Notary public Dawn Gerhart understands the struggle.
There are more notaries than realtors, in general, she said. Everyone knows at least one realtor, but people still cannot find a notary.
Perhaps that’s why Gerhart’s one-woman notary show — GMD Notary Services — makes close to six figures a year.
The business has been very good to Gerhart.
“There are agents — I’m not there yet but I’m very close — there are agents who make six figures and there are a few that I know who make seven,” she said.
“You can do very well and so I have been not six figures but just under the last few years. This keeps me fed without any problem.”
Gerhart isn’t the only one finding success alone.
Try to get an appointment for a facial with Lisa Miranda — her books are closed to nonclients.
Although she orders all the supplies she uses in her practice, she still makes enough as Lisa Miranda Esthetics to support herself and her children well.
These are just two examples of women who, alone, are their own bosses, and there are others. Throughout Tucson there are women who have stepped into the entrepreneurial pool and are succeeding at it.
From officially witnessing signatures to caring for skin to photographing important events in people’s lives to providing women with fashionable, cute clothing, Tucson women have found a niche where they can sell their special skills.
Every eye is open
When photos show everyone smiling, it isn’t a fluke. Ask Beatriz Verdugo, owner of Coti’s Photography. (Coti is short for Constanza, her middle name.)
It doesn’t matter to Verdugo how many times she has to trip the shutter; she will hand her customer at least one shot where everyone’s eyes are open, their hair looks neat and they’re all tucked in.
“I feel like I’m very detail oriented when it comes to a family group or anyone,” she said.
“I’m always fixing their hair, making sure their clothes are nice and neat and no wrinkles or anything like that. I definitely make sure their eyes are open. They might think I’m taking (too many) photos, but I’m just making sure. If they close their eyes, I’m going to be taking it again. And again. I try to aim for the best possible photo of them.”
Verdugo has long been interested in photography. As a little kid, she always had a Polaroid camera with her, until she figured out how to work a digital camera. When her classmates discovered she could snap nice photographs, they asked her to take their senior portraits. Add to that quinceañeras, and she was busy.
“I was like, oh, it’s good money; let’s practice and keep going,” she said.
The mother of two worked her way through the BFA fine arts program at the UA while caring for a husband and infant daughter. Now she specializes in maternity and infant portraiture, quinceañeras, senior portraits, weddings and baptisms. She really enjoys family shots.
“I like to focus a lot on family portraits, the baby ones,” Verdugo said. “As a mother it comes naturally to connect more with it and know how to do the little kids with the family.”
Sure, there are lists of professional photographers here in Tucson — all of them good. What sets Verdugo apart is her identity and background. She is Mexican American and fluent in English and Spanish. She understands very well cultural cues and requirements.
Within that population segment, Verdugo has identified an often-overlooked niche.
“I like to focus on those people who have a hard time finding a good photographer because they’re not ready to invest or maybe they’re afraid of investing a little more and I feel that’s how I’ve gained more clients,” she said.
Most of her clients come by word of mouth.
On any given shoot, Verdugo brings her mirrorless Sony camera, wide angle and long lenses, a soft box light and stand, sandbags for weight if it’s windy, extra batteries, light bulbs and sometimes her brother, who doubles as an assistant. It can be awkward and if it’s a desert or horse stable shoot, Verdugo, who often works alone, hauls her equipment around in a wagon. She also works in homes, churches, halls — anywhere she has a shoot.
Still, she hopes to one day have her own studio, making it easier for her to work and clients to find her.
Verdugo works hard and she enjoys her work, but it does come with frustrations. Sometimes a client won’t respond and the deadline is approaching or she has to communicate by email, where miscommunications easily happen. Still, she’s busy with two to three shoots a week.
Three shoots a week, however, leaves four days a week unaccounted for so Verdugo has a side hustle with Bea’s Designs and Crafts. She makes personalized bags of chips, wedding and party favors, T-shirts, cups and gift boxes. If it can be personalized, Verdugo can make it for you.
Caring that’s skin deep
A couple of decades ago, Lisa Miranda was casting around for something to do with her life. Her future mother-in-law, who has since died, suggested they meet at a local beauty school for discount services.
The beloved mother-in-law never showed up but Miranda still got the services. During a facial, she learned about how to become an esthetician and, by the end of the day, she was signed up for classes. It was one of the best decisions she ever made, she said.
“I’ve never regretted it,” Miranda added.
Today she rents a studio at Tucson Touch Therapies, a business arrangement that works well for her.
Miranda decorated her studio with tranquility and peace in mind. In the background she plays soft, easy music, sometimes nature sounds. She wants her clients to forget their worries and troubles, even if it’s just for an hour. A table draped with clean blankets and towels sits in the middle of the room, with a counter and sink at the back.
This is the center of Miranda’s — and the clients’ — world. Whether it’s a lash or brow tinting, facial, back facial (that’s skin care for the back), dermaplaning (that’s a shave but with a surgeon’s blade; it takes off unwanted hair and dead skin cells) or waxing, it all adds up to professional skin care.
“As far as makeup tattooing, laser removal, I’m not interested in that,” she said. “The permanent makeup, I’m just not interested.”
Miranda has men and women as clients; everyone wants a clean face, free of hair and dead skin cells. She loves her job for a simple reason.
“The people,” Miranda said with feeling. “I love each and every one of my people.”
Miranda’s time and skills are in demand. It can be hard to get an appointment, even for long-time clients. Miranda opens her books twice a year for new guests. The timing just needs to be right.
In the end, Miranda is grateful her mother-in-law to be didn’t show up for the appointment. In fact, Miranda is not unconvinced she didn’t plan it that way. It’s been a very satisfying career.
Miranda is nothing if not honest, even about herself. She knew she wasn’t college material, and she knows not everyone is. This is a great career for young people to consider, she said.
“I love all young people going into the beauty industry,” she said. “College was not my destiny. I didn’t have the attention span and I didn’t have the direction that I thought I needed. I didn’t know where to start and I didn’t have financial support.”
Twenty years ago, it cost her about $6,000 and six months at the now-shuttered Allure Beauty School on Speedway to get licensed.
“It was the best thing I ever spent money on,” she said. “If I weren’t doing this, I don’t know what I’d be doing.”
Cute clothes at
reasonable prices
Denise Lopez finds it difficult not to tap into her own supply.
It’s not hard to see why. As co-owners of Apricot Lane, a women’s clothing boutique, she and her sister, Edna Mendoza, carry some very cute merchandise. Take, for example, the black, cropped jacket made with sequins and fringe ($80). Pair it with a cute gray silk, spaghetti-strapped tank ($50). Slip on strategically ripped jeans and a pair of black boots and there’s an outfit.
“I have always loved fashion,” Lopez said.
The sisters had always talked about starting a business together so when Mendoza retired she and Lopez began casting around for a business to start. Mendoza said she felt starting from scratch would be too difficult so they turned to franchising opportunities. They found lists of possibilities on the internet and hit on Apricot Lane.
“The name just caught my eye,” Lopez said.
After the pair decided they were interested in Apricot Lane, they had to wait to see if the company wanted them.
“They interview you first to make sure we would be a good fit for the franchise,” Mendoza said.
Why Apricot Lane? For one, the company helped them find the location and identify their target market.
“It’s a franchise but all the shops are locally owned,” Mendoza said. “The shop owners select their own clothing. What the franchise does is give us access to particular vendors and provide support, like the point-of-sale system, reports and how to analyze how your store is doing.”
The company even helped with the store layout.
Apricot Lane’s customers are young professional women or women who like to dress trendy, Mendoza said, with a size range of extra small to extra large. They’re still trying to listen to their customers to see what they should carry, such as plus-size clothing.
“(This) gives us an opportunity to have ladies tell us what they’d like to see and what colors so we can be more customer focused,” Mendoza said.
The store is filled with color, from aqua-blue sequined cropped tanks to sparkly plaid sundresses to accessories like headbands, earrings and bracelets. There are also purses, of note, one of clear plastic. For those who like something more sophisticated, there’s a clutch crafted with a bejeweled clasp and covered in black fluffy ostrich feathers.
Actually, Mendoza and Lopez are quite happy with the way things turned out. The business speaks to their philosophy of giving back to the community. They dream of one day opening a home for unhoused and/or abused women, where besides being a safe place to live, services such as career counseling can be provided.
In the meantime, they hope to make things better for women by providing a valuable service.
“We want to make women feel empowered and feel good about themselves and confident about themselves,” Lopez said. “We just want women to feel good about themselves.”
A public officer
Gerhart has owned GMD Notary Services for three years, though she’s been a notary public in the state of Arizona for 18 years. She is a mobile notary; she comes to you when you need someone to witness your signature.
“You don’t need to waste your time,” she said. “I come to you wherever you are, whenever you’re ready and we’ll get it taken care of.”
In addition to traveling around to witness signings, Gerhart increased her business when she became a certified loan signing agent. What exactly is that?
“I help facilitate signing the documents when people are buying a house, selling a house, refinancing, that kind of thing,” she said.
When she’s sitting down with clients, she is versed in the documents’ contents. This is no small thing since the documents can be as long as 150 to 200 pages. In addition, they contain sensitive information, such as social security numbers, dates of birth, bank account numbers.
“In that realm, I have access to people’s personal information,” she said. “That’s where the criminal background check comes into play, to make sure you are following good protocol.”
Because she is considered a public officer, Gerhart said integrity is a very important part of the job.
“There is a set of standards in practice that we follow as far as maintaining people’s (confidentiality, providing) a secure environment both through our own technology access and just how we move through life, in our day-to-day business, having that information with us and how that information is disseminated to the appropriate people,” she said. “My worst fear is having an accident, and something happens to me and I can’t secure that.”
The pandemic was the impetus to starting her company as she was between jobs. Because interest rates had dropped and home sales skyrocketed, there was a call for certified loan signing agents. Since that time, the call for Gerhart’s services has dropped just a bit. This is when her business strategies come in.
“I think the thing for me that stands apart, I think holds me apart is I’m out there networking,” she said. “I’m talking to people. I’m working on personal relationships, creating alliances so people know me.”
In the end, the one thing Gerhart knows that keeps her in business is this one basic idea.
“For me, this applies to people in general,” she said. “Nobody wants to be wrong. No one wants to be held accountable. But I think if you take ownership of it, it doesn’t mean you’re enemy No. 1. That’s how I was raised in the work industry, to exceed people’s expectations.”
Coti’s Photography
520-977-9391
Instagram: @coti_photo
Facebook: coti.photography
See her craft samples here: rb.gy/pz2l6
Lisa Miranda
Tucson Touch Therapies
520-881-7337
Apricot Lane
5350 E. Broadway Boulevard, Suite 156, Tucson
520-347-5938
apricotlaneboutique.com/store/tucson/
GMD Notary Services
520-344-2747
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