How to Monetize Your Notary Commission

Hi everybody.

This is Bill Soroka, founder of www.notarycoach.com and the Sign and Thrive Notary Training Course and Community.

You know, about every week I get a half a dozen emails from people who became notarties. Maybe because their company paid for it for them, they thought it would be cool at some point, or maybe they became a notary just because it served a purpose at some particular point in their lives. But then they haven't done much with it. And so now they reach out and they ask, "how can I monetize my notary commission?" "How can I make money as a notary public?".

So if you are looking for ways to monetize your commission, if you're looking for a way to maybe make a living as a mobile notary and loan signing agent, or maybe you just want to make some decent money as a side hustle, then this week's live is for you.

This is an exciting time to be a notary public because across the country in many states, they have increased the notary fees that we can charge. Not necessarily every state, but I'll have some more information about that a little later on. But across the board, we're seeing a jump in the fees that we can charge, especially for the mobile component. And most states allow for some sort of convenience or mileage fees as well, so you can make this a real viable business for yourself. The cool thing is, and an interesting thing is about this industry, is that even with four and a half million notaries across the country, you still can't find one when you need one! And that creates an enormous amount of opportunity for us. So with a little bit of attention, a focus on building authentic relationships and just implementing basic business strategies, this can be a very lucrative business for you.

So there's really basically two ways that you can monetize your Notary Public Commission. The first way is just to become a loan signing agent for the mortgage industry. The second way is just to boost or optimize your general notary work. General notary work is basically everything else that the notary does outside of mortgage loan signings. So we're going to look at that. Let's look at each of those a little more in depth.

The first one is to become a loan signing agent. I break this down into five different phases, if you will, or five different steps.

The first, of course is just that you have to be Notary Public in your state. If you're listening to this, the chances are you've already crossed that bridge.

Number two. While it's not required, it's highly recommended that you get your loan signing agent certification from the National Notary Association. That's an annual exam and includes a criminal background check, which is also required. So it keeps everything nice and neat and tidy and there's some other benefits to it as well.

The third step is to learn how to do this job. You know there's a lot of paperwork inside a loan signing package, sometimes 150-200 pages. You're going to learn how to briefly describe that appropriately, how to sign, date, and Initial those documents. What to do when errors happen, all the processes, including the etiquette, the printing, the drop offs, the where to park your car, all that good stuff is included in what I call phase three.

Then in phase four, this is where things get really interesting. This is where you're going to grow your business and that means that you're going to get new clients, whether that be through signing services - there's hundreds of them around the country that hire people like you and me to go out and do this work, but also building authentic relationships with closing agents and attorneys and other people that will compensate you and pay you to do this level of work.

A huge component of this fourth step though too, is personal development. We have to grow ourselves into the type of a person that can be successful at this and there's all kinds of different components in that.

Finally, in step five, you've got to get all the tools and resources to help your business run smoother and efficiency. This is stuff like bookkeeping your business entity type a little software, a smartphone and apps that make the job a lot easier.

So that's the five steps for the mobile signing agent for the mortgage industry. Then the second way that you can really monetize your Notary Public Commission in your state is to go for the general notary work. When it comes to general notary work, there's really three main ways that you're gonna get your phone ringing and dinging and get that business coming in.

The first one is kind of surprising is the traditional advertising. What I mean by that is things like car magnets, those signs that you see on your cars, those still work for mobile notaries and loan signing agents. Magnetic business cards that people can stick to their fridge or filing cabinets. That stuff works really well. Local newspaper display ads, like your little neighborhood community newspaper, those are relatively cheap and they pay off really well for the Notary Publics. Why? Because not very many people do it and people need a notary when they need a notary. And if you're front and center and top of mind, your phone is going to be ringing.

The second and probably more effective and consistent way is to get referrals and build relationships with people like family law attorneys - those living trusts, last wills and testaments, powers of attorney - those are huge documents in the notary world.

You can set up relationships with tow yards, hospitals, bankers, shipping and printing centers. Believe it or not, even though they have a notary on site, the fact that you are mobile brings value to that relationship because those print centers sometimes can't send their notaries out anywhere. So they still will be referred to you. You have senior living facilities, hospitals, jails and prisons adoption agencies, plus there's an infinite list of people who need notaries for their day to day business. 401K companies - whenever somebody takes money out of their retirement account, sometimes they need a notary for that too. So there's lots of opportunities there.

And then finally, the third and probably most powerful way that you're going to get business for general notary work is through a digital presence that is search engine optimized. What does that mean? All it means is having some sort of basic website that search engines will know that you're a notary so they can match your website with customers who are looking for a notary near them. That's really critical. And to get that done, it actually can be very complicated and very expensive if you try to outsource it.

There are simple ways, however, especially with the "Google My Business" suite of services. You can get a website, you can type in keywords and it will help accelerate your growth in the search engine optimization. Search Engine Optimization is one of those things that you can progressive learn on your way as well. So don't overwhelm yourself. Just start with the basics because that "Google My Business" suite of services is completely free. And I'll also include the link down below to a special 12 week intense SEO training that we had a digital marketer come in and do specifically for notaries. So I'll give you access to that as well.

To better understand what's legally allowed in your state, I highly recommend that you contact your Secretary of State or the governing body of your state that tells notaries what they can charge for their services. They're usually pretty clear on this. You'll have a maximum fee and then it will tell you, hey, you can charge convenience fees or you can charge mileage fees. The mileage fees are usually based on the federal reimbursement rate for federal employees, which is around 58 cents per mile right now. But again, you want to just confirm that with your state.

Guys, this is a very exciting time to be in business and don't let anybody ever tell you that you can't make money as a notary public because there are lots of opportunities these days. Hope you find that helpful.

Thank you so much. If you have any questions, please email me at [email protected].