First National Bank Zeros In on Small Businesses
Betty Davenport of the First National Bank of Ventura was surprised recently at the long list of companies she turned up when searching for Ventura manufacturers with annual sales of $1.5 million to $5 million.
“Having grown up here, I always think of Ventura as a small hometown,” said Davenport, who has lived in the area for 41 years and has been a part of the local banking community for 26 years. “I was amazed at the . . . wealth Ventura has.”
In her new job as one of two vice presidents in charge of business development at First National Bank, Davenport is responsible for attracting local businesses to her company. Davenport is sharing those duties with Lori Barlow-Tashima, a 17-year banking veteran who also was hired to increase the bank’s presence in the local business community.
The two additions, said Robert Zingg, president and chief executive of First National Bank, represent the institution’s effort to build on last year’s success.
In 1995, the bank reported $45 million in total assets, an increase of 27% from 1994. Its $585,000 in profits for 1995 represented a 137% increase from the prior year.
Zingg credited the financial growth predominantly to an increased focus on small business loans. Davenport and Barlow-Tashima, he said, will continue that push.
“Their roles are to go out in the community and call on small businesses and professional types, attend the mixers, get involved with the local service clubs,” Zingg said. “We’re primarily a small-business and professional bank. A small independent bank cannot be all things to all people. We’ve decided that this is what we can do best.”
Davenport said the needs of the Ventura County business community have changed considerably since her days as a teller at Wells Fargo Bank in Ventura in the 1970s.
“Small business owners are having to do just about everything in their businesses these days,” she said. “With the advent of computers and so much more electronic things happening, business owners are so much busier. Trying to keep up with that technology requires more capital input into their companies, and they have less time to do it all.”
Which is where a small, community-oriented bank comes in, Davenport said.
“My job is making the banking piece of their business easier than they ever thought it could be,” she said. “Banking has changed over the last 20 years as much as business has changed. If you don’t have a good working relationship with your banker, it’s more difficult than it needs to be.”
