Ferncroft Business Loans, a small-business funding service in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, helps builders and trade contractors in Sheboygan County request lines of credit, working capital and equipment financing from lending partners. This page covers the contractor cash cycle, which option fits each need, what partners review, an illustrative retainage example, and county construction figures from the Census Bureau.
| Construction employers, county | 264 (CBP 2023) |
|---|---|
| Residential builders with employees | 53 (CBP 2023, NAICS 2361) |
| Construction businesses without payroll | 608 (NES 2024) |
| Housing units permitted, 2025 | 364 (BPS) |
How Money Moves Through a Contracting Business
A builder's costs arrive in a predictable order: deposits on materials, weekly payroll, equipment rental or payments, then subcontractors. The money can arrive in a different order: a deposit at signing, progress draws after inspections, and a final payment that may hold back a percentage, called retainage, until the punch list is done. The gap between those two schedules is where contractor financing comes in.
Growth makes the gap wider. Two jobs running at once means two sets of materials and twice the payroll before either pays, which is why contractors who are doing well still ask for credit.
Matching Contractor Financing Options to the Need
| What you are paying for | Option that usually fits | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Materials on every job | Line of credit | Pull from the line per job; clear it when the draw arrives |
| Payroll before a progress payment | Working capital | One sum for a known gap |
| Skid steer, excavator, trailer, truck | Equipment financing | The machine secures it |
| Retainage held on finished jobs | Line of credit | Covers the wait without a new loan each time |
| Shop building or yard | Term loan | Long-lived asset, fixed payments |
A contractor line of credit is flexible, and a partner may ask for it to be secured by receivables or a general lien on business assets.
Construction Loan Retainage: An Illustrative Example
Illustrative only; not an offer or a typical figure. A remodeler finishes a $120,000 job with 10% retainage. The customer pays $108,000 on completion and holds $12,000 until final inspection and sign-off, which takes two months. Meanwhile the next job needs $15,000 of materials. Without a line, the remodeler waits or finances each job separately; with one, the $15,000 is drawn and repaid when the retainage clears.
Partners like to see that pattern in the records: draws that are repaid, not balances that only grow.
Construction Equipment Financing
Contractors finance compact track loaders, mini excavators, dump trailers, lifts and work trucks. Titled vehicles are financed against the title; untitled machines against the invoice and serial number. Used equipment can be financed when its hours and condition are documented. See equipment financing for loan-versus-lease details.
What Partners Review on a Contractor's File
- Bank statements showing deposits from draws and progress payments
- A work-in-progress or job list, with contract amounts and amounts billed
- Receivables aging, including retainage owed
- Existing equipment loans and liens
- Business tax returns for larger requests
No partner publishes a single threshold for contractors. A tidy job list carries a lot of weight because it shows money already earned.
Before Bidding the Biggest Job You Have Taken On
A contract larger than anything the company has done before changes the cash math more than owners expect. Materials and labor scale with the job, but the draw schedule may not. Three questions to answer on paper before signing: how much cash goes out before the first draw, how long each inspection-to-payment step takes, and what happens to the other jobs if this one runs late.
If the answers show a gap, arrange the line of credit before the bid is accepted, not after the first payroll is due. A request built on a plan gives a partner more to review than an emergency does.
Sheboygan County, WI Construction in Census Counts
Sheboygan County had 264 construction employer establishments in 2023 with 2,247 employees and about $161.3 million in payroll; 60.2% had fewer than five employees (CBP 2023). Of these, 59 were building contractors (NAICS 236) and 195 were specialty trades (NAICS 238). Residential builders alone numbered 53, and 75.5% of them had fewer than five employees; nonresidential builders were only six (NAICS 2361 and 2362).
Another 608 construction businesses had no payroll in 2024, with about $55.3 million in receipts (Nonemployer Statistics 2024), including 149 residential builders. That is a separate program and year, so it is not added to the employer count. In ZIP 53081 alone, 17 residential builders had employees (ZBP 2023).
Residential permits give context for builders: the county authorized 560 new housing units in 2023, 292 in 2024 and 364 in 2025, when 189 of the units were in buildings with five or more units (Building Permits Survey).
The Trades Under This Page
Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors have their own page, with service vans, parts stock and service agreements at the center: plumbing and HVAC business loans. Permits and zoning before a build-out are covered in the Sheboygan, WI permits checklist; county figures are on the Sheboygan, WI page, and other sectors on the industries hub.
By Ferncroft Business Loans · Updated