Ravenwood Business Loans of Waukegan, IL arranges funding through partners for Lake County, IL landscaping and lawn care companies: equipment financing for mowers, trucks and trailers, lines of credit for uneven months, and term loans for buying an existing business. Partners review each request and make their own decision.
| Lake County, IL count: Landscaping with payroll | 706 (CBP 2023) |
|---|---|
| Under 5 employees | 85.4% (CBP 2023) |
| Landscaping employers in ZIP 60085 | 82 (ZBP 2023) |
| Landscaping nonemployers | 778 (NES 2024) |
What a landscaping company pays for, and when
Landscaping is equipment-heavy for its size. A crew needs a truck, a trailer, commercial mowers, trimmers, blowers and often a skid steer for hardscape work. Crew wages go out every week. Customers pay by contract, by visit or on completion. Revenue can be uneven across the year; your own bank statements show how uneven yours is.
So the funding question splits in two: machines that last several years, and cash to cover any months where costs run ahead of revenue.
Counting Landscapers across Lake County, IL
| Business type (NAICS) | Employer establishments, CBP 2023 | Paid employees, CBP 2023 | Share under 5 employees | ZIP 60085 employers, ZBP 2023 | Nonemployers, NES 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landscaping services (561730) | 706 | 4,022 | 85.4% | 82 | 778 |
Employer counts come from County Business Patterns (2023, NAICS 2017) and nonemployer counts from Nonemployer Statistics (2024, NAICS 2022). Different programs, different years: the two columns stay apart and are never summed.
Landscaping had many small employers in the county: 85.4% of the 706 employers had fewer than five employees in 2023. ZIP 60085, the main Waukegan, IL ZIP, alone held 82 of them (ZBP 2023).
Landscaping equipment loans and lawn care equipment financing for mowers, trucks and trailers
Equipment financing pays for zero-turn and stand-on mowers, trucks, enclosed or open trailers, compact loaders and attachments. Partners finance new and used units; for used ones they look at hours, age and the seller. Bundling a truck, trailer and mowers into one request is common, though each item may be valued separately.
- Get itemized quotes with serial numbers for used units
- Note which equipment is replacing a unit you will sell
- Ask whether the partner allows several items under one agreement
A line of credit for uneven months
If revenue concentrates in part of the year, a business line of credit covers insurance, loan payments and any year-round staff in the lighter months, and is repaid when revenue picks up. A one-time working capital advance can also work, but its repayment starts straight away.
Sizing by month (hypothetical)
List twelve months of deposits and costs from last year's statements. Add up the shortfall month by month until revenue overtakes costs again. That cumulative low point is what a line has to cover. The method is general; the months and amounts come from your own records.
Small business loans for landscaping growth
Adding a crew means a second truck and trailer, another set of mowers and a few weeks of wages before the new routes pay. Equipment financing covers the machines; working capital covers the ramp-up. Partners like to see signed contracts for the new work.
Taking over a lawn care company
Buying an existing route or company brings customers, equipment and sometimes crews at once. Buyers mostly reach for a term loan here. Partners look at the seller's customer list and contract terms, equipment condition and recent tax returns. The post on buying a lawn care business in Lake County, IL walks through it step by step.
What partners commonly review
- Bank statements covering a full year, so the monthly pattern is visible
- Equipment quotes or bills of sale
- Customer contracts or route lists
- Existing equipment notes
- How long you have operated, and your revenue band
Adding hardscape or irrigation services
Moving from mowing into patios, retaining walls or irrigation raises the stakes: a compact loader, a plate compactor, a trencher and a dump trailer, plus materials bought per job and customers who pay on completion. That shifts the business toward the contractor pattern, where a line of credit for job materials sits alongside equipment financing. Partners will want to see the first hardscape contracts and who on the crew has done the work before.
Questions before signing an equipment agreement
- Does the rate hold steady from first payment to last?
- Does the agreement cover several machines, and can one be paid off separately if sold?
- Is there a required down payment, and can a trade-in count toward it?
- Who insures the equipment while it is financed?
- What happens at the end of a lease: return, renew or buy?
Related pages
Landscaping sits next to the building trades; see contractor and builder funding. Janitorial and cleaning companies are summarized on the industries page, and local counts are on the Waukegan, IL data page.
By Ravenwood Business Loans · Updated
