Loan Officer Increases Income With Signature Move

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

What's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. And in today's story, a loan officer meets a notary agent at his workplace. When he does, he discovers a simple side hustle that's signed, sealed, and delivered.

That's right, we're gonna look at the strange world of mobile notaries. I once needed a notary myself in San Francisco, and it was a Sunday. I mention the day of the week because, normally if I need something notarized, I just go to my bank, and I usually have someone on site who will do it for free. But of course, the bank wasn't open on Sunday. And that's when I was introduced to the world of mobile notaries, where someone will meet you at your home or office, or in my case, my hotel lobby, to make sure your documents are legit, and get you that notary stamp that you need.

I got to talking with the woman who came out, and she told me she gets paid by the signature. So if you needed four documents signed, you paid four fees. And there was no bulk discount. Nice work if you can get it. So let's learn more about how this works.

For the right person out there, it could be an ideal way to make extra money. Loan officer increases income with signature move. It's coming up after this brief shout out to our sponsor. Stay tuned. [Music]

John Snedeker had recently graduated college with $70,000 in student loan debt.

The constant burden hanging over his head was awful. His job is a loan officer paid decently, but it was the very definition of the average nine to five grind. It would take him years to earn enough to both support his lifestyle and pay off the massive bill he'd racked up for his education. John knew that to knock out that debt as quickly as possible, he'd need additional income. The more, the better.

In other words, he needed a side hustle. So he was on the lookout for the right one. Although he had the motivation and the goal, he wasn't sure how to go about achieving it. All he knew for certain was that whatever he did had to fit a few important criteria. First, it would have to be done outside normal working hours.

Second, it had to pay well enough to justify the extra work he'd be doing. And third, it should be interesting and fun. Knowing what he was looking for helped John keep his eyes open for opportunities. And funny enough, a suitable one walked right through the front door at his office job and during work hours, no less. As a loan officer, John helped people sort through and decide which loan and terms were best for them.

It was a very bureaucratic process, one that required a lot of documents to be signed and notarized. In the business John worked at, there was one gentleman who came in, notarized all the signatures, and then delivered the documents wherever they needed to go. John got to talking to him one day. He learned that being a notary signing agent could be a pretty lucrative gig, paying anywhere from 75 to $200 per signing. On top of that, the work could often be done outside business hours and was very easy.

In other words, it checked all the boxes for his dream side hustle. John was ready to sign on the dotted line. His colleague pointed him in the right direction and it turned out it wasn't difficult to find his first clients. There were companies all over the country that handled this sort of thing. All John had to do was get the right accreditation and register.

To do all that cost about $1,000, which was a bargain in hindsight. After that, whenever one of these companies needed a signing completed in his area, they would reach out via email or a phone call. John would go on his merry way, notarize the signatures, and pocket the money. At first, he would only commit to notarizing documents in between six and eight p.m. after his day job was done.

But even with that restriction, his first customer arrived right away. He remembers it vividly because he was paid $100 for a half hour's work. If you can call it work. He simply sat there and instructed two people on where to sign and date their loan documents. That first customer was a very good sign of things to come.

The money earned ended up meaning a lot more than a few extra dollars in John's bank account. It was representative of a small business dream, a way to start something of his own that might one day give him true flexibility and autonomy over his life. Not to mention paying off his student loans. So John set out with termination and commitment. Life as a mobile notary signing agent, although not a glamorous job, would become his signature move.

Over the coming months and years, John committed to turning his part-time project into a full-time gig. He figured if he could earn over $45,000 a year working part-time, it would be enough for him to quit his job as a loan officer and go all in. It turned out that John was able to easily achieve that. In fact, he recalls one particular day where he made over $1,000, all from nine different loan signings. Furthermore, he was actually enjoying the work.

Every day he got to meet new people and go to interesting places. He notarized signatures in mansions and in tiny homes. He met well-known celebrities and athletes. One time he drove into a hurricane for an urgent job. All the variety in the work and all the people he met kept the experience fun.

So once he was earning enough to replace his day job, he quit and hasn't looked back since. He still loves the flexibility of the work and the many different people he gets to meet. In his career over the past decade, he's now notarized over 10,000 documents. And depending on how much he works, which is completely up to him, he can turn down any job he doesn't want, he's earned up to $85,000 a year from his former side hustle, now a full-time job. That success has produced a desire for John to pay it forward.

He enjoys it so much he has created an online course, you know, you knew it was coming, called Notary Signing Agent Blueprint. It's his way of helping people who are looking for a flexible side hustle no matter where they are on their journey in life. So for somebody out there who's interested, you might wanna say, "John, I'm in, where do I sign?" [Music]

So I like the idea of something like this as supplemental income for the right person, especially if you're out and about a lot, if you like to drive and you're often driving a lot around a major city or some suburban areas with a lot of people, and, or let's say, and/or, if you have flexible hours. People often need these mobile notaries in the evenings or on weekends, just like I did when I couldn't just go and do it at my bank for free because it was a Sunday. Now, as mentioned, John has a course for sale, but there are also some free resources on his site, including a 13-minute video of him doing an actual signing with someone.

I started watching it and I was gonna watch like a minute or two and I found myself like watching almost all the way to the end. It was very mundane in lots of ways, but yet, obviously, somehow, it captivated my attention. So maybe you wanna check it out as well if you're interested in this opportunity. If not this one, there is another one waiting for you. New idea every day, new story every day.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Those aforementioned show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1013. 1-0-1-3, that's for episode 1,013. Thank you so much for listening. For my signature move, I'm going to now sign off, but I will be back again tomorrow with another story.

My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is "Siteuscleschool." [Music]

From the Onward Project.