Swiftstead Commercial Capital, a small-business funding broker in St. Cloud, Minnesota, explains how construction businesses get funding. Stearns County had 540 construction employers in 2023, 68.9 percent with fewer than five employees, and authorized 648 new housing units in 2025. Equipment financing, credit lines and working capital cover most needs; partners decide.
Who builds in Stearns County, MN
Stearns County had 540 construction employer establishments in 2023, with 7,054 paid employees and about $653.1 million in annual payroll (U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023). Specialty trade contractors made up 345 of them and building contractors 150. Seven in ten construction employers had fewer than five employees.
A separate survey counted 1,118 construction businesses with no employees at all in 2024 (Nonemployer Statistics 2024). The two counts come from different programs and years, so they are not added together, but they say the same thing: the trade is mostly small operators.
The permit backdrop
The county authorized 618 new housing units in 2023, 572 in 2024 and 648 in 2025 (U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey). In 2025, 371 were single-family homes and 253 were in buildings of five or more units. Residential permits are only part of the work, but they give a sense of steady demand for crews.
Match the cost to the structure
A machine
An excavator, compact track loader or trailer that works every week is the classic case for equipment financing: the machine secures the deal and payments run over its working life. Run the numbers first with the heavy equipment loan calculator.
A wage gap
When a pay application is pending and wages are due, working capital covers one defined gap and a credit line covers gaps that recur across jobs.
Materials
Materials bought before a phase is billed fit a revolving line: draw for the order, repay when the owner pays.
Working out a construction company's working capital need
A quick way to size it by hand: add up a job's weekly labor and materials, count the weeks until the first payment is likely to land, and multiply. Then add any retainage the owner will hold back, since that money is earned but not yet collectable. If you run several jobs, do it for each and overlap the calendars; the deepest point is your number. A partner will check it against your bank statements.
What a partner reads first
- Business bank statements covering the last three to six months.
- Signed contracts and the backlog of upcoming work.
- A receivables aging list.
- Existing equipment loans and leases, and any liens filed against equipment or receivables.
- For a machine: the dealer quote with year, hours and serial number.
Partners decide every request and set rates and terms; no broker can promise an outcome.
Building contractors and specialty trades need different things
The county's 150 building contractors and 345 specialty trade contractors (County Business Patterns 2023) fund different things. A general or building contractor carries the whole job: subcontractors, materials and the wait for the owner's payment, so a credit line sized to receivables is often the core tool. A specialty trade, a roofer or an electrician, usually carries a smaller slice of the job but owns more specialized equipment per employee, so equipment financing comes up first.
Both groups face retainage and slow pay applications. The difference is in which side of the balance sheet the money ties up.
Pitfalls for small crews
- Buying a machine on a short-term loan meant for wage gaps.
- Mixing personal and business money in one account.
- Leaving old equipment liens on file after a machine is paid off.
- Taking a merchant cash advance to cover payroll repeatedly; it is not a loan, and its cost compounds the problem.
Where to go next
Contractor and construction financing covers the sector in more depth, and Stearns County business counts put construction alongside the other sectors. More notes are on the Swiftstead blog.
By Swiftstead Commercial Capital ยท Updated