Home & trade services
Funding for tree service companies
Storm season fills the schedule in a weekend and empties it just as fast, and the crane payment doesn’t care which month it is. I’m Addy, and I help companies 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 tree service, and when
You get paid big tickets at completion: the removal, the storm cleanup, the crane job, paid when the wood is gone and the yard is clean. A week can hold a month’s revenue or nothing at all, and that’s normal in this trade. The file anyone reads will be the lumpiest in home services, and that’s fine as long as somebody explains it.
Storm work is the spike inside the lump. A storm weekend books two weeks of emergency removals at premium rates, paid fast because the homeowner wants the tree off the house today. Then it’s gone. A funding partner who hasn’t been told about storm seasonality reads a spike-and-crater file as distress; told, they read it as the trade working the way it works.
The equipment is the other half of the story. The crane, the chipper, the trucks: the monthly payments don’t care about seasonality, and they’re usually the biggest fixed cost in the business. That’s the number the debit gets tested against, not the revenue.
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 storm-booked month, and in a quiet winter month.
The arithmetic, as an illustration
$60,000
a storm month in; the $6,500 monthly debit is about 11 cents of every dollar
$14,000
a quiet month in; the same $6,500 debit is about 46 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 storm month makes the debit look small, which is exactly why you don’t test against it. Test against February, where the same debit takes almost half the month. If the quiet month carries it with the equipment payments already accounted for, the money works in every month. If it only works when the storms come, the money is riding on the weather, and the weather has never signed a contract.
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 schedule and your yard.
Deposits
Deposits on booked removals
A deposit taken when the removal is scheduled covers the crew day before it’s worked. It’s the customer’s money, not a lender’s, and it costs you nothing. On big crane jobs, the deposit is also the commitment that keeps the schedule real.
Terms
Off-season equipment scheduling
Major maintenance and purchases timed for the quiet months, negotiated when the dealer wants the sale. Buying the chipper in January instead of May is often a discount no funding product can match.
Reserve
The storm-season cash reserve
This one isn’t funding, it’s the alternative to it: holding back part of a storm month so February funds itself. A reserve built in the fat month is cheaper than any advance, because it costs exactly nothing.
Paperwork
Insured for the work at height?
Here’s a paperwork question worth settling before anyone asks. Tree work at height, with a crane, is high-risk work, and whoever funds you wants to see that the insurance matches the invoices: general liability, workers’ comp classed for tree work, and the crane covered if you run one. When the policy excludes height work or the comp is classed as landscaping, a request can stall while someone tracks down a document nobody asked for up front.
It’s a common gap. It just needs to be visible rather than discovered, and fixed before anyone asks. Keep the certificates, the classifications, and the crane coverage in one place. Bring it up yourself and it never becomes a problem.
Scope
Removals and storm work, not land clearing bids
One boundary for this page: it’s written for the residential removal and storm-response company paid at completion, because that’s the business a funding partner can read from bank statements. Land-clearing and right-of-way bid work, paid on contract schedules, and subcontracting under a general contractor are receivables on somebody else’s timetable. That’s factoring, which you can ask for on the form.
For the residential shop: the quiet month is the test, and a business line of credit, if it is open to you, can fit the gap between the storm season’s spend and its revenue. A merchant cash advance fits only where the quiet month carries the debit with equipment payments accounted for. 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 before storm season.”
- 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
- $50,000
- Factor rate
- 1.30
- You remit in total
- $65,000
- Cost of the money
- $15,000
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.
Crew ready before the storms
Climbers and ground crew hired and trained in the quiet months, so the storm weekend’s calls become revenue instead of a referral to the competitor. Labour lands before the season; the season pays it back.
The chipper or the crane payment
Iron is usually equipment-financed against itself, which is far cheaper than a line or an advance. The working-capital half is the crew, the fuel, and the maintenance that keep the iron earning.
Storm-season marketing
The door hangers, the social ads, and the referral offers that make your number the one the neighbourhood calls when the trees come down. Storm demand is real; being the company they call is bought.
The February reserve
Holding back part of a storm month so the quiet month funds itself. It’s not spending, it’s the alternative to borrowing, and it costs exactly nothing.
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 need crew hired and trained before storm season, which is payroll months before the season pays. | Owners in this spot often look at a business line of credit first: the gap has a beginning and an end, and the season repays it. An advance only fits if the quiet month carries the debit with the equipment payments already counted, because the storms are never guaranteed. |
| The crane, the chipper, or the trucks need buying or replacing. | Equipment financing secures against the iron 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, and time the purchase for the quiet months. |
| A storm just filled the schedule and you need to fund two weeks of crew days before the invoices pay. | An advance might fit, because the work is booked and the money turns booked work into closed invoices. It’s expensive, so the test is that the jobs are scheduled, not hoped for. |
| Winter is quiet and the equipment payments don’t pause for it. | A line of credit, arranged while the file shows the fat months, drawn in the thin ones. And the cheapest version of this is the reserve: holding back part of a storm month so February funds itself. |
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 tree service owners
Read this before you talk to anyone:
My revenue is all spikes and craters from storm season. How does that read?
As the trade working the way it works, once you say so. A spike-and-crater file with no explanation reads as distress; with storm seasonality explained, it reads as a business that harvests its year in weeks. Say which deposits were storm work before anyone has to ask.
Should I test affordability against the storm month or the quiet month?
The quiet month, always. The storm month makes any debit look trivial, which is exactly why it’s the wrong test. If February carries the debit with the equipment payments counted, the money works in every month.
My insurance excludes height work and my comp is classed as landscaping. Is that a problem?
It’s a gap to fix before anyone asks, not just for funding. Whoever funds you wants the liability, the comp classification, and the crane coverage to match the invoices. Keep the certificates in one place and raise it yourself.
Isn’t borrowing against storm season just borrowing against the weather?
If the quiet month can’t carry the debit, yes, and the weather has never signed a contract. That’s the honest version of the test, and it’s worth running before you sign anything.
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 tree service 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.
Page updated
Home & trade services
Not quite your trade?
Home & trade services
Plumbing
Service and drain work is paid at the door. What a truck-mounted plumber's funding file looks like and what the money is usually for.
Home & trade services
Electrical
Panel upgrades, EV chargers, service calls. What funding buys in a service electrical shop, and why who pays you matters more than what you install.
Home & trade services
HVAC
Seasonal, high-ticket, and heavily marketed to. What a funding partner sees in an HVAC file, and why the month you take an advance matters as much as the rate.