How many counties does this grouping list?

Twenty-six, from Smith, Gregg and Angelina to Panola, Rusk and Shelby. It is an editorial grouping.

Can I finance a piece of equipment?

You can apply for a term loan for a defined purchase. A quote or invoice helps the request.

Do you fund logging or wood products businesses?

Any eligible business can apply. Describe the use and the payback.

In as little as 24 hours, with no promise of a specific timeline.

Term Loans in East Texas and the Piney Woods

A broad region made of many small markets

East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic and ecological region of approximately 38 counties, roughly divided into Northeast, Southeast and Deep East Texas. Most of it is the Piney Woods ecoregion, and toward Central Texas the forests thin out into sparser trees and eventually open plains. This grouping lists 26 counties, from Smith, Gregg, Angelina and Bowie to Panola, Rusk, Sabine and Shelby.

What matters for a business owner is that this is a region of many small markets. Businesses in the county seats draw from a wide rural trade area. Trucks, trailers and equipment sit at the center of a lot of businesses here.

Equipment first

When the largest cost in your business is a machine, the question of financing is the question of keeping the machine working. Logging and wood products, hauling, land clearing, construction, oilfield support and farm and ranch work all depend on equipment that costs a lot to buy, a lot to repair and a lot to leave idle.

Replacing a unit that has become a repair bill every month.
Adding a second unit so a crew is not waiting on one machine.
Upgrading to something that does the job in fewer hours.
Buying a used unit from a retiring owner at a fair price.

A lump sum fits these purchases because the machine is the collateral for the business's ability to earn. Compare the cost of the purchase with the income it protects.

What a payback story sounds like

A good payback story is specific. 'The second skidder lets the crew work two sites, which adds about one job a month' is better than 'we will grow.' For illustration only, with round numbers that are not our terms: a $75,000 purchase that supports one extra job a month needs that job to leave enough margin to cover the payment and still be worth the work. Do that arithmetic before you apply.

Beyond heavy equipment

Main-street shops, restaurants, clinics and service firms in county seats also use term loans for renovations, signage, second locations and inventory purchases. They face the same test: name the purchase, name the payback and check the slow months.

Distance as a cost of doing business

Long drives between jobs raise the stakes on reliable equipment. A truck that breaks down forty miles from the shop costs a tow, a day of lost work and a customer's patience. When you compare the price of a replacement with the price of continued repairs, count those hidden costs. Many owners find that the monthly repair bills, plus the lost days, already equal a meaningful part of a payment on a newer unit. Run your own numbers rather than assuming; every business is different.

The funding facts

The application takes about five minutes and uses a soft credit pull. Funding from $25,000 to $5,000,000 can arrive in as little as 24 hours. Sole proprietors can apply.