Money & Funding

Most public-sector contracts pay 30 to 60 days after the invoice is approved. Some pay later. Subcontractors often wait 90 days or more after the work is done.

That gap — between paying your crew on Friday and getting paid by the agency in two months — is what kills more new construction businesses than bad work, bad bids, or bad luck combined. It's not failure; it's math. The cash flow simply doesn't work for someone who hasn't planned for the wait.

There are funding tools built specifically for this gap. Most contractors don't know they exist, or assume they need traditional bank credit to qualify. Neither is true.

When a contractor invoices a client, they own that invoice as an asset. It's a promise of future money. Most contractors wait for that promise to turn into cash.

A few don't. They sell the invoice — at a small discount — to a factoring company, and get most of the money the same week the invoice goes out. The factor collects from the client later. The contractor moves on to the next job with cash in hand.

Factoring isn't a loan. It doesn't require a credit score. It doesn't appear on a credit report. For contractors who hold strong invoices but have weak credit, it can be the difference between growing and stalling.

Banks underwrite construction loans against three things: collateral, two years of business tax returns, and a personal credit score over 680. Most new contractors don't have all three. Many don't have any of them.

That's why most new construction businesses don't get traditional loans. The financial system isn't broken — it's just not designed for the first three years of a contractor's career.

There are five funding paths that ARE designed for those three years. None of them are loans. None of them require a credit score. Most contractors get to year five without learning what they are.

Hauling, landscaping and waste work can be priced several ways: by the trip, by the hour, by the load or by the job. Each is fine on its own. The trouble starts when the unit you quote does not match the way your costs actually behave.

A flat price per trip can look steady while drive time, fuel and dump fees move with distance and weight. An hourly price can leave you absorbing the cost of a slow site or a long wait at the disposal facility. The price feels right until a few jobs are compared.

Pick two or three recent jobs and write down what each one cost in labor, fuel, fees and equipment time. Then compare that to the unit you priced in. If they do not line up, the quote is where to adjust.