25-year-old makes $200/hour with no bachelor’s diploma: ‘I work lower than 6 hours a day’

On some mornings, Angelina Nguyen makes $150 in 5 minutes.

The 25-year-old remains to be shocked at how profitable her small notary enterprise has been. When she first turned a notary signing agent seven years in the past — simply weeks after her 18th birthday — Nguyen thought it will be a brief aspect hustle to assist her earnings as a financial institution teller.

Notaries, or notary publics, witness and authorize the signing of necessary paperwork, like passport functions and actual property contracts. Most notary publics can solely cost what their state dictates; notary signing brokers, alternatively, can cost extra as they concentrate on property data and mortgage paperwork. 

Whereas Nguyen thought the majority of her work as a notary could be spent verifying signatures and explaining paperwork to shoppers, she rapidly realized there was extra to notarizing than she initially thought — she was additionally strolling folks by a number of the happiest, and saddest, moments of their lives.

“I’ve watched folks signal the deed to their first home and contracts for a home they weren’t prepared to go away … there’s a variety of tears, each glad and unhappy,” says Nguyen. “I spotted I wished to be the one who made folks really feel seen, heard, cared for and understood in these necessary moments.” 

Two years in the past, Nguyen determined to attempt notarizing as a full-time profession, launching her enterprise, Workforce Signings, in San Jose, California, her hometown. That call turned out to be a sensible wager: In 2022, Nguyen’s enterprise made near $150,000, in response to tax paperwork reviewed by CNBC Make It. 

Nguyen’s dad, Chau, repeated the identical recommendation to her all through highschool, as her buddies panicked about their grades and having the correct extracurriculars on their resumes: “You do not have to go to school to achieve success.”

“He constructed a profession that he beloved as an actual property agent, with no bachelor’s diploma, and at all times instilled in me that I did not should go to school to achieve success,” says Nguyen. “I listened to him, and thank goodness I did as a result of I did not know what I wished to main in and I’d have needed to take out scholar loans … it saved me a variety of time and stress.”

Her dad was additionally the one who steered she develop into a notary signing agent, because the notaries he labored with on actual property paperwork had been in extremely excessive demand and incomes $75-$200 per signing.

In most states, you simply must submit an software and clear a background verify to develop into a notary public, however in California, it’s a must to take a six-hour coaching course, move an examination and clear a background verify. The startup prices for changing into a notary in California can vary wherever between $275 and $442, in response to Notary.web.

It took Nguyen about three months to finish the method, which she completed in 2015, and one other month of coaching and coursework to develop into a specialised signing agent in 2021.

After finishing her certifications in 2015, Nguyen nonetheless wasn’t satisfied she wished to be a notary signing agent full-time. She give up her job as a financial institution teller in 2016 and for the subsequent 5 years, she tried out completely different jobs, together with brief stints as an actual property agent and insurance coverage agent — however nothing matched how a lot she loved notarizing.

“It is one hour of labor and then you definitely’re accomplished, you are free,” says Nguyen. “It is versatile hours, and I really feel like I’m actually making a distinction in folks’s lives.”

Nguyen registered Workforce Signings as an organization in November 2021 and instantly started working constructing her clientele: She visited actual property companies with a stack of enterprise playing cards, made TikTok and Instagram pages to doc her work as a signing agent and requested buddies to unfold the phrase about her new enterprise.

Nguyen’s TikTok, which has virtually 30,000 followers, has been her most profitable advertising device, she says. Notaries in different states have reached out with referrals within the feedback, and followers close to San Jose have messaged her to request her companies.

She goals to do a minimum of two signings per day, charging wherever between $75-$200, and generally an excellent greater fee, relying on the kind of doc that must be notarized and the way far the appointment is from her residence workplace in San Jose. 

Some signings take a couple of minutes, whereas others can take over an hour. On common, Nguyen says she works “lower than six hours a day.” 

“I attempt to preserve common hours and work between 9 a.m. and three p.m., however I may also usually take signing appointments on weekends,” she provides. Nguyen employed a full-time assistant in March to assist with scheduling and billing.

Her solely remorse is just not beginning her notary enterprise sooner.

“I like that I can set my very own schedule, assist myself financially and my dad and mom in the event that they ever need assistance,” says Nguyen. “All of that collectively, together with having the chance to assist folks every single day, simply makes me really feel actually fulfilled as an individual.” 

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