As a marketer who works for companies in a variety of industries, I’m privileged to get an inside look at how owners around the country are building 5-star businesses. These are companies that demonstrate growth and stability. One that stands out as a successful role model for small companies everywhere is Andrea Soldo, owner of Andrea’ Mobile Notary in Simi Valley, California.
Andrea and I recently had a conversation about her path to building a successful mobile notary business. Andrea came to me a few years ago for help in building the online notary course she had created. One of the remarkable things that stood out to me was her collection of 5-star reviews on Google and Yelp. At the time, every last one of her 300+ reviews was five stars. Today, there are more than 930+ five star reviews for her mobile notary services as well as her mobile fingerprinting service.
First, it takes a lot of consistently great work and persistence for a small company to collect that many reviews. Big companies get to this level, but small companies and solopreneurs…almost none make it this far. And second, it’s rare for any company to sustain a level of service that produces 5-star quality work every single day, year after year.
Andrea’s track record with reviews is what prompted me to interview her for our blog. But you’ll see that reviews are but one of many factors that contribute to her ongoing success.
With that in mind, here’s some of my recent conversation with Andrea about small business ownership and the often difficult path to successful business growth.
Q: Tell us briefly about who your ideal clients are and what you do for them.
Andrea: My business offers mobile notary and loan signing services to individuals and companies in the greater Los Angeles and Ventura County California areas. I also do live scan and conventional ink card fingerprinting. And I recently received my credentials to perform weddings.
As a notary, I’m often required for a range of documents such as powers of attorney, real estate signings, wills and trusts, health care directives, immigration documents, permission to travel letter for minors, DMV documents, and more. I also do a lot of this type of work for inmates and local jails and prisons.
In addition to working with individual clients, I also work regularly with title insurance companies, mortgage and escrow companies, attorneys, senior living facilities, physicians, and pharmacists.
My live scan fingerprinting service takes me to lots of churches, volunteer organizations, schools, non-profit organizations, and governments.
Q: That’s an impressive range of services! And it points out the importance of diversifying both services offered as well as clientele. Diversification really adds a lot to the stability of a company. What made you decide to get into this line of work?
Andrea: It was strictly by accident actually. My friend at the time was a part-time real estate agent who asked, “Do you want to become a notary?”
I didn’t even know what that was! I went along for the ride. It turned out I enjoyed the job. I liked people and I like paperwork. I also like the idea of being my own boss.
Q: How did you finance your startup years?
Andrea: In the beginning, I worked part-time waitressing until I was able to build my full-time business as a notary.
Q: What do you feel was your biggest mistake in getting your business going? Or in other words, what would you do differently if you were starting out again?
Andrea: I feel my biggest mistake in getting my business going was not taking more time to invest in my education.
When I passed my notary exam and received my first commission, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I made errors that could have been avoided. Those mistakes resulted in lost business and income. I would’ve studied my trade better and learned it inside and out.
Q: What were your top 3 challenges in the early years and how did you overcome them?
Andrea: Number one was not understanding the notary laws. I overcame this by getting a mentor who guided me.
Number two – not feeling confident enough to walk away from my good paying job and enter entrepreneurship. I overcame this because I had a personal situation in life where I was forced to do so.
Number three was not knowing what questions to ask before I went out for an appointment. Also, not having rules and policies in place was a problem. I overcame this by learning through negative or bad experiences, then taking steps to prevent them in the future.
Today, I know the right questions to ask. I also have policies in place to guide clients and ensure a successful outcome for all types of notary situations.
Q: What about today, more than 19 years into your business…what challenges are you facing?
Andrea: Today I have to deal with notary competitors who are under-charging and undervaluing the role of a true professional Notary.
Another ongoing challenge is having to navigate Google. To keep the phone ringing, it’s important that I show up online precisely when clients are looking for my services. That means I have to maintain a top-notch online presence. The problem is there are constant changes in Google that affect where and how I show up in organic search results. So I have to work on blogging and improving my content.
I also do a lot of Google ads to deal with that issue and to ensure I show up when clients are searching online. Yet Google Ads also changes frequently, and it’s a challenge staying on top of that to make sure I’m getting a good return on investment.
It’s also challenging coming up with regular marketing money in order to get noticed month after month in both areas, ads and organic search.
Q: What advice would you give someone just starting out as a mobile notary?
Andrea: For someone starting out as a mobile Notary, I suggest they study the Secretary of State notary handbook until they know it inside and out. Look up any words that they don’t understand and make sure they can sync with the nomenclature and apply it.
Another important thing—don’t listen to the hype of notary coaches and ‘gurus’ making false promises. Believe it or not, there are people out there selling notary training courses who have never been a notary and never done a signing. They unrealistically promise things like earning “$200 an hour”. But they never talk about travel expenses, travel times, wait times, cancellations, equipment expenses, car repairs, and more.
Here’s the thing about mentorship…being a mentor means you can educate someone about those things that they don’t teach you in a course, about the things that are not in the notary handbook, about the things that can only be learned by experience.
Unless you’ve been through it, you’re not going to know how to defuse an unexpected argument, or to properly handle a situation where someone decides not to sign a document. You’re not going to know how to recognize a potentially risky situation or environment.
Get an experienced mentor, someone who owns and operates a successful mobile notary business. I can’t stress that enough! My own experience with mentoring is one of the reasons I started mentoring colleagues in my area. It also led me to create my online notary training.
Q: I want to ask you more about your course in a minute. But before I forget, one of the things I find remarkable is the number of 5-star reviews you have. I don’t know of any other small company who has managed to compile a track record like that…it’s impressive! And you don’t have a reputation manager who takes care of all your reviews. Can you talk a little bit about how you make this happen?
Andrea: From the beginning, I’ve always gone the extra mile. I always deliver service that is spectacular and truly caring for people. And I do that for every customer, every time.
Just as importantly, once the appointment is over and I know the client is satisfied, I ask them to review me. When they have a great experience, they are happy to take a minute to leave a five star review.
Q: What do you have in the works for the future of your business? Tell me about the course and anything else you have in the works.
Andrea: I recently created my online program, The Secrets of Notary Success. I created it so that notaries can learn a lot about how to own and operate a professional notary business.
This course is designed to provide comprehensive support and practical insights to both new and experienced notaries. It gives them the confidence and competence to excel both as a notary and as a solo business owner.
Aside from notary fundamentals, a good chunk of the course is devoted to all those things that I had to learn the hard way. I feel it’s a great way to help new and inexperienced notaries avoid the frustrations and costly mistakes I made all those years ago. And I also see so many colleagues making these same mistakes.
In the future, I would like to put out another learning course.
I also would love to spend more time teaching and mentoring one-on-one with notaries in the area. One of the great things about my notary mentoring program is that I customize each session to whatever the client feels they need. I do these sessions either in person, or via Zoom, whichever is more convenient for my client. It’s an exceptional opportunity for notaries to learn from my 19+ years of experience in the field.
Andrea Soldo at a mentoring session
I’d also like to get the title companies and others in the industry to recognize the value of a good notary. I want to impress upon them how much liability every notary has in the state of California so that when a notary bills them for their services, their true worth is recognized.
Summing it Up – Building a 5-Star Business
Well, thank you, Andrea, for sharing your experience about building a 5-star business! Much of what you shared with us applies to owners in almost any industry. There’s the importance of mentorship and education. Then there’s the need for consistent marketing and having a good digital foundation in place, as well as the need to proactively manage the business. Also, I love how you’ve diversified your business by offering a range of services as well as by mentoring colleagues and offering online training. Diversification is a key to long-term financial stability.
In short, Andrea’s Mobile Notary is a prime example of why it’s so critical to spend time working ON your business as well as working IN it.
You can reach Andrea Soldo at 818-357-0208 or message her on her website.
