommends you to others.
However, many people prefer to be mobile notaries because they can take advantage of opportunities at different locations. Regardless of which you choose, we recommend you explore the following 7 tips —they will help you grow a successful notary business within a very short time.
1: Have A Professional Image
Before starting a notary business, take a business class. This will help you learn the ropes of building a professional image as a notary.
Truth be told, your image is the first thing that people will notice about your business. And when done right, it can serve as your silver-bullet strategy for building a successful notary business.
To build a professional business image, explore the following steps;
- Create a website. You can purchase a domain name and hosting plan for as little as $10 per month.
- Create business cards and a professional email address. Having personalized business cards and email addresses helps cultivate a beyond-the-surface level of trust and comfort around new and existing clients.
- Present a professional notary image. Don’t settle for old or casual pictures. Dress in a professional outfit and be sure to capture your head and shoulders only using a digital camera.
- Finally, you need to make sure your office is clean and professional-looking. If you’re conducting business from your home, you can still have a clean and professional-looking office by purchasing necessary office supplies and furniture.
2: Draft a Plan and Set Realistic Goals
The easiest way to build a successful notary business is to work with a plan. Draft a rough marketing plan—a guideline to see you through your day-to-day marketing activities. Or you can think of it as a roadmap to success.
Most newbie notary business owners overthink the process of aligning business goals and drafting a plan and, in most cases, give up the pursuit before ever lifting a finger. To avoid falling into this trap, keep this overstated yet simple truth in mind
Your initial business or marketing plan doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be accessible. Draft a plan and keep it handy. You can always iterate as you go.
Another thing, when you first start out, do not set the bar too high. It’s unlikely that you’ll sign up ten notary clients in your first week. Instead, aim to land one or two customers. From there, you can start building a loyal customer base. As you find your rhythm, you’ll also be better equipped to set goals for the future.
3: Stay Organized
Building a successful notary business is all about organization. You can’t expect to grow your business if you’re not organized. But the thing is, staying organized is one of the hardest parts of the job. You have to consciously invest in tools, systems, and strategies that keep you organized, or risk losing your flow before you even start.
In the past, the easiest way to stay organized was by using a notebook to create a detailed list of each step of your notary business. It was helpful to Purchase a three-ring binder, three-ring hole punch, and dividers for organizing the material you will place in the notebook.
Nowadays, the best way to build a successful notary business is by working with tools and software that aids productivity and helps you automate repetitive processes.
So before you think of buying a notebook and dividing it into marketing, signing reference, ready reference, and miscellaneous sections, think of tools like CloseWise; they can help you enjoy an intuitive organization process and allow you to enjoy an on-the-go notary experience.
4: Estimate Your Costs in Advance
As a notary public, it’s important to stay on top of your finances. You’ll be responsible for calculating and paying your own taxes as a contractor. You’ll also need to keep an eye on how much you’ve earned each month. This will help you to determine how much you owe the IRS at the end of the year.
Also, to succeed in the notary industry, you need to join multiple associations. Some of the most common include
- American Association of Notaries (AAN), (you will gain a library of notary and notary signing agent knowledge) at $19 per year.
- The Notary cafe. Here you will gain access to lots of industry experts and if you leverage the opportunity, find lots of high value clients. Become a pro member for $36 per year.
- 123 Notary. If you want to get listed and build a nice client base, enroll with 123 Notary, they offer multiple listing fees with some as low as $59.
Building a successful notary business requires you to estimate your potential costs of recurring fees in advance. So while we listed recurring fees you might incur multiple notary associations, you might also want to consider fees for your office space and everyday notary tools.
5: Positioning and Networking are Extremely Important
In every industry, there’s a battle for position, and in the notary business, the battle never ends. Positioning is the way in which you differentiate yourself from the competition. It’s your advantage in the marketplace, and it’s based on your target audience, your niche, and the value that you bring to your customers.
If you want to become a successful notary public, you need to network with certain people. And to do that, you need to position yourself in the right places. You can start by joining any of the notary associations listed above.
And hey! Don’t just join, try to network as often as possible. Networking is simply making connections with others in your industry so that you can build your business.
It’s important to network with not only your fellow notaries but with people who can give you more business, such as attorneys and real estate agents. Networking is the key to success for many businesses, and it’s no different for notary public companies.
6: Beware of Scammers
Not all companies you come across will be trustworthy. Unfortunately, it’s common to find scammers posing as notary public services. To avoid being swindled, especially when networking or trying to pursue prospective clients, you can perform a background check on potential partners.
To get a better idea of how a legitimate notary business operates, partner with a local notary public service or a franchise network. Picking up tips from an experienced notary public or finding a mentor will help you gain intuitive insights on how to build a successful notary business.
7: Invest in the Right Tool (CloseWise)
The easiest way to know which tool would provide a bang for your notary advertising dollar and which would drain you dry before yielding meaningful results is to conduct a survey. A survey is an excellent method of getting feedback from your potential customers.
The survey provides detailed information about clients’ demographics, and how they interact with businesses and gives you heads-up about their pain points and desires. Having this information can help you create an effective marketing strategy and in retrospect, lead you to the right notary tool/software.
As you might have guessed – or already know – building a successful notary business requires the right set of tools. Scheduling, tracking, and organizing clients for document signings can be a time-consuming and disruptive endeavor.
Either way, with the right notary tool, software like CloseWise, you can streamline document signing workflows and automate lots of time-consuming processes.
Conclusion
There are many things to consider when starting a notary public business. You’ll need to consider how to best market yourself, how to set up your home office, and how to build relationships with customers.
These things can seem overwhelming, but they’re all manageable, one step at a time. And don’t forget, once you get the ball rolling, being a notary public becomes an incredibly rewarding hustle. Good luck!