How Painless Notary Simplifies the Process with Mobile Services

In an industry traditionally rooted in face-to-face interactions, Kyle Beam is challenging the status quo with Painless Notary, a company dedicated to simplifying and modernizing notary services. From real estate closings to the growing demand for remote notarization, Kyle has built a business that meets the needs of clients while maintaining the highest standards of trust and security. In this interview, Kyle shares his journey, insights into the notary industry, and advice for all those looking to venture into this space.

The Inception of Painless Notary

SBS – What inspired you to start Painless Notary, and how did you choose this name? 

Kyle – I like to tell this story just because it’s funny to me every time I think about it. It must have been 2010 or 2011 when I watched a TV show called The League. It’s about a fantasy football league, but one of the characters in it, who was independently wealthy, became a notary in one of the episodes, and he was making commercials. I wondered what that profession was. What do you do? You stamp things? Through the years, it would always pop into my head, but I never looked into it.

Then, I started working in construction. I did demolition for five years, and it got to the point where I wanted to try something different. I had already tried a few different entrepreneurial-type things, like a sticker and shirt business, and my buddies and I were looking to start a bar at one point. I already had a drive to make money for myself. When I expressed I wanted to try a different job, my wife mentioned being a notary because her mother had done it in the past. There it was again — notary. So, I looked into it and found out what it was.

I had just bought a house a couple of years before that, and instantly, I realized a notary does this loan signing process of all the paperwork needed for a home purchase, sale, refinance, or whatever type of transaction. The person who did it for me was awful. We had a terrible experience with them. That’s when I started looking into it, learning the ropes, and studying my paperwork. I figured out what it took to become a notary, and I started doing it as a side gig around July 2019 while I worked full-time as a construction worker. 

My side hustle took off, and I was able to make some extra money on the side. I really enjoyed it. Then COVID came along in March 2020, shutting the construction business down for a month. I got a taste of full-time notary work, and I loved it. When the construction business opened in April, I returned, finished a little time I had left to get my pension vested, and decided to jump into the notary business and scale it.

Regarding the name, it’s something I made up with a friend as we were carpooling to the demolition job. We were spitballing names back and forth, and he came up with “Kyle Painless Notary.” I thought it was pretty good but kind of gimmicky, with the root word being “pain,” and I felt people might get the wrong idea. However, I worked without that name for some time, and enough people, after signing, put their pens down and said, “Well, that was painless.” I heard that ten or twelve times and decided to stick with it.

The joy I get from helping people is much larger now, too. It was fun to rip walls down from buildings for about a year, and then it became hard work. Working nights sucked, and the commute to Seattle from my home every day was not fun either. 

Seamless Closings

SBS – How do you ensure a seamless experience for clients during real estate closings? 

Kyle – I’m very communicative. First and foremost, as soon as somebody gives me an order or asks me if I’m available for something and I agree, I get everything printed and double-check to make sure nothing’s missing on the documents. A lot of times, people scan stuff in, and then, of course, one page gets scanned on another, and now you have an issue because you can’t sign that document. I check dates and names, too. I know my stuff.

That’s one of the things you learn as you go. You’re thrown into the thick of it in this industry. There’s no good formal training on every single little thing. You must be detail-oriented. I review everything with the signers to ensure everything gets signed and dated. I double-check the papers at the table with them. Then, I’ll take the documents to the car and check them one more time before I leave. I also make sure to get them back to the person they belong to in a timely manner.

Overcoming Early Challenges

SBS – What were the first challenges you faced when you started doing this, and how did you overcome them? 

Kyle – I had just overcome the fear of having never done anything like this. If you don’t know much when you start doing this, it’s best you sign up with middleman signing services. They ask you if you’re available for a signing at a location at a certain time on a certain day. If you say yes, they give you the documents, and there you go.

For the first signings I did, I was nervously shaking because I had to make sure nothing was missed. Nobody was there to guide me, and it was a very important deal closing the next day. The realtor was even there for my very first signing, which is pretty rare. So, it was overwhelming to have somebody there to tell the company that hired me I did an awful job. But I did it well. As I said, I double-checked everything, and I only started getting better from there. 

Still, it was a challenge to feel comfortable enough to accept new signings coming at me because I didn’t know what I was doing. I had my paperwork to review and figure out what document was what. But depending on transaction types, where they’re at, and the statistics they’re coming from, you can see things you’ve never seen before, and then you have to just think on your feet and figure out what it might be.

Another major challenge was after a year in business, I realized I was really good at what I was doing. I got a lot of work every day. Interest rates were at an all-time low when I started, so I got lucky in a way. It was very, very busy, which created time management issues. I had to learn how to manage my time because I was getting to the point where I wanted to do direct business with title and escrow companies. The goal was to go from making $85 per signing to $150 to $200 per signing. It was hard to turn down the paying jobs to go out and market to these people for free. But in order to grow my business and make it more lucrative overall, I had to say no to the money and work on building relationships.

Remote Notary Services

SBS – How has the demand for remote online notary services evolved in the last few years? How’s the market right now? 

Kyle – It’s not super great. After COVID, it got extremely busy. Then, once the rates started coming up and home prices continued to rise, that kind of killed the market. It got slow, and that’s how it has been for the last few years. It’s seasonal, kind of. That’s why creating little nest eggs is important when you’re making money. 

Since COVID, there’s more we can do. Remote online notarization (RON) was started in 2020 in most of the country, so we can do some transactions virtually over a video call worldwide. Even when people are on vacation, we can still get them all signed up. We don’t have to wait or lose out to the embassies over there or anything like that. Still, the business has slowed down. It just goes with the economy. That being said, when the business slowed down, I started getting real into the marketing aspect, making sure everything I do now will help have an impact down the line.

Leveraging Technology

SBS – What role does technology play in your business operations? Which tools do you usually use? 

Kyle – Technology is huge. It’s just constant emails, so having a computer and a way to answer them on the road is a must. I also need my GPS and my phone to get around. A printer is very important for a notary, and a dual-tray one is a must. If you’re a notary trying to do loan signing stuff and don’t have a laser printer with printing capacity for legal and letter-sized paper, then I don’t know what you’re doing.

I also operate nationwide as a signing service contracting out notaries all over the US- I rely on an online platform in order to search for and hire these notaries as well as keep track of all the signing info like location, time, date, any special instructions, invoices, etc. It also allows us to upload people’s sensitive documents securely and get them to the notary hired for printing.

Future Trends

SBS – What trends do you see in the notary services in the next few years? 

Kyle – I’m not sure. I mentioned RON, which is new, but I don’t see it becoming the new standard just because many companies and lenders are still very unsure of it. They want to sign in person to make sure notaries are who they say they are and are not committing fraud. With AI and everything that can go wrong, they’re still on the fence about doing a virtual meeting.

When RON came out, many thought it would kill the need for the notaries to go out in person. It can’t because it still requires a notary to do it. Even a lot of the general public I work with are unsure when I offer that because they don’t know whether it will be acceptable. It is, of course, but many are just more comfortable with an in-person type of deal, and that makes perfect sense.

I’ve heard many stories about RON, how many companies have been subject to fraud because of technology itself, and what people can do with it.

Building Trust

SBS – How do you build trust with clients, especially those wary of remote services? 

Kyle – Good question. Most people who hire me know about mobile notary services but don’t know how they work. I can break it down, show them all the laws and codes, and tell them everything about RON.

There are different authentication processes, so anyone logging in must upload their IDs and pictures. They then have to take a knowledge-based assessment quiz, which is five questions you get asked based on yourself. If they fail it two times, they get locked out for 24 hours. So, failing those quizzes is a hard stop. Obviously, people should be able to answer questions about themselves if they are who they say they are.

I also make sure everything is right (and I take this seriously) by double-checking my clients’ ID in the camera. I have them hold the ID up. I blow the image up, get a picture, and ensure it matches. While they’re holding the ID, I ask them about their name, birth date, and the address on that ID. This is the standard ID verification process, but I also check out their body language to make sure they’re not lying or committing anything illegal. Plus, the platform I use is good at sussing that stuff out. It’s not just a Zoom call; it’s made specifically for this purpose. There are audit trails that, after we’re done, show everything that happened when the IDs were verified, when people passed their quizzes, and when they clicked the sign buttons. People can refer to that if anything ever comes up. 

Effective Marketing

SBS – What marketing strategies have been the most effective for your business? 

Kyle – For my business, the most effective by far is walking into offices, title companies, realtor offices, and lenders to introduce myself, letting them know what my services are, handing them some donuts and similar little gifts of gratitude, and then following up with them in a week or two. You get six Nos before you get a Yes. You just have to keep trying. If you’re not getting good reception at first, follow up in a week or three weeks after that. Just keep them thinking about you. Notaries are busy. If the company works with other notaries, they will eventually be sick, on vacation, or booked up. Who’s the next person? Oh, that guy that keeps coming in! When they get a taste of what I can offer them, they continue to use me.

I’ve gotten a pretty good spread around my base home area, and in 2021, I started my own nationwide signing service. That’s been the other way I promote myself. I contract notaries for these loan signings across the United States. Getting people to use my service now has become a bit more of a challenge because some companies already have their own signing service, and that’s fine, and some can’t use me at all because they have a parent company that doesn’t allow that. That’s a bummer, and there’s nothing I can do about that, though I’ve tried for years. 

Cold calling, marketing emails, and sales are hard to do because clients don’t know who you are. Also, I’m not great at it. That’s what I’m focusing on learning now — how to be good at sales calls and stuff like that. The only other thing that’s ever really worked is what I call my organic leads — companies that call me looking for a notary because they have a signing in my area. I know the company does not have a signing service that hires notaries for them, or that service would contact me. So, I pitch the idea to them, and they’re usually on board. I show them my platform, how I do it, and what it entails, and it saves them time, energy, and work hours. 

A Google Business page does well in marketing to the general public. Just set it up well, and people will call to look for notary work.

Navigating Legal Complexities

SBS – How do you navigate the legal complexities involved in your business? 

Kyle – Just by knowing my notarial law. I’ve read the handbook front to back several times and have kept up with changes through the years. I ensure I know the rules at the Secretary of State’s level. 

What I see with new notaries is that they don’t have an understanding of what their role is as a notary and don’t know the differences between different notarial certificates. Of course, many places don’t require you to take a course to get a notary license. Washington state, where I’m from, is one example. However, there are a ton of things that you can mess up. If your notarial certificate is not sufficient and doesn’t meet the requirements of what your state requires, that’s a big deal. If it ever gets contested or anything like that, there’s specific verbiage and wordage and things you need present on your acknowledgment and jurat that vary from state to state. I also see people put stamps on things that don’t require it or provide loose notarized certificates that don’t belong to anything specific… in that instance, you are basically asking someone to commit fraud on your behalf by attaching that notarized certificate to anything they want.

All in all, knowing your notary law is hugely important for being in this business. I haven’t had any other legal issues pop up yet, and hopefully, I won’t, but that would be something I’d have to figure out how to navigate. With a business lawyer, obviously.

Starting a new business, you must learn about it. You need to know the laws regarding registering your business, doing taxes correctly, etc. I became my own accountant. I went to a CPA the first year, figured it all out, and made sure I was doing things correctly. From then on, it’s about paying your estimated quarterly taxes, knowing what you can and can’t write off, and so on.

Advice for Aspiring Notaries

SBS – What advice would you give those who want to start a similar business? 

Kyle – If you want to get into the notary business and do it full-time, you must learn your stuff. There are many different things you can do as a notary. The real estate part of it is good money, and if you’re going to do that, try to get your hands on some documents and read them, learn what they are. It will go a long way.

Be very communicative and outgoing. The worst thing you can do is not make yourself known. That’s one thing that notaries tend not to do. They get their commission, and then they sit inside, so to speak. Well, nobody will know who you are if you don’t get out there.

Also, take a course. There are plenty of resources to choose from. Look up loan signing agent courses, and they usually have lists of different companies you can sign up with. Start cutting your teeth on those. Call them and ask to be put on a list of preferred notaries. Again, stay on top of their minds and keep yourself active, letting them know you exist.

Other than that, ensure you’re double-checking everything and printing papers correctly. Figure out how to be a notary before you do anything. Learn what needs to be notarized, what to look for, etc. Every state’s different, so know those state laws.