We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brittney Palmer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brittney, thanks for joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

When I first started as a notary in 2018, I wasn’t a business at all. In fact, I had no idea it could even be a business. I’d like to tell you how I scaled my business from making under $100 a year to making over $8 thousand in one month. Once I began notarizing documents, I would post to my facebook page and ask all my friends, associates, and family to send me any referrals. I started getting tagged here and there in others post seeking a notary. I quickly realized what I was offering was mobile notary services and it was a very needed service. As a mom of 4, I desired the freedom of owning my own business so that I could be more present and work with my kids schedules. I saw this as the opportunity for me.

During the Covid19 pandemic, I learned of being a notary signing agent. This is a notary that notarizes real estate closings. I paid for the additional training to get certified and began marketing this service. I updated and designed new business cards, flyers, and post cards to hand to my potential clients. I called offices to introduce myself and sent out emails. I also signed up on over 100 websites in an attempt to get these loan signing jobs. After about a month, it paid off.

After while, I received my first loan signing on June 2, 2020. i couldn’t believe it! I did it! I did 10 closings in my 1st month and 15 my 2nd month. I realized I needed to up my business so I added a mobile office setup to my car. This was a printer and scanner and all my supplies so that I can print and scan on the go. A mobile office setup helped me to be more efficient by being available and not having to drive back home in between closings. This helped me get even more business. I began to get calls, texts, and emails flooding in requesting me to close a loan and before you knew it I was consistently doing 50+ closings or more in a month. I increased my radius of where I didn’t mind traveling and got EVEN MORE BUSINESS. Some days I came home as late as midnight and some days I started as early as 4am due to schedules. Being this busy was a blessing but it came with obstacles such as childcare. My husband worked a demanding job as well so childcare was a challenge with evening appointments. While this didn’t necessarily affect my business revenue, it did affect some business relationships as I wasn’t dependable for evening signings.

In 2021, I took my excitement to TikTok and Instagram. I made a video that went viral about what it is I do for business and how much I made from doing it. I showed the good, bad and the ugly. Before I knew it, I had people requesting me to mentor them. I didn’t think I could take on mentoring so instead I began dropping tips and knowledge on my social media pages. My following grew quickly doing this so I hired some help with the content and began creating a mentorship program. By way of online, i have mentored thousands. By way of 1-on-1, I mentored 100s. I’ve since stopped mentoring but many of my mentees are still successful today.

In addition to mentoring in 2021, a need for online notary services emerged and I got more involved in field inspections. I once again completed my training to become certified and purchased all of the necessary equipments. Companies started seeking remote online certified notaries and I began doing online closings and notarizations. Some companies implemented in-person online notary and i began doing those as well. This involved driving to clients with a tablet or laptop to sign and notarize documents electronically. In the same time, I signed up for more field inspection companies and began doing some of those as well. Field inspecting required me to drive to residential or commercial locations to photograph properties and upload my findings. Being a mobile notary this fit in with my schedule.

In 2022, the industry slowed down a little due to interest rates rising for home loans. I also kind of reached burnout from all of the ripping and running around towns. I had been in overdrive. I decided to explore opening a physical location so that my clients could come to me. In knowing this, I also wanted to offer more services. I found a location that had low competition. I added another certification to my notary commission by becoming an immigration form specialist so that I can offer this service too. I also added ink fingerprinting and on-site mini marriages. Since I don’t want to ride around as much anymore, I also started a signing service with a business partner where I can now be the company thats calling and hiring notaries across the globe to do mobile assignments. My office has been open 10.5 months now. Though I do not have the traffic I anticipated due to becoming pregnant and having to step away a bit, the recognition in the community and business calls are picking up each month. I just had my baby so I’m able to get back to it in moderation. I’m adding yet another service this month to my office location and look forward to continued growth.

In sum, my notary business started as a small mobile business with approximately 2 clients in the first year of me advertising it. It has since grown to be a brick and mortar. I anticipate the addition of several more services in the future. My notary business has not only helped me to grow more as a notary it also afforded me the opportunity to purchase a vending machine route and start a new business venture for my husband and I. This little stamp has sealed many deals and i’m forever grateful.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Many things define who I am as a person and entrepreneur. I am a mother, wife, and veteran to name a few. I am enthused with fitness and self discovery. I admire family and time spent with them. I got into being a notary by working for my local county governments planning and zoning department which was sister to the building department. This duty required notarizing forms for the public. I provide mobile notary and onsite notary services. When my clients are stuck in situations that prevent them from traveling to get a document notarized, they call me and I come. When they are able to come to me, they visit my onsite location. I am most proud of my ability to provide great customer service. My clients are very appreciative of my services and I am knowledgeable and honest in my notary business.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Sometimes notaries are asked to pull a rabbit out of a hat for clients. In one instance, I had a company call very last minute (4:30pm) to see if I could I complete a closing “and” have it dropped off to FedEx by closing at 6:30pm. Seeing as though a closing takes typically 1 hour and I needed to print and drive to the client as well review and ship the documents the company wasn’t sure I’d make it but pleaded with me that it needed to ship that evening. I ran into an obstacle as the signer would not answer my phone call. I relayed the information to the company and they managed to reach her but now it is 5:30pm. They were worried I wouldn’t make it and were sad and anxious. They were right because I did not make cut off for my drop to FedEx but I told them I would drive 25 minutes to the neighboring town who had a later drop off time and would drop it their. This wasn’t something I had to do but I chose to do and it saved their loan.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

The notary business afforded us the opportunity to purchase a vending machine business. My husband and I researched for a few years on how to get into the vending machine business. We scoured second hand sites and google searching for people selling vending machines and landed on a guy selling his route. His route consisted of 4 machines at 4 locations with the potential to add another location he was in talks with. in order to purchase we wrote a list of things we felt were pertinent to our decision to buy it. We wanted to view the locations and machines, we wanted to see profit and loss reports, as well as view maintenance history to name a few. Once we got that information, we looked into how long it would take us to for the return on investment. We decided purchasing the route would be a good idea for us because we could get a leap into the vending business and the machines were at great locations. We prepared a contract to get signed and notarized for the purchase and we purchased insurance and equipment for upkeep.

Contact Info:

• Website: btpnotaryservices.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/btpnotaryservices/?hl=en
• Facebook: facebook.com/btpnotaryservices
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittney-palmer-626892114
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BrittneyandMario/search
• Other: thenotarydispatchers.net

Image Credits
Brittney Palmer, Mario Palmer