Caught flat-footed

Notary Experiences
1

Greetings all.

I am brand-new here, just trying to get myself established in this business and “get my feet wet” so to speak, trying to build things up slowly. I am still working at getting my complete profile together here, and that’s where I ran into trouble and the subject of this post.

As I was saying, I am brand new, slowly trying to build on this thing between by job driving a school bus and my other responsibilities. Because of my not having a complete profile put together, I wasn’t expecting to get any offers of work yet.

Well surprise, surprise. Two days ago, I was busy all day and came home but was tired and I didn’t check my email. Not until just before going to bed at 9 pm, anyhow.

There was an offer of work from a company called Timios, asking if I could do a signing at noon the next day.

Talk about being caught flat-footed. There it was at 9 pm and I could hardly keep my eyes open and now I had an email that had been sent around 11:30 that I wasn’t aware of until that moment offering me work.

Staying up late to print and prepare the documents was NOT an option. As I said, I drive a school bus with my route starting just after 6 am plus I have sleep apnea and have to be on my CPAP machine a minimum of 7 hours as per my doctor’s instructions in order to maintain my FedMed card for driving the bus. Plus my concentration was shot anyhow.

And I didn’t want to commit to the signing and try to print off the documents after my morning route only to run into some kind of problem where I wouldn’t be ready by noon plus I was also worried that if I did get there at noon and we would run into some kind of snag where I would be held up from making my afternoon bus route. I’m as green as green can be and if something like this was going to happen, it would happen to me.

If only I had checked my email earlier in the day………

Well anyhow, to make a long story short, I sent an email back to the contact person declining the offer, explaining my situation and apologizing as well as telling her that I would count this as a lesson well-learned about checking my email throughout the day so that I will be better prepared next time.

If there is a next time. I am now worried that this company will not be contacting me again after this and even worse, that they could send word around to other title/loan companies that I’m not reliable and can’t be counted on. But 12 noon on the following day WAS such a tight turnaround for me, I wasn’t 100 percent sure that I could do the best job possible under these circumstances and for that reason I declined the offer of work.

Could someone please give me some feedback on how to remedy this situation as well as tips to keep it from happening again? That is, IF I get a second chance…

I’ve already taken one big step-making sure to check my email regularly throughout the day plus making sure that my notary bag is on-hand ready to go as well as making sure that I’ve always got a clean/pressed professional-looking suit of clothes on hand, ready to slip into at a moment’s notice.

But any other advice/tips that anyone could provide would be most helpful and appreciated by me.

Thank you,

Patrick

2

Hi Patrick, Do you have a laser printer on hand, too? I have been doing this for a month now and have had 9 assignments and about 500 requests come in from the three big signing companies. After the first one, I realized that I am in charge of my business and I set the rules. Initially, I thought the requests would be scarce and that I should jump on them. I drove myself nuts the first week and probably did not perform at my best. My advice is to slow down and think about how you want the future to look. I have do not disturb set up on my phone so the requests don’t interrupt my sleep time. I now gauge requests by if my price is met AND if I have the time to do a good job, and if the time works for my other commitments (if there is a delay, etc.). I don’t carry anything on me in anticipation I only carry it if it is an agreed to assignment. If those criteria are met I take the job, if not I go about my pre-NSA day. :slight_smile: I understand how you feel though during accepting the first job from the signing company the person asked if I could do a second job that day. I took both jobs. The first job took too long and when I got home and the second job didn’t have documents 1/2 hr before I was supposed to be there, so the signing company canceled the job on me in a rude manner. I spent a day thinking I really messed up then the phone rang with redemption. I have realized unless you really screw up there is not a list that gets circulated. Who has time for that? Good luck.

2 Likes
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Tim is had sent me 4 deals and when I responded it said it was not at available. One time I replied with seconds from when they sent the email good luck

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A few thoughts on this…

If you don’t have a smart phone get one. If you’re not using Gmail, do so. You can load the Gmail App on your smart phone so you’ll get those emails as soon as they arrive. If you can’t reasonably get an assignment processes then don’t take it. Here’s a suggestion, don’t say too much, just tell them you’re already booked and can’t take an assignment.

Next, these calls go out like a cattle call. The first to respond gets the job. Some Signing Services has their notaries ranked or tiered. Their top tiered notaries get the first shot as the engagement, followed by the 2nd, 3rd, etc. New NSAs start out at the bottom. Always reply even if you can’t take the job. See my suggestion on how to reply in the above paragraph.

Third, this is your business, it doesn’t work like a regular payroll job does. The SS and Title companies don’t really care about how much experience you have, so don’t take the low ball requests thinking this would be good training grounds. You’ll learn as much taking on full fee jobs as you will taking the low ball offers. Don’t be afraid to make money.

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Good tips from exeternotary. Dont overthink it and dont give any more info except you are not available. The offers will still come in. Dont accept the lowball offers. Get paid! Best of luck, you will do fine.