9 Things Small Businesses Can Finance With an Equipment Loan

When you think of financing equipment, what do you think of? Forklifts? Cranes? You probably consider all kinds of heavy machinery, but there are other types of equipment you can finance that a small business may use.

To understand what some practical pieces of equipment are that small businesses can finance with an equipment loan, we’ve asked 9 thought leaders to share their recommendations.

Computer Hardware and Software

My company has financed computer hardware and software as well as furniture.  We are not an equipment intensive business, so there are not a lot of opportunities for us to finance equipment.  We have paid cash for computer equipment and furniture in the past, but decided to finance the last time around.  Financing made the decision to go with higher end computers and furniture an easier choice. Of course they are more expensive, but financing them allowed us to spread the cost out over time. 

Carey Wilbur, Charter Capital

Office Furniture

Startup companies supporting remote workers or in-office employees need comfortable office chairs and technological equipment. For our company, we made the decision to equip all employees with Herman Miller Aeron chairs to support our belief in workplace wellness. Yes, it was our largest purchase ever made. But, we invested in an undervalued element of a workplace so employees could literally and figuratively feel the support. 

Brett Farmiloe, Carpet Cleaning SEO

Heavy Machinery

Given our industry of work, we frequently use several types of heavy machinery. Equipment loans have proved helpful when a water pump used for pigging has completed its useful life and we need to replace it. The key here is to finance equipment that is crucial to your business operation rather than equipment that just makes you “look good.” 

Rex Murphey, Montauk Services

Inflatable Obstacle Course

We see interesting requests come through all the time. It inspires me to see entrepreneurial creativity going on in this country every day. One of the most interesting finance requests I remember seeing was for the purchase of an inflatable obstacle course. This thing was huge, the gentleman applying wishes to set it up as a tourist attraction on his backyard lake. Last time I checked, the business was booming and it had been a massive success.

Ethan Taub, Loanry

New Products for More Market share

We have recently financed the purchase of a new product which we anticipate will enable us to capture more market share in our second largest customer segment. We took into account the projected impact of this product and weighed it against cost before making the decision to pursue an equipment loan. Ultimately, we believe that this investment will be well worth it.

Chris Dunkin, Portable Air

Printer

A perfect item to finance at the moment is a large scale and professional work printer. They are the needed item that you don’t want to buy at the moment because of the simple fact the world is moving towards being paperless in a bid to be green and stop global warming. Printers do have a limited lifespan left, so why not invest in financing while you work out how and when your business will go fully paperless so that when the time comes, you can just return it, instead of being lumbered with an out of date piece of equipment

Andrew Roderick, Credit Repair Companies

Dental Equipment

Equipment loans can be extremely helpful when you are trying to get your business off the ground. Using the loan for big ticket items, like the machines we used to create our dental prosthesis, is a smart way to help your business move forward. The loan can also be used for scanners and technological equipment that would otherwise take a business months to save for. 

Henry Babich, Stomadent Dental Laboratory

Laptops and Software

In today’s society, it is important to give the customer the best experience from the start of the sale up to the end. Therefore it is good to invest in quality laptops and software to make the customer more inclined to purchase our product. It is important to use high quality video presentations, and graphical information to better explain to the customer the capacity of our product. People are visually oriented, no matter how little we change our methods and tactics, every little bit counts to ensure that a deal is made at the end of the day.

David Meltzer, East Insurance Group LLC

Lab and Medical Equipment

The basic necessities that businesses need don’t come cheap. It is critical that a startup business be sufficiently capitalized that it can invest the required money to get off the ground. There may be some items, however, that are suitable for leasing or funded through an equipment loan. We have avoided purchasing some expensive lab equipment by entering into leasing agreements with vendors. Ultimately, it comes down to the cost of borrowing versus the opportunity cost of the capital that could be used elsewhere.

Dan Reck, MATClinics