Equipment Financing in the Southern Tier

A region built around machines

The Southern Tier runs along New York's border with Pennsylvania and takes in the Binghamton, Elmira-Corning and Jamestown areas. Definitions of the region vary, and for this page we mean the counties around Broome, Chemung, Tioga, Tompkins and Steuben. Its economic history is tied to manufacturing: high-tech work in Broome County, a Fortune 500 materials maker headquartered in Steuben County, and factories making everything from machine tools to furniture. Government is the largest employer overall, and manufacturing, though diminished, remains important in the larger communities. Farming matters too, with dairy, vegetables and orchard fruit.

Five questions before financing a machine

1. Repair or replace? Add up the last year of repairs and downtime. If the total approaches a fair share of a new unit's price, the old one is costing you the difference.
2. Does it fit the work coming in? A machine sized for a contract you have not won yet is a gamble. A machine that clears a current bottleneck is a plan.
3. What does installation cost? Industrial equipment may need power, floor work, tooling and training before it earns a dollar.
4. Who runs it? A skilled operator is part of the price.
5. What is the slowest quarter? Test any payment against it.

Where the money is usually needed

Shop floor

Machine tools, presses, testing instruments, forklifts and compressors. A single down machine can hold up an entire order, so the cost of waiting is more than the repair.

Farm and field

Tractors, balers, cooling tanks and feed gear. Tools like these are bought around the growing calendar, and the bill often lands before the harvest pays.

Service and trades

Trucks, trailers, excavators, diagnostic tools and kitchen equipment for restaurants and lodging. These are the machines whose failure turns away customers the same day.

A labeled example

For illustration only: a small machine shop in the region needs a $180,000 CNC mill to take on work it currently subcontracts. The owner lists the subcontracted jobs from the last twelve months, estimates how many could be brought in-house, and checks the monthly payment against the quietest month in the bank statements. If the numbers hold with room to spare, the request goes in with the vendor's quote attached. These figures are invented, not our terms or a typical result.

Funding details

Requests run from $25,000 to $5,000,000, with funding in as little as 24 hours after a complete file. We consider FICO 500+, run a soft credit pull, and ask for about three months of business bank statements; no tax returns. Sole proprietors can apply. The application takes about five minutes.