ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
The Seward County Development Corporation has many resources to help local businesses grow and develop, and recently, they added a new piece to the puzzle to further help with getting and keeping businesses in the community.
After seeing a need for guidance with cash flow, financial projection, understanding assets and liabilities and bookkeeping, SCDC Entrepreneurship Director Raquel Areallano said leaders with the corporation created a financial services specialist position.
“That was where we found there was a gap in the services we were able to provide,” she said. “It’s not just getting people loan ready. It’s not just about connecting them with funding, but also helping them to understand how to manage their finances since they’re in business now, or ahead of time in the planning phase, they can begin to do all the work on the front end so they can be successful when they launch their business.”
Recently, Tom Reynaga was hired to fill the position of financial services specialist at SCDC. Reynaga came to Liberal from California in 2002, and making Southwest Kansas as his home since. He is also a graduate of Liberal High School.
Reynaga’s family has a large background in banking, and he said it was them that first got him into the financial world.
“My dad in Mexico worked at an ag bank,” he said. “When I graduated from high school, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. My mom encouraged me to apply at First National Bank.”
So for Reynaga, what he had planned to be a part-time summer job actually turned into a 19-year career in banking.
“I started as a teller,” he said. “I moved up to branch manager, personal banker, and most recently, I was a loan officer.”
After working in banking for all those years, Reynaga saw a need for financial literacy and spoke with Areallano and SCDC Director Eli Svaty, and one thing led to another with Reynaga assuming his new role at the corporation.
Reynaga said his parents encouraging him to help others is much of what led him into the financial world.
“Finance has been my career, and having an opportunity to continue working with the community is something I really value,” he said. “Being able to help customers when I worked at the bank in finding financing for them, helping them with their businesses is something I think translated very well working at SCDC. Now, we do the same thing. We’re non-profit. We’re not doing it for profit. We’re doing it to help the community and encourage small business development in our community that will stay here.”
Reynaga said his primary goal is to help businesses stay open.
“Sometimes through financial mismanagement or not understanding the financial fields and everything business can do, taxes, profit loss, balance sheets and just having an understanding of the help of their business, if I’m able to meet with them and help them see a more clear picture of their financial situation, they can adjust, and they can continue to stay open,” he said. “Whether it be because sales are down or cost of goods is up, they can weather the storm and continue to stay open. That’s the goal. We want to see businesses come to Liberal or start in Liberal and stay in Liberal and stay open.”
Both Areallano and Reynaga believe the financial services specialists position is beneficial for the community.
“We don’t charge for our service,” Reynaga said. “We’re a resource for the community. Anybody who’s in Seward County can come in and talk with us.”
Reynaga said SCDC leaders would love to visit with community members.
“We’re not going to steer the ship for them, but we’d like to lay out a map so they know where they’re going and just have that resource of having us there so they can make better decisions,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s the business owners who make their choices. We just want to add more information, give them more information. Knowledge is power, and the more they know, the better they can steer their ship.”
Areallano said the financial services specialist position is something SCDC has been working on and developing, and she said Reynaga is exceptional and knowledgeable and a great fit and asset for not just the Liberal community.
“He’s from here and worked here for many years, but he is also an asset to business owners, as they find the services we are now able to provide are going to help them in the long run,” she said.
Areallano and Reynaga too are excited to see what develops from having the position.
“For existing businesses, this type of service we provide is the best fit because if they’re finding they’re having trouble with spending leaks, with cash flow, budgeting, maybe they’re first time employers, maybe they’re first time business owners and they really don’t know how to manage a business budget,” Areallano said. “This is really going to be beneficial for them to set them up for success.”
Reynaga, who has never worked in public service, said he enjoys the publicly funded aspect of SCDC.
“It’s really nice,” he said. “We know we owe it to the community for everything Liberal is, but it’s overall very satisfying to have a chance to work for an agency like this.”
