Crownwick Advances, a small-business funding service in Lancaster, PA, arranges funding for landscaping, lawn care and hardscape companies: equipment financing for mowers, skid steers and trailers, lines of credit for uneven months, and working capital for crews. Lancaster County, PA had 246 landscaping employers in 2023.
| Landscaping employers, county | 246 (CBP 2023) |
|---|---|
| Employees | 1,412 |
| Annual payroll | About $64.0 million |
| Under five employees | 151, or 61.4% |
| In ZIP 17602 | 15 employers (ZBP 2023) |
| Without payroll, county | 674 (NES 2024) |
How money moves in a landscaping business
Landscapers buy their capacity in machines. A new maintenance crew means another zero-turn mower, trimmers, blowers, a trailer and often a truck. Design-build and hardscape work adds skid steers, mini excavators and plate compactors, and a stone or paver order that has to be paid before the patio is finished.
Revenue timing can differ by job type, with maintenance contracts paid monthly and installation jobs paid on completion or in stages. We have no local data on which months run thin for Lancaster County landscapers, and every company's calendar is different; partners read your own pattern from your bank statements.
Lancaster County, PA landscaping companies in the data
Lancaster County had 246 landscaping services establishments with employees in 2023, employing 1,412 people with about $64.0 million in annual payroll (County Business Patterns 2023). That is under six employees per company on average, by our arithmetic, and 151 of them, or 61.4%, had fewer than five. ZIP 17602 had 15 (ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023).
A separate 674 landscaping businesses in the county reported receipts but no payroll in 2024, with about $32.2 million in combined receipts (Nonemployer Statistics 2024). Those are mostly owner-operators, and the program and year differ, so the counts are not added.
Commercial mower financing and landscaping equipment financing
Commercial mowers, stand-ons, zero-turns, trailers, trucks, skid steers and compact excavators are all equipment that can be financed. Each secures its own deal. Dealers may offer their own programs; compare the total cost of a dealer plan against equipment financing arranged through a partner, including any promotional period that ends.
Used equipment can be financed when the age, hours and condition are documented. A machine with a short remaining life may get a shorter term. The payment calculator estimates a monthly payment for any machine.
Funding needs and options for landscapers
| Need | Usually discussed |
|---|---|
| Mowers, trimmers, blowers for a new crew | Equipment financing |
| Skid steer, mini excavator, dump trailer | Equipment financing |
| Payroll and fuel in thin months | Line of credit |
| Pavers, stone, plants for a large install | Line of credit or working capital |
A hypothetical crew expansion
Illustration only, not an offer: a lawn care company signs maintenance contracts with two commercial properties, enough work for a third crew. The crew needs a mower package and trailer quoted at $27,500 and three employees costing about $3,900 a week. The contracts pay monthly, 30 days in arrears. Equipment financing covers the $27,500 over the mower's working life; the first five or six weeks of crew payroll, roughly $21,000, is the working capital gap until the first invoices are paid.
Lawn care business loans: what partners review
- A run of recent business bank statements, ideally covering both stronger and thinner months
- Maintenance contracts or recurring customer lists
- Equipment owned and what is still owed on it
- The quote for the equipment being financed
- Time in business and personal credit
Recurring commercial contracts are a strength in a file: they show where repayment comes from. One-off residential installs are fine too, but partners will look at how steady deposits are.
Questions to ask before you finance landscaping equipment
- What is the total cost over the full term, including any promotional rate that ends?
- Is there a balloon payment or a buyout at the end?
- Can the payment be paused or reduced in thin months, and at what cost?
- Does the lender take a lien on other equipment as well?
For crews that also do grading or site prep, the contractors and builders page covers draws and retainage. The Lancaster, PA data page carries the county-wide counts.
By Crownwick Advances · Updated
