Financing for landscaping companies
A trade with two seasons: one where the crews cannot keep up, and one where the equipment sits. Financing usually bridges the second to be ready for the first.
How the money reads
An underwriter reads six months of statements. This is what yours usually says.
- Revenue concentrates in the growing season, with a genuinely quiet winter.
- Contract and maintenance work, where you have it, levels the year and reads well.
- Six months of statements taken in February look very different from six taken in August — both are fine, and both are read in context.
The thing that slows these files down
Apply before the season rather than during it. A file put in during the March scramble competes for your attention at the exact moment you have none.
What it usually pays for
- Mowers, trucks, trailers and attachments before the season
- Payroll through the spring ramp-up
- Snow equipment on the other side of the year
What an underwriter asks
The same four things decide every file: revenue and how long you have been making it, the cash cushion, bounced payments, and what you already pay other lenders. Here is what those look like in this trade.
- What does the winter look like in the account?
- A genuinely quiet December is normal in this trade and it is read as normal. What a lender is looking for is whether the quiet months are survived on a cushion or on an overdraft.
- How much of the book is contracted?
- Maintenance agreements and snow contracts level a year that is otherwise two seasons. Contracted revenue is the single strongest thing a landscaping file can have in it.
- What is already financed?
- Mowers, trucks and trailers are often on finance already. Those payments count toward the 20% of monthly revenue that can go to lenders in total, which is what decides how much room is left.
The whole method, in one page: giving yourself the best shot.
Asking for the right amount
Size equipment against the quote and payroll against the ramp. A spring hiring bridge is easier to price when it is described as eight weeks of crew rather than as working capital.
Across every trade the anchor is the same: roughly a month of revenue, and never more than the statements support. Everything you already pay lenders counts toward a ceiling of 20% of monthly revenue, so what is already running matters as much as what you are asking for.
When to ask
February and March, before the season. A file sent in May is asking for a decision in the weeks you have least attention to give it, and the equipment is wanted before the work starts rather than during it.
Have these ready as well
On top of the standard file — six months of statements, your incorporation documents, your CRA business number and photo ID.
- Quotes for the equipment you are financing
- Copies of maintenance or snow contracts, if you hold them
- Certificates of insurance, and workers' compensation clearance if you carry crew
- Statements covering a full winter if you have them — the quiet months are evidence, not a gap
What usually fits
In this order, more often than not — though the file decides, not the trade.
Equipment financing
The oven, the van, the line. Financed against the thing itself, so the payment sits against what the thing earns.
$10,000 – $1,000,000
Revenue-based line of credit
Draw what you need, pay for what you draw, and the limit moves with what you turn over. For months that are uneven rather than short.
Up to $500,000
Term loans
A fixed amount, a fixed schedule, and nothing pledged against it. The straightest answer when you know the number and the timeline.
$5,000 – $2,000,000
Where these files get harder
None of these is an automatic no. They are the things that turn a one-day decision into a conversation, and all of them are better said by you than found by an underwriter.
- A first winter with no contracted work under it
- Equipment registered personally rather than to the company
- Six months of statements that happen to be the six quiet ones, with nothing said about it
Questions
- My six months are all winter. Is that a problem?
- It is read in context, and saying so helps. An underwriter who knows the window is the off-season reads the numbers against the season rather than against the year.
- Can I finance equipment before the season starts?
- That is the usual pattern, and it is the right time to ask. Most decisions come back within one business day, so February is not too early for March work.
- Do snow contracts count as revenue?
- They count in the statements once they pay. Holding them also helps the file, because contracted work is what makes a seasonal year readable.
- I run crews as subcontractors, not employees. Does that matter?
- Not to the decision. It changes what leaves the account and when, and that is all an underwriter is reading it for.