by Lois Charm
Every October, the United States celebrates National Women’s Small Business Month. This month acknowledges the history of women in business in the U.S. and how far women business owners have come.
According to the Small Business Administration, “In 1972, there were a little over 400,000 women-owned businesses in the United States. By 2019, women-owned businesses represented 42% of all U.S. businesses and generated $1.9 trillion worth of revenue. Today, there are over 13 million women-owned businesses and counting.”
One small business that is highlighted this month is The Notary Starr, a Nashville-based notary service that is here to help people take care of various legal needs. Its founder, Starr Mosley, shared how her business was formed, its current success, and the hope she has for its future.
Mosley said her initial interest was in real estate, and she looked forward to a promising career.
“I've always wanted to get into real estate,” she said. “I thought that if I became a real estate agent, I could make good money, work less hours, and have freedom regarding my schedule.”
After Mosley embarked on pursuing her dream career, she realized the real estate business wasn’t what she thought it was and felt her heart being called in a different direction.
“I realized that I would be much better on the administrative side of that profession since I am not much of a sales person,” she said. “That's when I discovered roles like Notary Loan Signing Agent and Transaction Coordinator. I did some research to determine what I would need to start my own business in those roles and found out that I could start a notary business first and add additional services as the business grows.”
Mosley said that’s when she founded The Notary Starr.
A lot of people may not know what services a notary business offers, so Mosley shared information about it.
“A notary (notary public) is a public official that is commissioned by the Secretary of State, who serves as an impartial witness to certify the signing of legal documents to deter fraud,” she said. “A notary's main job is to verify the identity of the person signing the document.”
Some of her services include: loan signing, serving as a wedding officiant, and providing a legal fingerprint scanning service for background checks.
Mosley shared more about her business journey and how it's taken time for her business to scale to what it has become.
Mosley shared more about her business journey and how it's taken time for her business to scale to what it has become.
“Naturally the business started off slowly, as I learned the business and set it up as a supplementary source of income,” she said. “However, it grew so fast that I reached the milestones of leasing office space and being able to leave my day job.”
Mosley shared more about the success of her business and how she planned well, taking into account factors like budgeting and investing, in order for the business to scale over time.
“A major success for me was to see all of my hard work starting to manifest in growth,” she said. “That growth allowed me to generate enough revenue and clientele to move from my home office to a leased office space. From this, I learned that investing more money into my business where it makes sense yields greater returns. Sometimes, you have to spend money to make money.”
Mosley also shared that in spite of her success, she has also faced disappointments, but the disappointments have helped her to learn and grow as a professional.
“A major disappointment is the amount of money I spent to start my business where it actually didn’t make sense,” she said. “Since I was new to real estate and the role of notary, I paid a great deal of money for training programs, memberships, products, and services that I really didn't need and should have spent more time networking and learning from other professionals in this field instead of trying to figure it out on my own.”
While a notary service business is not as well known, Mosley shared advice she would give to anyone interested in starting one similar to hers.
“The very first piece of advice I would give to anyone starting a notary business or any business is do your research,” she said. “Also, be prepared for down times because there will be times when you're very busy and business is great. There will also be times when the phone is just not ringing. The notary business is not a "get rich quick" business and you won't start out making six-figures, despite what some training programs indicate. “
For more information on The Notary star, visit https://thenotarystarr.com.
The article was originally published Oct. 31, 2023.
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