It’s Black Business Month, so I want to do something a little different this week: not a highlight reel, not a polished “here’s how I built a thriving business” post — the real version.
Black-owned businesses represent a meaningful part of the American small-business landscape. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest available owner-demographic data, Black Americans owned approximately 201,000 employer businesses and 4.4 million businesses without paid employees in 2023 (Source: U.S. Census Bureau). I’m one of those numbers. And behind every number is a story that includes slow, unglamorous parts nobody puts on a flyer.
I founded Williams Mobile Signings in 2020, after being laid off, in the middle of a pandemic, self-funded, with no roadmap. If you’re an aspiring or early-career notary reading this, you’ve probably already pieced together the version of my story that sounds impressive: thousands of signings, a growing client list, a bilingual practice that fills a real gap in Metro Atlanta. All of that is true. None of it happened in a straight line.
Here’s what I actually wish someone had told me before year one and what I would tell any aspiring notary who wants to build something sustainable.
The Mistake That Cost the Most Time
Nearly every appointment, hour, distance, and document request — if someone asked, I said yes, because I was convinced that turning anything down meant turning away my business before it existed.
What that actually did was fill my calendar with appointments that didn’t fit where I wanted to go: wrong radius, wrong document type, wrong client fit, and left less room for the signings that actually built the business I have now. It took longer than it should have to realize that saying yes to everything isn’t the same as saying yes to the right things.
Without a defined service radius or a clear sense of which signings actually fit what I wanted to build, I said yes to appointments that ate an entire afternoon in travel time for one signing — time I could have spent on two or three appointments closer to home, or simply resting so I didn’t burn out in month four.
If I could hand year-one me one sentence, it would be: having a defined lane isn’t a limitation. It’s what makes people — clients and fellow notaries alike — trust you with the work that’s actually in it.
The Mistake That Cost the Most Money
I didn’t have a pricing system. I had a total price I felt comfortable saying out loud, but I had not clearly separated the notarial fee from the additional business-service charges associated with the appointment — which meant two similar jobs could land at two different totals depending on how confident I sounded that day.
Pricing without a system doesn’t just cost you money on the jobs you underquote. It costs you the ability to explain your pricing consistently, which is what actually builds client trust over time. A client who calls around and hears two different numbers from the same notary in the same month isn’t reassured — they’re suspicious, even if the difference was innocent.
It took me longer than I’d like to admit to build a real structure understanding the permitted fee for the notarial act, establishing separately disclosed travel and convenience charges, and deciding how I would handle printing, distance, rush, and after-hours requests instead of pricing on the fly every single time. What made the difference wasn’t the specific numbers; it was having an answer ready before someone asked, instead of doing mental math on the phone while trying to sound confident.
If you’re early in this and pricing still feels like guesswork, that’s normal — but it’s worth fixing sooner than I did.
What Actually Built Repeat Clients
Marketing helped people find me, but it wasn’t what turned first-time clients into repeat clients. What built repeat business was consistency — showing up when I said I would, being straightforward about what I could and couldn’t do, and becoming a trusted notary resource for communities whose needs were not always being met.
Being bilingual turned out to matter more than I expected going in. Elderly Spanish-speaking clients at assisted living and care facilities kept asking for me by name, not because I was the fastest or the cheapest, but because they could actually communicate clearly about what they needed. That became a real differentiator I didn’t fully plan for — it just came from showing up and paying attention to who wasn’t being served well.
The value of repeat business extends far beyond notary work. Harvard Business Review has cited research by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company suggesting that, depending on the business and industry, increasing customer retention by 5% may increase profits by 25% to 95%. The exact numbers won’t apply equally to every small business, but the broader lesson holds: retaining satisfied clients can be more efficient than constantly replacing them — every business that lasts is built on some version of that math, mine included.
Across more than 3,000 completed signing appointments for over 100 clients and organizations, the pattern has remained consistent: people do not return simply because they received the lowest price. They return because the last appointment felt handled.
None of that showed up overnight. It came from a lot of ordinary appointments done the same careful way, month after month, long before there was a pattern to point to. If you’re early enough in this that you don’t have that track record yet, that’s not a sign it isn’t working — it’s just early.
What I’d Tell Someone Starting Today
Define your lane before you’re tempted to say yes to everything. Build your pricing structure before your first client asks what you charge. And find the one thing about how you serve people that nobody else in your area is doing well — for me, that was language access. For you, it might be something else entirely. Whatever it is, it may be hiding in a recurring need you begin noticing among the clients and communities you are properly equipped to serve.
I’d also say this: don’t mistake a slow first year for a failing one. A notary business built on a defined lane, a clear and compliant pricing structure, and consistent follow-through has a stronger foundation for sustainable growth. The appointments in year three may look nothing like the appointments in month one — and that is often the result of deliberate decisions, not luck.
The Takeaway
A business that lasts isn’t built by avoiding every mistake. It’s built by knowing which ones are worth making once — and which ones you can skip entirely when someone shares the lesson with you.
I made most of these mistakes the slow way because nobody handed me a shortcut. I hope that sharing them helps another aspiring notary make more intentional decisions from the beginning.
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Disclaimer: This article reflects one notary’s personal experience and general observations. It is not legal, financial, or business advice. Individual results vary, and Georgia notary requirements may change
Valerie Williams | Bilingual Notary | Your Signature, My Seal!™ — Founder of Williams Mobile Signings
