Proctor Outlines Plans to Support Kansas Entrepreneurs

State Representative Pat Proctor, who is running for Kansas Secretary of State, visited the Wellington Daily News office recently to share his ideas on how the Secretary of State’s office could better support business owners across Kansas.

Proctor, who represents the 41st House District, is also a business owner with several restaurants in Leavenworth. Drawing on his own experience as an entrepreneur, Proctor said he sees opportunities for the Secretary of State’s office to do more to help Kansas businesses start, grow, and thrive.

The business division of the Secretary of State’s office is where entrepreneurs register a corporation, LLC, or other business entity in the state of Kansas. The office files and maintains records for those entities and manages documents such as mergers and dissolutions.

“If you’re an entrepreneur, one of the first places you go is to that website and see if the name you want for your business is taken,” said Proctor. “Because it’s the first place entrepreneurs go, there’s so much more we could do with that office.”

Proctor said the idea stemmed from his own early challenges as a small business owner. He started with a 19-seat Thai restaurant just outside Fort Leavenworth’s front gate and has since expanded to three establishments, including a new Asian-fusion noodle shop.

“We started in 2006 and had just gotten to Fort Leavenworth,” Proctor recalled. “I sent my wife to find a house, and she found a restaurant. She knew a lot about running a restaurant, but neither one of us knew anything about starting a business.”

They visited the Kansas Secretary of State website to file for incorporation, providing the business name, registered agent, and other required details. Soon after, they began receiving letters from other state agencies notifying them of additional paperwork they hadn’t known to file.

“When I started looking at running for Kansas Secretary of State, I thought there might be a way to solve this problem through the business division,” said Proctor. “Right now the burden is on the business owner to know all of the regulations.”

Proctor believes the state should take on more responsibility for informing entrepreneurs of additional requirements and plans to automate the process to make it easier for new business owners to stay compliant.

His timing is ideal, as current Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab is in the process of automating and modernizing the state’s regulation system. Last month, Schwab launched a major initiative to replace Kansas’s decades-old, paper-based system for creating regulations with a fully digital one. The modernization aims to improve efficiency and transparency for both state agencies and the public, while also reducing storage and paper costs.

“While we are automating that, let’s also populate a list with the requirements for business owners,” added Proctor.

Proctor envisions adding a “chat box” feature to the business name search page, allowing users to enter the type and location of their planned business. The system would then generate a customized checklist of federal, state, county, and city regulations required for that type of business, complete with step-by-step instructions.

“It’s about empowering entrepreneurs and shifting the burden to state agencies,” Proctor said. “With new technology, we can turn the Secretary of State’s business office into an engine for entrepreneurship.”

Proctor emphasized that the chat feature would protect confidentiality by allowing users to delete, restart, or save conversations for future reference.

“I’m committed to privacy,” Proctor said. “We can segregate every entrepreneur’s communication and dialogue with the Secretary of State’s office.”

In addition to utilizing technology, Proctor said he wants to ensure staff in the business division have firsthand entrepreneurial experience.

“Business owners will be able to call the Business Division and somebody will answer who has gone through what they are going through,” said Proctor. “The human touch and technology go together.”