Does anyone finance water features?

[FNCPonds]

I have been in business for two years doing nothing but water features. I have been really slow this year and thought if i could find a third party to let my company finance some projects that maybe homeowners would want to pay $150 a month rather then $10,000 in a week. If anyone knows of a local dallas or nation wide company who and how did i get started?

Thanks for the replys

Cole

[mgugliotti]

aquasacpes has a company that does that... go to www.aquascapeinc.com and you should find the info there.
mg

[buzzyng]

Aquascape uses GE Money and the last time I checked, they wanted to see 2 or 3 years of your books. They had many options you can provide customers from 0% to ? I am currently talking with Wells Fargo as well to see what they can provide. I have a contractor colleague that starting offering financing and he said his business took off after that

[FNCPonds]

I called GE Money a few months ago and the just blew me off saying i had to be in business for 5 years or $500,000 annual sales. Which i am not quite there yet. How is wells fargo looking like, will they work with small companys like me. Thanks for the reply.

[mgugliotti]

hummm why do they care how long you have been in business.... it is the customer they are trying to finance right? they can never make our lives easy...

[buzzyng]

At POndemonium last year, GE Money was willing to work with Aquascape contractors but they required 3 years (maybe 2 but I don't think so). There was no minimum amount of sales.

Wells Fargo is willing to work with small companies, I'll let you know what I work out with them and provide the details

[Toker]

FWIW I've always had some luck with the smaller community banks here on landscaping work. I hope they'll extend it to water features too - don't know why they wouldn't?

Only problem going this route is they want real solid credit and right now I've hit some (2) that they are hemming and hawing on. Last year they'd have had a check in hand at application point. What a difference a year makes.

Still - smaller and local always worth chasing down.

Edited - did I misconstrue OP? Are you looking for financing for customer or your company to finance the paper for the customer? I was talking of line of credit for customer that maybe their own bank wouldn't touch or I wanted to "offer" as an enticement to garner business.

[JimLewis]

If you have a John Deere Landscapes branch in your area, they have the financing program you are looking for. You gotta join their rewards program to be involved. It's a pretty sweet program for the homeowners and something you could offer that most contractors don't.

The only down side is you don't see any $$ from them until 7 days after the project is completed and the homeowner signs off on everything. No down payment, nothing. You have to fund the entire project and then wait to get paid. Some people are okay with that kind of setup, I am not.

[Toker]

small folks still waiting payment from past years job prolly can't do, or shouldn't maybe, something like this either. I can't anyway - need constant cash flow to stay afloat.

Boy - for the right company it may be a real money maker.

[Venturewest]

I have thought about just starting to accept credit cards. Anyone with decent credit probably has a stack of 0% offers laying around the junk mail pile. If they can get no interest, no payments for 1 1/2 years, and 8.9 after that, I think it would be appealing to some people.