A restaurant owner calls Ridgehollow Finance, the request goes on to funding partners, and any terms come from the partner that reviews it.
Kitchen machines with model numbers fit equipment financing; food orders and payroll fit working capital or a line of credit; a merchant cash advance, which is not a loan, is collected from card sales. Work on the building is outside this site.
At a glance
- Full-service restaurants, Sweetwater County, WY
35 with paid staff, $12.8 million payroll (CBP 2023)
- Limited-service restaurants, same county
33 with paid staff, $13.3 million payroll (CBP 2023)
- Full-service, fewer than five employees
8 establishments, 22.9% (CBP 2023)
- Restaurants and other eating places, no paid staff
7 in the county (Nonemployer Statistics 2024)
Loans for Restaurants: Ice Machines and Refrigeration Repairs
An ice machine that stops making ice before a Friday dinner, or a walk-in compressor that quits overnight, turns into a quote: a replacement unit, or a repair bill for the compressor, a condenser fan or an evaporator coil.
A replacement machine fits equipment financing, since it has a model number and resale value. A repair bill creates no new collateral, so working capital or a line of credit is the closer fit for it.
Illustration only, invented figures: a $7,900 ice machine and bin, financed over 36 months at 12%, works out to $262.39 per month, a figure the kitchen can set against the ice it would otherwise buy.
Restaurant Funding: Ranges, Griddles and Prep Tables
The cook line is a set of separate machines: six-burner ranges, flat-top griddles, charbroilers and fryers, with the refrigerated prep tables and sandwich units beside them.
Each has its own price, so a request can name the whole line or one piece. Anything installed above the line or inside the walls is building work and stays outside this site; the machines on the floor are equipment. A partner looking at a cook-line request can ask for the vendor quote, the model numbers and a few months of bank statements showing the deposits a payment would come from.
Full-service restaurants (NAICS 722511) paid $12.8 million in 2023 wages across Sweetwater County, WY, and 8 of their 35 establishments, 22.9%, ran with fewer than five employees (CBP).
Restaurant Financing Options: Matching Each Kitchen Cost to a Product
- Walk-in cooler, combi oven, range or dish machine: equipment financing, secured by the machine.
- Smallwares, tables and chairs bought together: a term loan spread over their working years.
- Weekly food and beverage orders: working capital or a line of credit, paid down as the food sells.
- A slow stretch for a kitchen with steady card sales: a merchant cash advance, which is not a loan; the provider collects a share of card receipts until a fixed amount is in.
Matching the term to the life of the thing bought keeps interest from running on food eaten months ago.
A dish machine sits with the walk-in: financing or a lease with the machine as collateral. Some dish machines are rented under a chemical supply contract instead, and a partner can weigh that monthly cost against financing the machine outright. Combi ovens, walk-in coolers and dining-room tables are priced together in the restaurant equipment article.
Financing Restaurant Business Payroll and Food Orders Between Deposits
A restaurant's deposits arrive as the room fills; food and wages are owed on fixed dates. When a large catering job is billed after the event, the food and the extra staff hours go out before any of that invoice comes back.
Illustration only, invented figures: $4,600 of food and $2,150 of extra staff hours for one catering job, $6,750 in all, with the invoice paid 30 days later. A line drawn for those 30 days at 14% annual interest, accrued daily, carries about $77.67 of interest.
Limited-service restaurants (NAICS 722513), where customers order and pay before they eat, reported 757 paid employees and $13.3 million in 2023 payroll in the county (CBP).
New Restaurant Business Loans When an Operating Kitchen Adds a Second Concept
A restaurant that already operates and wants a second concept, such as a counter-service spot or a food truck, brings something a brand-new owner lacks: deposit history and a known cost base.
A partner can read the first location's bank statements while it looks at the second concept's equipment list. Time in business and annual revenue are two of the ranges the request form takes.
Leasing or buying the second space, and any work on it, are property matters outside this site; the equipment, the opening food order and the wages paid while staff train are not. Staff for the new concept can be on payroll weeks before it opens, and those wages count as working capital too.
Nonemployer Statistics for 2024 list 7 restaurants and other eating places (NAICS 7225) in Sweetwater County, WY with no paid employees. Bars and coffee counters have notes on the industries page, and county totals are on the Green River, WY page.
By Ridgehollow Finance · Updated