No Obligation, Pre-Qualification
Small Construction and Contractor Business Loans for Materials, Payroll and Equipment
Fast Approvals Made Simple
A contractor pays for the job before the job pays. Materials go on the account, the crew gets paid weekly, the equipment rental clock runs, and the client releases money when a milestone is signed off. That is at least a month later, and later still if the permit or the weather slips. Small and mid-size contractors carry that gap with less reserve than anyone, and it is the reason most of them call us.
What Small and Mid-Size Contractors Get Funded For
- Pay Contractors Upfront
- Purchase Materials in Bulk
- Take on More Projects
- Cover Payroll Between Draws
Why Small Contractors Get Squeezed Between Milestones
Equipment and crew are the two biggest fixed costs, and neither of them pauses between jobs. An excavator or a skid steer is a purchase you finance over years and a repair bill you cannot schedule. Materials go out the door in bulk at the start of a phase. A framing crew or a finish crew is paid every week whether the draw arrived or not. One large project that slips a month puts all of it under pressure at once. Every equipment-heavy trade runs on the same arithmetic, and auto shops carrying lifts and diagnostic gear buy the machine long before it has earned any of that money back.
The bidding side quietly costs money too. Preparing a competitive bid takes time you do not bill for, permits and licensing come due on their own schedule, and holding a price for a client while material costs move is margin you are absorbing. All of that sits between projects, which is exactly when the account is thinnest. Trades that work outdoors carry an extra version of it, which is why landscaping crews facing the same weather-driven swing budget for the stretch of the year when almost nothing is billable.
Eight Products, One Contractor Application
Sterling Street Financial sends your file to an extensive network of funders, and small contractors are exactly who that helps. A bank wants balance-sheet history a five-year-old crew has not had time to build. Funders in our network will look at signed contracts and the receivables behind them, which is usually where a small contractor’s real strength sits. Approvals run from $5,000 up, so a request can be sized to a materials order rather than inflated to clear a floor.
Business loans designed for construction companies and contractors can be categorized as:
Which Product Fits Your Next Job
Here is how the products get used against the situations that actually come up on a job.
The most common request is money to keep a job moving. Extra material, a machine to replace one that failed mid-phase, or payroll until the next draw is released. Short-term Working Capital Loans and Business Lines of Credit both cover that, and the choice usually comes down to whether it is a one-time need or a recurring one.
If it is recurring, take the line. Construction runs into unplanned costs as a matter of course, and a credit line means you are not filling out a new application every time a supplier wants payment before the draw clears. You draw what the gap needs, pay interest only on that, and the limit refreshes as the money comes in. Contractors who clear it between phases pay very little to keep it available.
When the problem is that the work is finished and the money has not arrived, Accounts Receivable Factoring is the direct answer. The funder buys the invoice at a discount and takes on collecting from your client, and you get most of the value now instead of in forty-five days. It suits a contractor whose receivables sit with a few general contractors or property owners who are good for the money but slow with it.
Equipment is the other half of the picture. A machine bought outright takes a phase’s worth of cash out of the business in a single week, where Equipment Financing spreads it across the years the machine will earn and the equipment itself secures the deal. Beyond that, the amount and the terms are movable. Tell us what the money is for on the application and we will size it to the actual cost, whether that is a permit, a supplier payment, an extra crew, or a bid you want to be able to say yes to.
See what your business qualifies for.
One application, compared across our extensive network of funders. On average, funding is received within 2-4 business days.
Contractor Funding Questions
It is funding built around milestone payment terms. A contractor buys materials, runs payroll, and rents equipment weeks before the client releases the next draw — this covers that gap and keeps the job moving on schedule.
Construction projects face unforeseen expenses, weather and permitting delays, and extended payment terms. A small crew rarely has the reserves to absorb all three at once, and its collateral sits in equipment and receivables rather than in the balance-sheet history a bank asks for.
It absorbs unexpected costs, buys new equipment when a machine fails mid-job, pays additional labor for a larger scope, and lets you bid work you would otherwise have to pass on because the cash was tied up in the last project.
Working Capital Loans, Equipment Financing, Business Lines of Credit, and Accounts Receivable Factoring, among the eight products listed on this page. Most contractors end up using two: one for equipment, one for the gap between draws.
By what they are for. Equipment Financing is tied to the machine it buys. A Business Line of Credit gives you a balance to draw against as costs arise. Accounts Receivable Factoring turns an outstanding invoice into cash now, with the provider collecting from your client.
Immediate access to funds means taking on larger jobs, managing the cash flow interruptions that come with the trade, and growing the crew. Approval is generally faster than a bank’s, which matters when a bid has a deadline.
Taking a repayment schedule that assumes the draws land on time. They do not always. A delayed project pushes every payment date out with it, and a fixed weekly remittance does not move. Size the payment against a month with one job slipping, and be careful about stacking a second advance on one that is still running.
It changes by product and by funder. Most look at revenue, credit history, how long the company has been operating and what other debt it carries. In this trade funders in our network will also read the signed contracts and the receivables behind them, and for a small crew that is usually the strongest part of the file.
Yes. A prior bankruptcy or a tax lien does not close the door here, because Sterling Street Financial works with every credit profile. For a contractor the work on the books usually says more than the score does, and several programs in our network are written against contracts and receivables rather than against the personal credit file.
We ask what the reason was. Plenty of funders will not fund project-based revenue at all and others specialize in it, so a decline is often about which desk saw the file. The same application goes to other funders in our network, and where the block is something you can move, we will tell you what it is.
Purchasing or repairing equipment, hiring additional labor for a larger scope, buying materials in bulk before a price rise, paying suppliers early, covering permits and licensing, and carrying operating costs between draws.
Steps to Secure Business Funding with Sterling Street Financial
Submit Your Online Application
Fill out the online form. It asks what your business does, what the money is for, and what your revenue looks like. Call, chat or email if a question comes up.
Talk to Our Experts
A funding specialist reads your file and calls you with what the funders in our network sent back — the amounts, the costs and the repayment schedules.
Get Funded!
Choose the offer you want. Approved funds reach your account in as little as 24 hours, and most requests fund within 2-4 business days.
A Few Minutes to Apply
Fill out our online form and get approved quickly.
Compare Options
Both secured and unsecured loans with no personal guarantee.
Customize Terms
Choose what best suits you and your company’s needs.
Get Funded
Funds in as little as 24 hours, directly to your account.
Take your business to new heights.
Tell us the amount you are after and what your business takes in each month, and we will point your application at the programs that fit. No application fees, no obligation, and no impact on your credit score.