Making It Rains: Finance Director Mike Rains takes account of his life with the City of Abilene

When Mike Rains decided he needed a change from his accounting career, he opened a coffee shop. And the "Bean Counter," the place's moniker, obviously contained that legacy in its whimsical name.

"I'm a number cruncher," said Rains, who will retire as the City's Director of Finance on May 3, 2024. I love to analyze numbers and look at things. Most people dread the budget process, but I love it because you can play with numbers. It's just really, really cool."

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Rains said the catalyst for the change from accountant to coffee shop owner was a family tragedy. Following the accidental death of his son, his second-oldest child of four, Rains wanted to do something different after working for a local accounting firm, Davis Kinard & Co., for 15 years.

"It basically changed my whole perspective of life and everything," he said of his son's death.

In addition to doing some farming and ranching, he decided a coffee shop was the sort of switch he needed.

"Our concept was basically something similar to Starbucks, but we roasted our own coffee in the store," he said. "That was kind of what our claim to fame was going to be."

While the business ultimately couldn't sustain itself long-term, Rains has good memories of running the shop, open from 2004 to 2007. Among its features, the venue hosted concerts and brought in coffee purchased from all over the world.

"What was most enjoyable was learning about the coffee industry, from the growers to the end consumers and all of the different varieties of coffee," he said. "It was extremely interesting that coffee is similar to wine in that the soil composition and region affect the taste and create all of the different taste profiles," he said.

Though a self-described introvert, he said he enjoyed interacting with customers and a great group of regulars.

"Thinking back nostalgically, we had our own version of the sitcom 'Cheers' at the coffee shop," he said.

Lessons Learned

As enjoyable as running the shop was, Rains admits he soon discovered that being self-employed and an entrepreneur in the food service space was "a lot harder" than one might expect.

He said that margins are thin, and selling coffee at even $5-6 per customer means significant volume is needed to cover overhead.

"We just couldn't ever make it sustainable," he said. "But I loved it to death and had lots of fun with it. I just couldn't financially make it work. It's one of those things I would have done several things differently if I had it to do all over again."

Taking Account

Rains ' father was a business manager. His mother was "mostly a stay-at-home mom," occasionally working a seasonal job for a cotton classing division of the USDA.

After graduating from Abilene High School, Rains attended Texas Tech for a year but decided that the Lubbock school "wasn't for me." He returned home, graduating from Abilene Christian University, and then went to work for local public accounting firm Davis Kinard & Co.

There, he got his first taste of the City of Abilene, working as an audit manager for what would someday be his future employer. That's also how he got to know Deputy City Manager Mindy Patterson, who was in Finance at the time.

After closing The Bean Counter, Rains learned that the City was looking for an assistant director in Finance. He got the job, which he held for about seven years. When Patterson got a promotion, he moved up to the director position, where he's been for about eight.

He met the future Regina Rains while in college, going out on a double date with a friend. His friend was on the date with Regina and he was on the date with Regina's friend. That didn't work out, so he asked Regina out.

The two split up after dating for a while, but a slight misunderstanding - she received an invitation to the wedding of a high school friend to a "Michael Rains" - brought them back together.

"So she came to my house to congratulate me," he recalled, and that's when she learned the Michael Rains in question wasn't him.

"So, we ended up talking and dating again, and then after that, we got married," Rains recalled. "It was kind of a strange coincidence."

In May, the couple will have been married for 39 years and had four children together. Two are school teachers, and one is studying to be a chiropractor.

The Great Outdoors

A self-described "outdoors person," Rains wouldn't describe himself as antisocial but knows that his wife is more energized with social interactions than he is.

"Some people, their batteries get charged by being around other people, and some people get drained," he said. "So between the two of us, we kind of balance each other out. That's a perfect analogy."

Rains has been farming and ranching for 25 years now.

"We started out with llamas initially," he said. "My dad started raising llamas, and we were selling them for $600 a head at the time. They were registered llamas."

At the time, that was better than returns on cattle, so monthly trips to an exotic auction were common to buy stock for about a year. Eventually, though, the market fell out, he said, and the venture returned to selling cattle.

"We've continued to do cattle since," he said. And even with a quarter century under his belt, Rains said he wants to keep doing it as long as he's able.

"Now that my kids are grown and moved, I've lost all my unhired help," he joked. "That makes it a little more challenging, but that's kind of my sanctuary. You get out there in the open, and all your cares are gone other than what's going on right there."

Looking forward to retirement, he does want to get back to fishing.

"I used to do that a lot. And then things kept piling up, and I never got around to doing it," he said. "So, the lake is a big draw right now, as is my farm and a bunch of unfinished projects. I really haven't had a chance to have hobbies, so I'm looking forward to all of that."

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