Loan or recap for a 25 to 75 person company: what lenders read
Quick answer, Oct 29, 2026As of 29 October 2026, lenders to small services companies lend against receivables, contracts and equipment, and check that cash flow covers the payments. Minority investors who keep the owner on look at the same concentration and owner-dependence points as buyers. Frontier Desk tracks hundreds of lenders and builds each profile from the firm's own published criteria.
What a lender reads
- Receivables and contracts: what is owed, by whom, and how long agreements run.
- Equipment, where it matters to the business.
- Cash flow against the payments: whether the cash flow covers the loan.
- Churn on recurring agreements.
What an investor who keeps you on reads
The same things a buyer reads: customer concentration, owner dependence and books that need cleaning up, plus how much of the work depends on you. See who invests in firms and keeps the owner on.
What to prepare
A clean schedule of receivables and contracts, customer concentration by revenue, the last two to three years of financials that tie to the bank, and an honest account of what happens to the company if the owner steps back.
How Frontier Desk helps
We track thousands of buyers, lenders and investors, hundreds of them lenders. In an exit roadmap, "a loan first" starts with what the lender reads: receivables, contracts and equipment, and a 90-day plan with a re-check against the same lenders. Where the loan is meant to fund growth, our forward-deployed engineers work on lowering the cost to deliver each contract, which leaves more cash flow to cover payments. Start with a free first look.
Questions
Loan or sale first? If you might sell within a year, a loan can complicate the sale; the roadmap sets out which comes first for your timing.
What size company does this suit? Our work is built around companies of roughly 25 to 75 people.