In January 2008, my Notary Signing Agent business fell off a cliff.
I had been performing loan signings since 2004, when relatively few people knew that Signing Agents existed. Signing services and title companies added me to their lists of Notaries serving my area, and the work came quickly. Within two and a half years, I was earning enough to leave my full-time assisted living business and do loan signings exclusively.
Then the market changed.
Business began slowing in the fourth quarter of 2007. By January, it was nearly gone. I had built my entire business on loan signings, and I couldn’t afford to wait years for the market to recover. I had to find another way forward.
That experience reshaped how I run my business. It also shapes how I see the three biggest challenges facing Notary Signing Agents (NSAs) today:
- Budgeting for startup costs, commission, training and equipment
- Relying too heavily on loan signings alone
- Building relationships that bring clients back
Here’s what you can do to overcome each of these challenges.
1. Budgeting for startup costs, commission, training and equipment
When I started in 2004, the barriers to entry were much lower. I didn’t even need a printer or scanner. Loan packages were preprinted and overnighted to me, and most assignments didn’t require me to fax anything back. My essential equipment was a phone (not a smartphone), a car, my Notary stamp, and my journal. Training was optional, too. No law requires it today, but title companies and signing services do.
Today’s new Signing Agents face a very different startup investment: training, background screening, a dual-tray laser printer, a scanner (preferably mobile), and a smartphone. They need to run a mobile office, printing and scanning documents wherever the assignment takes them.The Notary seal and commission are the smallest parts of the equation.
What can you do as a Signing Agent to deal with high starting costs?
Before you invest, research startup costs for Signing Agents and ongoing expenses. Be sure to budget for equipment, supplies, background checks, insurance, vehicle expenses, and the technology to manage assignments. Find out what kind of tools the companies you want to work with require before you buy anything.
Then treat this work as what it is: a business with real operating costs, ongoing education, and clients counting on you to show up and get it right.
Once you’re equipped, go earn that first assignment. Complete signing service and title company applications accurately, keep your availability current, and follow up. You can’t manufacture experience overnight, but you can be prepared, organized and professional from the start.
2. Relying too heavily on loan signings alone
The 2008 crisis taught me a lesson I have never forgotten: A busy calendar today does not guarantee a business tomorrow. I had many assignments … but they were mainly loan signing assignments.
When the loan signings dried up, I looked at the other appointments I had been handling in between.
Many of those Notary appointments were in hospitals and medical facilities. After years in assisted living, I was already comfortable working with elderly and frail signers, and that experience became an advantage in performing hospital notarizations. I also noticed patterns in other requests, including real estate-related notarizations such as individual deeds. Realtors, real estate attorneys, and members of the public sometimes needed a mobile Notary for a single document rather than a full loan package.
I kept looking for customer needs beyond loan signings and eventually found other notarization work such as trust document appointments and delivery. Diversifying to offer notarization services outside of loan document signings was a turning point in my business.
What can Signing Agents do to find other types of work outside of loan signings?
Start by examining your existing assignments. What types of requests do you receive apart from loan signings? What services are people already asking you for? What additional training would help you serve those clients well?
Depending on your state’s laws, your qualifications, and local demand, options may include:
Some Notaries also add services that pair well with Notary work, such as apostille services, fingerprinting, or field inspections. Each comes with its own training and licensing requirements.
You don’t need to pursue every specialty. Choose services that best fit your skills, interests, and market, then learn to perform them well.
You can keep doing loan signings. Just don’t let them be your only source of income. A diversified business has more ways to earn when one segment slows, and more ways to serve clients whose needs go beyond a single transaction.
3. Building relationships that bring clients back
Signing services are an important source of assignments, especially when you’re starting out. But there’s another way to build business: develop direct relationships with other types of professionals who regularly need Notary services.
When I began exploring trust work after 2008, I realized I couldn’t simply sign up with another signing service. I needed to build relationships with attorneys.
So I reached out to attorneys I already knew personally. I had never talked with them about my Notary services, so I started by learning about their practices and why they might ever use an outside Notary.
I started with a simple question: How do you handle notarizations now? Most had a paralegal or secretary on staff who was a Notary.
So I followed up: What happens when a client can’t come to the office? Either the paralegal or the attorney goes out, they told me.
Then I asked the question that opened doors: What happens to the workload while they’re gone?
The answers were practical. When the paralegal was out, the office was short-staffed. When the attorney was out, they weren’t billing or bringing in new business. And those trips weren’t rare: clients were in hospitals, homebound, or commuting and unable to reach the office during business hours.
That’s where I fit in. I could become an outside Notary with insider knowledge: someone who understood the firm’s processes, expectations, and clients, and whom the firm could call when needed without pulling its own staff out of the office. I became an extra resource, available whenever circumstances called for outside help.
That took more than an introduction. I had to learn how each firm operated, see where I could help, and earn the attorney’s trust to represent the firm with its clients.
What can Signing Agents do to build contacts with businesses offering general Notary assignments?
Get curious about the people and businesses you want to serve. Before you pitch your services, learn their industry, their workflow, their customers, and the challenges they face.
Ask thoughtful questions about how they currently handle situations that may require a Notary. Where does the process become inconvenient? What happens when a client can’t travel to the office? What does the office do when staff members are unavailable or demand spikes?
Sometimes people don’t recognize an inefficient process until someone asks the right question. Don’t manufacture a problem or push a service they don’t need. Listen, learn their business, and see whether your skills offer a useful solution.
For Signing Agents, this curiosity might lead to conversations with title and escrow officers about their workflows, service expectations, and the qualities they value in signing agents. For those pursuing other specialties, it might mean learning how attorneys, financial service providers, or other professionals coordinate notarizations for their clients.
Remember: You have ideal clients, and those professionals have ideal vendors. They want people who show up consistently, communicate well, and anticipate needs. When you serve an attorney’s client, follow the firm’s procedures, protect client confidentiality, and stay within your role as a Notary. Every appointment reflects on the firm, and on whether they call you again.
And get the notarization right every time. Relationships open the door; consistent, correct work keeps it open.
Relationship building takes time, and results rarely come right away. But relationships compound, one client at a time.
Signing Agents should build a business that can adapt
We can’t control interest rates, mortgage volume, or the economy. We can control how prepared we are, how we serve our clients, and whether we’re willing to recognize opportunities beyond our current routines.
My experience taught me that a sustainable Notary business needs more than a steady supply of loan signings. It needs technical competence, strong professional relationships, and the willingness to add services as the market changes.
Start where you are. Keep learning your state’s Notary laws and procedures. Get curious about the businesses you want to serve. Explore specialties that fit your market, and look for ways your skills can solve other people’s problems, including problems they haven’t recognized yet.
The goal isn’t just a full calendar this month. It’s a business that can outlast the next downturn.
Laura Biewer is the 2026 Notary of the Year and a Master Notary with the American Notary Guild. She has owned At Your Service Mobile Notary in California since 2004 and has completed more than 35,000 notarizations. She is the founder of Coach Me Laura, co-creator of the Certified Notary Trust Delivery Agent (CNTDA) program, author of The Compassionate Notary, and co-author of Beyond Loan Signings. Through Laura’s Inner Circle and TNT live calls, she helps Notaries become more confident and competent at the core of their work: notarization.