Jun 4 • General discussion
The $2 Decision That Ended a Years-Long Business Relationship
A few days ago, I posted this on social media:
"I built a notary fortune because I didn't know my worth."
My message was simple: I built my business by saying yes to every opportunity. I worked hard, served clients well, gained experience, and built relationships. Instead of focusing on what I thought I deserved to earn, I focused on creating value. Over time, that commitment helped me build a strong reputation and a successful, profitable business.
This has nothing to do with signing services offering low fees. If you know me, you know I strongly oppose companies taking advantage of notaries. That's not the point of this post.
The reason I'm sharing this is because we recently assigned a signing to a notary we've worked with for years. This is someone we've consistently hired, trusted with all types of transactions, and helped keep busy in his area.
The fee offered was $100. After reviewing the documents, the notary sent us the following message:
"OK. The signer is available and this seem to be a very large package of 189 pages. Please add an extra $25 or find another Notary."
There's another important detail. Over the years, we have paid this same notary $100 for seller packages that typically require printing only 20 to 30 pages. In other words, there were many transactions where the printing requirement was minimal, yet the fee remained exactly the same.
That's why it's important to look at the full picture.
Business relationships should not be evaluated one transaction at a time. Sometimes you make more on one assignment, sometimes you make less. The goal is to evaluate the relationship as a whole and understand the long-term value it provides.
We explained that we could not adjust the fee. At that point, the notary told us to find someone else for the assignment.
And that's exactly what we did.
Not only did we find another notary, but we also made the decision that we will no longer do business with this notary moving forward.
Not because he asked for more money.
Not because he declined an assignment.
But because after years of doing business together, he was willing to walk away from a valuable business relationship over an additional $25.
Let's put that into perspective.
A 189-page package is not unusual in this industry. Buyer packages are often large, and 200 pages is completely normal. Printing larger packages is simply part of the business.
Even if this notary's personal threshold is 150 pages, we're talking about an additional 39 pages. In this particular transaction, we only required one printed set, not two.
At an average printing cost of 4 to 5 cents per page, those extra 39 pages would cost approximately $1.56 to $1.95.
Read that again.
A notary we had trusted with assignments for years, a notary who received consistent business from us, chose to end that relationship because we would not pay an additional $25 for something that cost less than $2.
This isn't about the $25.
It's about understanding the value of a business relationship.
Sometimes people become so focused on squeezing every possible dollar out of a single transaction that they lose sight of the bigger opportunity sitting right in front of them.
In my opinion, this notary didn't lose $25.
He lost access to future assignments, future revenue, and a business relationship that took years to build, all over less than $2 in actual additional cost.
This is exactly why I encourage notaries to look beyond a single order.
If you only focus on today's transaction, you might feel justified asking for another $25.
But if you look at the entire relationship, you'll realize there were many previous assignments where the fee was very favorable.
Successful business owners understand that relationships are measured over years, not pages.
Every relationship you build in this industry has value. Every company that repeatedly calls you is giving you something many notaries are still trying to earn: trust.
Sometimes the question isn't, "Can I make an extra $25 today?"
Sometimes the better question is, "What is this relationship worth over the next 5 years?"
Don't be so focused on maximizing every individual order that you lose sight of the bigger picture.
Relationships, reputation, consistency, and reliability are what create long-term success in this business.
The notaries who build lasting businesses understand that not every decision should be based on
today's profit. Sometimes the biggest opportunities come from the relationships you choose to protect.
That's the point I hope you see.
I originally posted this on Instagram, and the conversation there is worth a look. See the original and the comments here: 👉 https://www.instagram.com/p/DY9wvt_AJZ1/?hl=en&img_index=1
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The $2 Decision That Ended a Years-Long Business Relationship
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