Aspenhollow Business Capital, based in Olympia, WA, arranges landscaping business loans through funding partners: lawn care equipment financing for mowers, trucks and trailers, lines of credit for crew payroll, and working capital for installs. Thurston County, WA had 100 landscaping establishments in 2023 and 234 more businesses with no employees in 2024.
| Landscaping services establishments | 100 (CBP 2023, NAICS 561730) |
|---|---|
| Paid employees | 579 |
| Annual payroll | $26.1 million |
| Share under 5 employees | 64.0% |
| Landscaping businesses with no employees | 234 (NES 2024, NAICS 56173) |
Two businesses in one
A landscaping company may run two kinds of work. Maintenance routes (mowing, pruning, cleanups) may bill monthly on contracts. Installation and hardscape jobs (patios, irrigation, plantings) may bill per project, need materials up front, and pay at completion. The first can be steadier; the second can create gaps. Business loans for landscaping can fund equipment for the first and cash for the second.
Lawn care and landscaping equipment financing
Lawn care equipment financing covers zero-turn and stand-on mowers, trimmers and blowers, aerators, and the trucks and trailers that carry them. Larger landscaping equipment financing adds compact loaders, mini excavators, skid steers and dump trailers for installs. Mowers wear out on hours, so a company may plan to replace them on a schedule rather than wait for a breakdown. A lawn care equipment loan or lease spreads that replacement over the machine's useful life. See equipment financing.
Covering crews and plant orders with working capital
Working capital for landscaping covers crew wages and materials when an install job runs weeks before the client pays, or when a commercial contract pays 30 days after month-end. A line of credit suits a company with repeated gaps; working capital suits a one-time large job.
If your sales vary by month, a line drawn in the slower months and repaid in the stronger ones may be a fit. We have no local data on how landscaping demand moves through the year in Thurston County, WA, so your own bank statements are the evidence a partner will use.
What does running a landscaping business around Olympia, WA cost?
There is no single answer, and we do not publish cost figures. The main cost lines can be listed, though, and a partner may ask about each:
- Crew wages and payroll taxes
- Fuel and equipment maintenance
- Equipment payments or replacement savings
- Truck and trailer insurance
- Materials for install jobs: plants, stone, irrigation parts
- Disposal and dump fees
- Software, phones and marketing
Knowing your own numbers for each line is useful preparation for a funding request.
Illustrative example: a patio install
A hypothetical example, for illustration only. A five-person company takes a $38,000 patio and irrigation install. Materials are $15,000 up front; the crew of three on the job costs $5,200 a week for four weeks. The client pays 50% at start and 50% at completion. After the deposit ($19,000), the company still carries about $16,800 of costs until the final payment, while its maintenance routes keep running.
Landscapers in Thurston County, WA
Landscaping services (NAICS 561730) counted 100 employer establishments in Thurston County, WA in 2023, with 579 paid employees and $26.1 million in annual payroll. 64 of them (64.0%) had fewer than five employees, and 8 had a ZIP 98501 address (County Business Patterns 2023; ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023).
The separate Nonemployer Statistics program counted 234 landscaping businesses with no paid employees in 2024 (NAICS 2022 code 56173, a slightly broader category). Those two Census programs measure different things, so we keep them apart and do not compare them.
Route contracts, mower hours and fleet
- What share of revenue is maintenance contracts versus installs?
- How many hours are on the mowers you plan to replace?
- Which trucks and trailers are owned outright?
- Do commercial clients pay after month-end, and how long after?
Maintenance contracts can be steadier revenue than one-off installs, and a partner may read them as evidence of recurring receipts.
What partners commonly review
- Equipment quotes, new or used
- Business bank statements across the year
- Maintenance contracts and their payment terms
- Truck titles, if trucks are collateral
- Owner credit; time in business
No partner publishes thresholds.
Related pages
Cleaning crews have a similar contract pattern; see janitorial and cleaning companies. County context is on the Olympia, WA page; see all industries.
By Aspenhollow Business Capital · Updated