Home & trade services
Funding for handyman and small remodel businesses
You get paid in draws as the job progresses, which means materials and subs go out before each draw lands, and the kitchen that was supposed to take three weeks takes five. I’m Addy, and I help shops like yours think through the money side before you sign anything.
See my options
Start here
How a funding partner reads your business
Much of what a partner reads is in your bank statements, and it comes down to three questions. Everything below is me walking you through your own answers, so nothing in your statements surprises you later.
When does the money come in?
Job days, invoice terms, or a slow drip all month. The pattern matters more than the total.
How steady is it?
One great month doesn’t tell anyone what a normal month looks like.
What was each deposit for?
If a reader can’t tell, they assume the worst. A sentence of explanation fixes it.
The trade
Who pays a remodeler, and when
You get paid in draws: a deposit up front, progress payments as milestones hit, a final payment when the punch list clears. Materials and subcontractors go out before each draw lands, so you’re always financing the gap between spending and collecting. That’s the whole trade in one sentence.
The draw schedule is everything. A job where the draws track the spending is a job that funds itself; a job where the deposit is spent by week two and the next draw needs a milestone you haven’t hit is a job you’re financing out of the next job’s deposit. Every remodeler knows the second version. The funding partner needs to see which version your statements show.
Change orders are the other half of the story. They’re real revenue, but they’re billed after the extra work is done, which means they stretch the gap they’re supposed to close. Track them separately, because a file where change orders look like the plan reads very differently from one where they look like the rescue.
The risk
Let’s do the math together
Say you’re weighing a $40,000 advance. Here’s what the payments feel like in a week the draws are landing on time, and in a week a milestone slipped and the draw with it.
The arithmetic, as an illustration
$22,000
a draws-on-time week in; the $1,550 weekly debit is about 7 cents of every dollar
$8,000
a draw-slipped week in; the same $1,550 debit is about 19 cents of every dollar
$52,000
remitted on a $40,000 advance at a 1.30 factor rate, about $310 every working day over eight months
The debit doesn’t care that the tile setter needs paying Friday and the draw needs a milestone you’ll hit Monday. It clears Friday. So the test is not whether the job is profitable on paper, it’s whether the draw schedule survives contact with a real schedule. If your draws routinely slip two weeks behind your spending, the advance is financing the slip, not the growth.
An illustration, not a quote: nobody has offered anyone these terms. Real terms come from a funding partner.
Before you borrow
The cheaper money you may already have
Before the funding menu: the money already sitting inside your jobs and your supply chain.
Terms
Better draw schedules
The cheapest money in remodeling is a draw schedule that tracks your spending: a real deposit up front, progress draws at milestones you actually hit, and change orders billed before the extra work starts. Renegotiating the schedule costs nothing and closes the gap an advance would be priced to cover.
Trade credit
The lumberyard and supply house terms
Materials on the supplier’s terms are the second-cheapest money in the trade. A kitchen’s worth of materials on 30 days, installed and drawn against within the month, is the exact shape a draw schedule creates. Ask for terms before you ask anyone for money.
Deposits
Deposits that match mobilization
A deposit that covers materials and the first sub payments means the job starts funded instead of funded by the last job. If your deposits don’t cover mobilization, that’s the first number to fix, before any funding conversation.
Paperwork
Licensed for the work you’re billing?
Here’s a paperwork question worth settling before anyone asks. Whoever funds you needs to see that the business is licensed for the work it’s billing, and remodeling licences get complicated fast: a handyman exemption with a dollar cap in one jurisdiction, a general contractor’s licence in the next, a qualifier who works for you rather than owning the company. When the paperwork doesn’t match the invoices, a request can stall while someone tracks down a document nobody asked for up front.
It’s a normal tangle. It just needs to be visible rather than discovered. Keep the licence numbers, the jurisdictions, the caps, and who qualifies the company in one place, ready before anyone asks. Bring it up yourself and it never becomes a problem.
Scope
Draws you control, not draws you wait on
One boundary for this page: it’s written for the remodeler and handyman paid directly by the homeowner on draws or at completion, because that’s the business a funding partner can read from bank statements. Subcontracting for a general contractor, paid on the GC’s draw schedule, is receivables on somebody else’s timetable. That’s factoring, which you can ask for on the form.
For the direct-to-homeowner shop: a business line of credit, if it is open to you, can fit the gap between spending on a milestone and collecting the draw for it. A merchant cash advance fits only the narrow case where the draws are contractual, the schedule is real, and the debit clears in a draw-slipped week. Which one fits is my read, not an offer.
How it works
You talk. I work. You choose.
- 1You say
Tell me about the business.
What you do, what you bring in, what you need and when. One short form, about two minutes.
“I need $40,000 to take on a second crew.”
- 2I do
I take it to funding partners.
I get it in front of partners who work with businesses like yours. I do not underwrite, price or decide.
Your request, told once, to people who can fund it.
- 3You decide
You pick, or you walk away.
Interested partners contact you with their terms, if an offer comes. Compare, pick one, or walk away.
“This one gives me the runway without crushing cash flow.”
The arithmetic
How much are you considering?
Play with the numbers
Pick a shape of money, drag the sliders, and watch the math change.
An advance is priced by a factor rate, not interest. Put in the amount, and the rate if somebody has quoted you one.
The arithmetic
- Advance
- $15,000
- Factor rate
- 1.30
- You remit in total
- $19,500
- Cost of the money
- $4,500
An illustration, not a quote: nobody has offered you these terms. Real terms come from a funding partner and depend on your cash flow, and fees can sit on top of the factor rate.
See my optionsEach one has its own page, with a worked example: all six calculators.
What the money buys
What owners in this trade actually spend it on.
A second crew before the backlog
A lead carpenter and a helper hired while the pipeline is full, so the next kitchen starts when this one’s punch list clears instead of six weeks later. The gap is payroll before the crew’s first draw, measured in weeks.
Materials ahead of the milestone
Cabinets, tile, and fixtures ordered so they’re on site when the demo clears, instead of the job sitting idle while the draw that pays for them waits on a milestone.
The truck and the trailer
The work truck is usually equipment-financed against itself; the trailer, the tools, and the materials inside it are working capital. Put each half on the right form.
A real draw schedule
This one costs nothing: rewriting your contract so deposits cover mobilization and progress draws track spending. It’s the cheapest funding in remodeling, and it’s already yours to take.
Which one fits
Which financing fits your situation?
I don’t recommend a product without seeing your numbers. Below is how owners in this trade usually think the options through: possibilities to explore, not an offer or a recommendation. Where none of them is the right move, the table says so.
| Your situation | What might be worth exploring, and why |
|---|---|
| You’re booked out and need a second crew, which is payroll weeks before the crew’s first draw. | Owners in this spot often look at a business line of credit first: the gap has a beginning and an end, and the draws repay it as milestones hit. An advance only fits if the draws are contractual and the debit clears in a week a draw slipped. |
| Materials have to be ordered before the draw that pays for them, and the float is growing with the backlog. | A line of credit is the natural shape for a repeating float. An advance prices a gap that your own draw schedule should be closing as though it were permanent money. |
| You’re waiting on a general contractor to release a draw on sub work. | Probably neither. That’s a receivable on somebody else’s timetable, and financing against receivables is factoring, which you can ask for on the form. |
| The work truck, the trailer, or the major tools need replacing. | Equipment financing secures against the asset and matches the term to how long it earns, usually far cheaper than a line or an advance. Ask for equipment financing on the form. |
Which shape fits is my read, not an offer. Partners decide what they will do with a request, and on what terms.
Questions
Asked by remodelers
Read this before you talk to anyone:
My draws keep slipping behind my spending. Is that a funding problem or a contract problem?
It’s a contract problem wearing a funding costume. A draw schedule that tracks your spending closes the gap for free; an advance prices the slip as though it were permanent. Fix the schedule first, then see if there’s still a gap worth financing.
How do change orders read on my statements?
As extra deposits after the extra work, which stretches the gap they’re supposed to close. Track them separately and bill them before the extra work starts where you can. A file where change orders look like the plan reads very differently from one where they look like the rescue.
I do both handyman work paid at completion and remodels paid on draws. Which business am I, for funding?
Both, and say so. The handyman side is daily deposits anyone can read; the remodel side is draws on a schedule. A funding partner who can see the two streams separately reads a steadier file than one who sees a single confusing one.
Should the deposit cover materials up front?
It should cover mobilization: materials plus the first sub payments. If it doesn’t, the job starts funded by the last job’s money, and that’s the first number to fix before any funding conversation.
Will you pull my credit?
No. There is no credit pull from me; the form on this page is information, not an application. A funding partner does its own underwriting and may pull credit at that point, and it will tell you when it does.
Get funding options
Tell me about your handyman & small remodel business.
About two minutes, and no credit pull from me. Tell me what you do, what you bring in and what the money is for, and I take your request to funding partners. You can strengthen it with a bank connection afterward.
Free to you. Funding partners pay Addy for the introduction.
Addy is not a lender, and does not underwrite, price or decide who gets funded.
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