Sunday Funday Notary Q&A: Going Full-time, Legal vs Letter Sized Paper, DBA vs LLC & More

Hello.

How is everyone?

Just trying to get everything set up here. So.

I'm excited.

A lot of stuff to tell y' all today. As the screen said the title of this live.

I've had a lot of people ask me questions about going full time.

You know, DBA versus llc, also.

Using letterhead versus letter size, paper versus legal. Hey, C. Hunter. Hey, Tiffany. Good evening, everyone.

And so I wanted to go over that with you all today. It's important because, you know, I know that I said notaries. Notary business is a constant business, whether the economy is good or whether the economy is bad. So the first thing that I'm going to talk about is the notary business and the cyclical nature of the notary business right.

There is not cyclical, but seasonal. Okay, so notary business can be seasonal, meaning through the months of, I would say August to October, it slows down.

So. Thank you, Miranda. Yeah, I'm, I'm getting better. But. But from August through October, the notary business slows down. So right now is not a good time to go full time. In my opinion, every year it slows down. So when or if you decide to become a full time notary, you have to keep that in mind and you have to save accordingly. How much does it go down? I mean, I saw a good amount of orders coming through last week, the week before as well. So so far it's still, it's still going.

Our business, the elite mobile notary business, I've seen that dramatically decrease over the last.

Month. So, yeah, notary business is cyclical. I'm sorry for saying cyclical. It is seasonal. It does have a slow season, and that slow season is between August and October. And around October, it starts picking up and it goes full speed again until August, until August hits again. So.

Hey, Ty.

You are very welcome. So, yeah, so those are a couple of things that I wanted to let you guys know so you know, if you are thinking about going full time or want this to be a full time gig. My cousin was saying, you know, she made $7,000 per month on an average. So you got to think, okay, if I'm making 7,000amonth, can I live off of five and put two back for the few months that are slow because you have to still pay your bills when stuff gets slow. So make sure that you're putting money aside. Also, if you're going full time, consider what you'll do about health care.

Health care insurance and stuff like that.

And.

Yeah.

So, yeah, that, that's big. I don't know If a lot. Did y' all know that, that, that there's a season when the notary business gets slower than normal? I don't know if y' all already knew that, but it happens every single year around the same time. So it's interesting.

Thank you. Thank you, Miranda.

Yeah, please send them my way. I also had another question about legal paper versus letter letterhead. So letter size paper is optional. Most title companies and notary companies do not mind if you print all of your documents on legal size paper if you don't wanna. If you don't have a dual tray printer because some of the docs are when they put them in the packet, some are letterhead, some are legal size and some are letter sized. I personally print everything on legal size because it's such a hassle. I don't have a dual tray printer either, but it's such a hassle to have to change that paper out and nobody cares. Like if you send your packet back with all legal size paper, they're good with it, so don't worry about it.

Awesome.

So again, the slow season is between August and October.

Hey Cindy.

You are very welcome.

So that's about the legal size documents. And.

Let's see, business cards. I wanted to mention to you all to make sure that you put your commission number on the front of your business card. So a lot of people are getting business cards made and you know your, your notary commission number going on front is a really good thing to have in case someone wants to look you up quickly. Some people pull up by name, but everybody pulls up by their, their commission number. My name is Latonya Johnson. There are a lot of Latonya Johnson. So it may be best just to put your notary commission number. They type that in the notary public loan signingagent.com and you pull up immediately. Y', all, thank y' all for joining me. Everybody who is just coming here, no worries. I got started a little early. I started like it 8, 50 something. But please, please, please hit that like button. It lets other people know that y', all, y' all are happy with what I'm doing.

And oh, I wanted to talk about the LLC versus dba. So I had a couple of thoughts about this.

And you know, for a lot of people who are just starting off, it can be costly. Just getting started with becoming a notary, I mean you have to take the training and become a notary public loan signing agent. And that whole packet through the NNA is about, I'd say 300 to $400, right.

You have to buy a printer. If you want a mentor, you have to pay for that. You have to pay for just, you know, the paper, the ink for the printer, just all kinds of stuff. So when you first start out, do you have to have an llc? I didn't. Nobody in my family did. So I tell people you don't have to have it. You can have a dba and right now most of those offices are closed. But you can, you know, name your business. If you want to set it up as a dba, get an EIN number through the IRS and set your business up that way. Then as you grow and start getting, start making money as a notary, you can then set up your llc. Now, why is it good to have an llc? From a liability standpoint? You have EO insurance. You have the bond so that that covers you. You have $100,000, 50 to $100,000 worth of insurance is what I recommend to most notaries.

If somebody wanted to sue you, they would sue you both professionally, meaning your company and individually. So will an LLC protect you from that? No, they're still going to sue you both ways. I have never heard of anybody being sued though. Not to say that it doesn't happen, just it hadn't happened to any of us. So praise God. Right?

The major part of the LLC in my opinion is building business credit credit. So I don't know how your personal credit is, but building business credit just can help you, you know, with a whole bunch of things so that you don't have to use your personal credit. And I'm gonna probably do a whole video on that because there are some steps to it.

But I will do a video on how to set up your llc. You can go through legal zoom to do that. It's pretty inexpensive. I think it like at least In Texas, about $225.

And it's pretty easy. But I do recommend that business credit because there's, there are supplies, ongoing supplies. As a notary, you have to buy paper, right?

Ink is another supply. So these are ongoing supplies that you can set up. And.

Certain vendors will take you on immediately like Quill and PayPal Business. So if you are accepting payments via PayPal, please, please, please sign up for PayPal a PayPal Business account. Also, not just, not just a regular account. Hey everybody.

So yeah, make sure that you sign up for a PayPal business account. So PayPal offers business credit, Square offers business credit. If you use Square and I think a few other Quill U line and you might Think I don't need Quill. And quill is just for like office supplies. But I, I get hand sanitizer, I get the Lysol wipes.

I buy toilet paper and spoons and just household stuff sometimes because I have a home office. So I buy that stuff through Quill. But I'm going to do a whole video on that. So hold tight.

And.

So I had some questions.

Let me see.

I'm looking through to see what questions y' all have.

Have questions about how to approach.

Marketing for general notary work.

Okay.

So general notary work. How would I do that? Wow.

One thing that I would do for sure is to get on Google business and set up an account. I believe that it's free and when somebody types in, let's say San Antonio notary, then your profile will come up under Google Business. So that is the first thing that I would do to let people know. And I would also ask, you know, my colleagues and people who I've done business with to please my business, give me a thumbs up or you know, five stars because that, that, that promotes your business online in your city. So when people type in, you know, Houston notary, then you'll come up. So that is a major thing that Google business. I think that you should do that, do that as a mobile notary as well. So everybody set up a Google business account. We have one for elite mobile notary. We also have a child care business where we do, we train child care workers. So the teachers who work in daycare. Yeah, we train them. They are required to have like 24 hours of clock hour training and we provide those trainings. So we use Google my business for that.

What else?

And I would probably get cards. I would put cards out at various locations.

I think I'd probably hit up tax offices and let them know about my services.

You know most title companies have a notary who's employed on their staff so they really don't need it. I mean there are a lot of.

I would let real estate offices, real estate agents know that you are a notary and give them your card because sometimes they have to. Not just mortgage documents, but affidavits of all kinds. So an airship affidavit or something like that, they have to call a notary for those. So I hope that helps.

Do I advise listing my home address, John? I think I did. To be honest with you, I can't even remember. I mean, you know, it's all, it's the world wide web. So yeah, it would be safer to list a P.O. box or something like that. It would be even better than a P.O. box to list, like a live virtual office number. I mean, office address, because you need to. You need to show that you have a physical location. So, yeah, I think a P.O. box is kind of not so great. A virtual location would be better. So some mailboxes have an actual address, and that would be even better.

And I did a post and asked you guys to. To put some stuff on there, give me some questions. And you did. So I'm gonna go through those questions as well.

And. Oh, getting jobs through snapdocs. Okay, guys, so listen, get ready to write. Get your pen real quick because I'm going through this pretty quickly. I'm gonna give y' all the names of some businesses that we do business with, where we get jobs. And what I want you to do.

Is have a routine where you wake up in the morning and you call them and say, hey, you get to know them. You become friends in your area, right? And say, hey, my name is Latonya Johnson and I am in Ohio and I'm a notary in the. In the business. I'm in snapdocs. And I just wanted to, you know, I'm new, but. But I've been doing such and such. And sell them on yourself and.

Get to the point where they know you by name when you call. Okay? They know your name. They'll say, hey, Miranda. Hey, Tiffany. Hey, Carolyn. How you doing? Yeah, we don't have any jobs today or. Okay, I want to. I'm going to assign you something today. And so when you call, make sure that you get to know them. Make sure that they know your name. Get on a schedule for doing this, for calling them, like every morning at around, you know, nine, ten o'. Clock. They have shifts also, by the way, so they may work.

They may work in shifts. And you can find out all that information too. But a lot of our ladies work in shifts. So ask them, can they assign you a job? And after you work with them at least once or twice, ask them, hey, can I become one of Yalls favorite notaries for Ohio? Like, can you put me as a favorite so that when you get jobs, it'll automatically ding me in snapdocs, become friends with people. That is very, very, very important.

Yes, Hunter, there is a way in Google to hide your address, but show your zip code and show your working area. So. So I'm going to go down some companies that we work for. So here, here we go.

And I send these. Like, this is our personal list. This ain't nothing that I just give away, okay? Because this is our personal list. I give this to people that I mentor.

Because they need business and, you know, they deserve it. They work directly with us and shoes. They trust us with their businesses. So.

We give them as much information as we can to help them get started. And so I'm going through my text right now because I text a whole, whole bunch of them.

To one of my mentors, to Cynthia, actually. Okay, so Superior Notary. First Class Signings. Coast to Coast. I've had people in my inbox saying, is coast to coast real? Coast to coast is real. They do. They do a whole lot of signings. They send out a lot of business. Do. Are they. You know, they don't pay as high as some of the others. Viola V Y L L A Title. They pay very well. Firma F I R M A is another one. I really, really like them. They pay pretty good. Transtar National Title. I've done work for them. B as in Boy. N as in Nancy. N as in Nancy. BNN Services. That's another one.

I think I said Superior Notary. Coast to coast goes.

I'm just looking through my list here, guys.

Rese Title.

They. I've seen a few jobs come through from them on Snapdocs National Paralegal and Notary.

And there's another one called texas division of advanced. Something I don't. I can't see the full name. Dot pros.

Sales signings llc.

Old republic title.

Notaries 24 7.

I think I said transtar title.

Asap pro notary one stop notary shop.

First class signing service.

Orchard street settlement.

So those are just a few of the companies that, you know, we tell our ladies to go go for.

Or our mentees. And.

So try those out. Contact those people. If that's good information, y' all hit that, like, button. It's 32, 37 people on here. I should have 37 likes by now.

So make sure you give me a thumbs up.

And I think I mentioned Pharma, US Signings, Express Notary.

Excel Notary. Those are just a few. I mean, you got, you got. You can Google those companies, look them up and just start giving them a call. And I would put that somewhere like, we filter. When you become a mint or a mentee of mine, we filter those to you. And we actually try to make sure that you start getting business through Snapdragon one way or another, even if we have to start giving you jobs through our company, which is Elite Mobile Notary. And like, I said the season for elite or the notary season is seasonal and it slows down between August and October. So right now is a slower season, but when it picks up, it's full speed ahead.

So I hope that. I hope that blesses somebody. I hope that helps. Helps you guys.

You ladies and gentlemen.

Somebody just asked me, TJ was there ever a time you didn't feel safe going to a home for a signing?

You know what? Not I did. I must be crowd about that this week. I never have felt that way.

Why haven't I felt that way? I don't know. I suppose it's because.

I have all of this person's personal information. I have your. If you're going to commit a crime, you want to be, you know, kind of discreet. I have your Social Security number, your mama's number, everything, your birthday. I have all of your information. So, no, I. I haven't you going to jail.

So I haven't. I've never felt unsafe doing it from a Covid standpoint. You know, I don't go into houses right now. I prefer to for me and my clients to park right next to each other and I pass them the documents, they sign in their car and I sign in mine. So that. That's what I prefer at this time, just to stay Covid free.

And.

Lashana, did you make it on here? Let me know.

Yeah, the companies that I shared are not just in Texas. Thank you, Cindy. Yeah, let me know whether or not you're on here, Lashana, because she sent me a message asking me was I doing Sunday Funday. Yay.

Someone asked me another question. What state do you register in to become a notary? If you just move to another state, you'd register in whatever state you'll be working in. So I would say the state that you live in, even though I know you know, Virginia, Maryland, D.C. are really close, I'd still say the state that you live in is where you need to do the notarizations.

And I answered the question. LLC or dba? For Evelyn. Evelyn, let me know if you're on the call. Is there a difference in EO insurance and line.

E O Insurance? I've never heard of loan signing agent insurance. I believe that's still E and O insurance, but I've never heard of it, to be honest with you. EO is for errors and omissions insurance, and it covers any mistakes that you may make at closing that could get you in trouble.

Not signing something or explaining something when you shouldn't have explained it. You just should point to it and tell them, sign here. You know, or your job again as a notary public loan signing agent is not to explain the documents. It is to let them know where things are within the documents that they're signing. If they ask, what is my interest rate? Hi, let's take a look on at the disclosure document. It's here, you know. And point them to where that information is within the packet of documents.

Yes, John, this is the best time of year for newbies to study and take the test and be prepared for when the busy season starts because Christmas is crazy money. Even Thanksgiving, it's crazy money. I mean.

Those are the good days.

So, Ty, I gave you some of the. The.

I gave you some of the top notary public loan signing agents to start with. What are some tips to get direct business from title companies? The best way to get business from title companies is if they know you by name. Everybody needs to know you by name and know what you do. Every real estate agent that you come in contact with needs to get your card. Everybody needs to know you, not just, oh, I've seen her. No, they know you by name. Like you've gotten on their nerves. And I'm the queen of getting on your nerves, honey. You gonna see me until I get a job, you hear me? So I have no, no shame. And I'm like, hey, come on, come on, Darius. You know, I need. Look, now the unemployment rate is 14.7%. Make sure you give me a sign in the day. And I just, you know, do it playfully. But I make sure I get jobs and I make sure people know my name. So if you go to a title company, you can't just go by once and give them the card and say, hey, can you send me some jobs? No, you have to build a relationship. And that's what it's all about. In and out in every angle. To get signing agent jobs, to get any kind of work, you. They got to know you by name. It's about relationships. That's who they give those jobs to.

How to control the closing so that it goes smoothly and quickly.

Living below, I have 100,000. And now I've heard that, too.

And that's part of the reason. I'm just an overinsurance type of person, though. I want to be insured. Insured. If anything comes up, I want to make sure that I have everything in order. So, yeah, I have a hundred and I've heard that, too. I don't know if that's the. The truth or not. I can't really say, but I do. I have a hundred thousand dollars worth of E and O insurance.

I don't know if you can file for an en ein number without an LLC or a dba. You can name your business.

You can name your business after your own name. You know, just get a DBA for your own name.

And that would be a question for the irs, and that's where you get that ein number. So just call them. They're easy, they're real quick, and they'll let you know.

Okay, so I was going back to this question. How to make the closing go smoothly. So, one, make sure that your table is set up properly when you walk in. Make sure that you explain to the client the flow of the document, what exactly you're going to do, what your job is today. The first question that I ask them when I walk in, hi, Mr. Gonzalez, have you seen these documents? If they say yes, I've already gone through them. Then there's no need for us to just spend time in me telling them every page of what's on the document. All he's ready to do is sign. Was there anything that you, you know, did you have any questions about the document? Because. And I let him know, Mr. Gonzalez, I'm just here to walk you through these documents and where to sign. If you have any questions about them, let me know. So we can give your mortgage broker or your real estate agent a call and get the answers that you require.

So.

So, yeah, that's how I would. That's how I'd approach that now. Let them know straight up how the flow is going to be. So, Mr. Gonzalez, please sit to my right. If there is another signer, then they need to sit to the right of Mr. Gonzalez. And the way that the paper is going to go, Mr. Gonzalez, I'm going to hand it to you. You sign where I tell you to sign, initial where I point for you to initial, and then pass the document on to the other signer. When that signer finishes signing, everybody pass them back to me because I have to keep all of my documents in order. Okay. And there are no sidebar conversations. In my closing, I let everybody know. I'm going to go through this as easily and quickly as I can, because I know y' all have other things to do, and I want everything to go smoothly and I don't want us to miss anything so that we can make sure that. That your mortgage process goes. Continues to move along swiftly.

So. Yeah.

Thank you, Cynthia. That is good. Thank you. Thank you.

Good. See I learned a lot from y', all, too, because I'm telling y' all know everything.

That is good.

Okay? So mentorship.

There should be.

A link for you to get on to schedule with me or if you are interested in mentorship. Right now, I'm only offering mentorship to those who are in Texas. I have talked to a few people who are not in Texas, and I'm really looking forward to seeing some of the docs in other places because. Because I haven't seen them and don't know. You know, I don't know whether I'm thinking that they're the same, but I don't know. So I'd have to look at the docs first.

Until I do that, I'm just offering. I'm only offering mentorship in the state of Texas at this moment. Let me see if I have any other questions.

And I think that was it for the questions that were submitted. Do y' all have any other questions for me? Wow, the day went fast, y'. All. Make sure you hit that, like, button.

If you haven't done so already.

Have y' all ever felt unsafe doing a closing? Because I haven't. But that is such a good question. I really did think of that.

I know. I know. Lee. Yeah, that's a good. I like your icon, too, but absolutely.

That's a good question.

CJ Somebody asked me that last week. Can you have a commission? 1. Can you have more than one commission? And I was told that you cannot. I personally, latonya, Cherie Johnson. I don't know that question. So maybe you can Google it. But I don't know.

Chocolate girl. I would go to the NNA. I will go to the NNA. NNA. NNA. National notary.org and that's where I took my. My personal training for it. So I think that's a really good idea. Thank you, Cynthia.

You are welcome, John. I'm excited for y' all to get started. I talked to so many people who are about to get started. So let me know if you need me. Let me know when you're getting started, because I'm anal. I mean, poor Cynthia. I feel sorry for some of my mentees because, baby, I worry the heck out of them. She might think it's only her, but I'm on everybody all day. Did you get a job? Did you get a job? Just trying to make sure that everybody is eating because that's so important. You don't get this side hustle just to sit on the sidelines. You at least want One or two jobs a week at the least. So, you know, that's my goal to make sure. Okay, come on now. If you want more work, I want you to get as much work as you can handle and to be in the system. And I don't know what's going on with snapdocs right now, but it used to be a whole lot easier to get in and on snapdocs and start getting those notifications.

And me and my cousin spoke about it and she thinks that because the unemployment rate is so high, people are using coming back and you know, jumping back on their notary public loan signing agent work to supplement their income, which very could be the case. And so if they have been in the system for a long time, then they are higher up than the new notaries. But that's why I say you always, always, always have to call. I am a proponent of being in your face. I need to hear your voice. Not emailing because people have a tendency to ignore emails. I'm gonna call and there's somebody that you can build a friendship with and you'll know it. And it doesn't take 12 title companies or, you know, most of my business and even my family viola title. That's where I got most of my business from my cousin, bn B N Services. They hire her all the time. So it just takes one company for you to do all of their business in your area. And you're, you're good.

I will, miranda. Absolutely. I will.

Platforms. Is that for remote online notary work?

Hey John, have you gone to like Staples or Home Depot? I mean Office Depot or even Amazon for those brother printers? Check them out and give those people a call.

Yeah, you know, look on my video because I have some links to the printers as well.

Yeah, look on the links because that may be helpful.

Wow, Trina, you were on page two, not getting any calls.

Okay, and what did they say when you called?

Yay.

Awesome.

Yeah, Trina, let me know when they. What they said when you call because you were on page two. See, you should really be getting some jobs. So the companies that I gave you guys are not just companies in Texas. They do loans all over the United States. So again, have your business cards, put your commission number on your business cards and hit the pavement. Go out and get. Might take a little more work.

From the. Regarding the, the platform. All I've used so far is Doc Verify. I don't quite like it because of the sizing of those boxes. It looks to me so I prefer something.

Miss Tinsley, I don't know if you can. I don't know what the laws are for you to be commissioned as a remote online notary in different places. So that's something that I couldn't answer.

But you say online is only temporary in Illinois. I get it. But based on what's going on with a lot of these states, I'm thinking that everybody is trying to pass legislation for it to be a permanent situation in a whole lot of places. So.

Keep up with the news on that and where they are in that process.

Yes, you do the nna when you. I'm sorry, lawanda, when you sign up with the nna, they, in the package that you buy, they get your back, they do your background, you purchase the bond, and you purchase the EO insurance, all from the nna. So, yes.

Oh, awesome.

Okay.

And so, Trina, you say when you called who they made you a preferred notary in your area when you called Snapdocs.

You are very welcome, Rhonda.

Yeah, Trina, let me know who you call because. Okay, so Trina just said that she made a call and they made her a preferred notary in her area. And, sweetheart, that's what you want to be for all of these companies. You want to be a proof. One of. Can I please be one of your preferred notaries in my zip code? Can you please make me one of your preferred notaries in my zip code? That would. Remember that. Remember that statement, because when you call these people as you build a relationship, that's what you want to be one of their preferred notaries in that area.

Absolutely. That. That is awesome information.

Oh, wow. Miranda. Ms. Tinsley, you are gonna have to go back through this video, honey, because I knobbed out. If I'm listing them out again.

That's. That's my secret sauce. Those companies, I don't just give those companies out. That's for. Normally, for people who. Who I mentor. See, that's. That's the little hidden nugget within my videos that won't nobody know about, right? Oh, Sunshine Notary. Cool. Yeah, that's good. That's good, Trina. So Trina said that she called Sunshine Notary and they made her a preferred notary in that area.

Yes, I did set up a Facebook group. I'm so glad that you reminded me of that, Miranda. So we can now continue our conversations all throughout the week. I set up a new Facebook group called Solutions by TJ Notary Networking, and something else. So just Google it. You know what? Let me try to get the link.

Let me get the Link to our group that y' all asked for.

And I know it's Solutions by tj. Something, something, something, something.

Let me look under groups.

And it's gonna be real bad if I can't find the group that I created, Lord.

Which I don't see.

Hold on.

Oh, yeah. Solutions by tj Notary Networking and Knowledge.

Public group.

I'm a group of one so far. I don't know why when I just typed it in, it didn't come up right away. I know. I'm so excited. We have a group, y'. All. We got a group. Yay.

Yes, we have a group.

So that is our group. It's called Solutions by TJ Notary Networking and Knowledge.

And so we can continue our conversations there. And it says this group is for new and aspiring notary public loan signing agents to learn, grow, and share. Yay. That was exciting, right? It was exciting to me. I'm so glad you brought that up. I would have totally forgotten about that.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Angelique. You know what? And the funny part is, like, I'm on this live. I was feeling so weak and just. I don't know what's going on, but I was not feeling good. And I got on here, and I'm all lively, and I feel better. And, well, I tell you, when it's showtime, when the lights come on, you can put it on, but I just feel better talking to y'. All. So hopefully I take this away. And I can't tell you what in the world is wrong, because I don't, like, nothing is hurting. It's just my energy. And I did feel some, like, post nasal drip for the last few days. I've been taking my allergy stuff and doing my nasal wash, but, girl, I don't know. Anyway, that's a lot of information for the world wide Web, isn't it?

All right, y', all, you know what? I must not have anything else to talk about. I love y'. All. I am rooting for you. Look back through this thing and get the information that you need.

I dropped some real nuggets in here that hopefully a lot of people will be blessed with and be able to get work with and go to the group. It's public. Become a member, and let us just have fun and continue the conversations there and continue to learn and grow. And I will see you guys next week on Sunday Funday.

Okay. Y' all have a good week. Love y'. All. Bye.

It.