Thursday, August 29, 2013

Notary work

Sorry I have not been on here lately but I took a couple of weeks off during a slow period and went to visit my 92 year old mother.  She is doing great, thanks for asking!  :-)
Most of my posts are about my wedding officiant side of Destin Notary but I have to share something that happened today.  I have decided that this is going to be my full time job going forward and such I need to get the Notary side of the business going stronger to cover the slow months of the wedding side of the business.  So today I went on to the National Notary Association (which I am a member of) website and watched one of their webinars on branding/increasing your business.  It was a great webinar!  If you are a notary out there, you really need to belong to the NNA... they have great information on their website.  Anyway, I have done most of what they were recommending but had not followed up by registering on some the websites that closing/signing companies go to when they are in need of a notary signing agent.  So off I went to the websites, registered and put down a little description of myself and what I do.  I figured maybe someday, someone might call and I would get some extra work out of it.  Was I wrong!! Two hours later, I got my first call and set up my first appointment for tomorrow.  For those of you interested, the website that they found my name on is www.notaryrotary.com.  The company that called me is based out of California and needed a notary to do a signing here in Florida for a property in Georgia, talk about being a national company!
So that little exercise and the hour I spent listening to the webinar, were very much worth my time.

I have two weddings this Saturday so I will be enjoying the Labor Day weekend on Sunday and Monday.  I hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend! 

Friday, August 2, 2013

Cancellations

I haven't been on to post anything for awhile but that is a good thing (at least for my business).  I had 19 weddings in the month of July!  That is a record month for me.  I am so happy that my wedding business is growing so well.  I love this job and meeting and working with the most wonderful people.
Of course, there is always a down side and luckily for me and the other officiants that I know, this is a rare occurence.  Cancellations... they can be handled professionally and with courtesy or they can be handled wrong.  We all understand that plans change, situations happen or circumstances change.  We don't want to get too involved in your life, but if you contract with an officiant to perform the ceremony, you should have the courtesy to inform your officiant, as soon as possible, if the ceremony is going to be cancelled. We set aside the date and time, and do not book anything else within a certain timeframe.  If you need to cancel, and if you let us know as soon as possible, then we can open up that date and time and schedule something else.  This is our business, after all.
In the last little while, I have had one bride cancel the morning of the ceremony and another didn't call or contact me at all.  Another officiant I know had two brides cancel on him the day before the ceremony.  I am sure that these brides knew more than a day in advance that they were not going to get married that day.
We typically require a deposit to hold the date and time.  If you do not cancel within a reasonable time ( a week or so would be minimum), please don't expect to get your deposit back.  If you give us enough time to book another wedding, we will be glad to refund the deposit or apply it to another date, if you need to reschedule.
I have had people cancel with reasonable notice and was glad to refund their deposit and was able to schedule another wedding.  Those situations were a win-win for both parties.
Please if you need to cancel, please have the courtesy to let your vendors know as soon as you know.