Guide · Something broke
The AC at your gym went out in July and members are cancelling. How fast can you fund a new unit?
By Alex Makowski Published
A rooftop unit for a gym is equipment and finances as such over three to seven years, funded in two to five business days once you have the HVAC contractor's quote. Bridge the install with portable cooling funded on working capital — one to three days on your membership deposits. Gyms are a category banks avoid; revenue-based funders read the recurring membership drafts and like them.
In this guide
- 01Why this one is urgent in a way a broken treadmill is not
- 02The unit: equipment financing, once you have the quote
- 03The bridge: working capital for the rentals and the lost weeks
- 04What to say to members while you wait
- Won't affect your credit
- Free, no obligation
- Up to $500K
01
Why this one is urgent in a way a broken treadmill is not
A gym's revenue is monthly memberships, and a membership cancels with a click. Two weeks of a 90-degree floor in July is not a two-week problem — it is members who leave and do not come back in August. That is the number the funding decision is really about, not the cost of the unit.
So the first call is the HVAC contractor for the quote and the second is a rental company for portable units on the floor by tomorrow. The rental is the thing that stops the churn. The financing follows it.
Application to funded
02
The unit: equipment financing, once you have the quote
A commercial rooftop package for a few thousand square feet of gym floor is an asset with a serial number and a lifespan of fifteen years or so. Equipment lenders finance it over three to seven years, the contractor is paid directly, and the unit secures the loan. It is the cheapest money available to you and it takes two to five business days from a signed quote.
Gyms are a category some banks decline before opening the file — high fixed costs, a membership model they distrust. Equipment lenders care less about the category because the asset carries the risk. Revenue-based funders care even less, because a gym's bank statements show the same recurring drafts on the same days every month, which is the easiest deposit pattern there is to underwrite.
03
The bridge: working capital for the rentals and the lost weeks
Portable cooling, the electrician to run it, and a month of comped memberships to keep people from leaving are not assets. That is a working capital loan or a cash advance sized to your monthly drafts, decided in about a day and funded in one to three business days.
A gym depositing $45,000 a month in memberships can expect offers from about $22,000. The bridge rarely needs a quarter of that. Borrow the bridge, not the offer.
Ask for weekly or monthly payments rather than daily. Memberships draft on the first and the fifteenth; a daily debit against that pattern is an argument with your own bank account.
04
What to say to members while you wait
Owners who kept their members through an outage did the same simple things: told everyone the date the new unit was installing, put the portables on the floor visibly, and gave a small credit without being asked. The members you keep in week one are the ones the financing is protecting. The unit is just the unit.
Written by
Alex Makowski, Owner
Alex Makowski owns and runs Business Loans for America and has been placing funding for U.S. small businesses since 2021. Businesses he has worked with have secured $50M+ in financing across 1,200+ placements. He writes and reviews every guide on this site.
FAQ
Related questions.
- Will the landlord pay for the HVAC?
- Depends on the lease. Rooftop units are often the landlord's fixture with maintenance passed to the tenant, or the reverse. Read the HVAC clause before you sign anything with a lender; if it is theirs, you may be funding a rental and a legal letter rather than a unit.
- Can I finance a repair instead of a replacement?
- A compressor or a coil is a repair and funds as working capital. On a unit past ten or twelve years the contractor will usually tell you the repair is a deposit on the next failure. Take that seriously in July.
- My gym opened nine months ago. Am I too new?
- For equipment financing, probably not: the unit secures the loan and nine months of drafts is a readable pattern. Expect a down payment. For working capital, six months is the usual floor, so you clear it.
Guides
More on something broke
Storm damage, claim pending
Run the claim and the funding in parallel. The businesses that reopen fastest never wait on one for the other.
Truck out of service
Not a rebuild. A few thousand dollars, needed in two days, from a funder who reads settlements.
Supplier moved you to COD
A credit hold is a supplier saying it has been paid late twice. Fund the gap, then fix the reason.
Reefer failed, loaded
The claim is decided in the first hour by one phone call. The repair is a few thousand dollars after that.
POS or system went down
Terminals and servers finance as equipment. The recovery hours and the lost days do not.
Closed by the health department
Every day closed is a day of zero. The repairs are cheap next to that. Fund speed.
Sources
- U.S. Small Business Administration — LoansFederal loan programmes, eligibility and what the SBA does and does not guarantee.
One application, every lender we work with
Find out what you qualify for before you need it.
Eleven questions, about two minutes. You see offers side by side and take one, or none.
- Won't affect your credit
- Free, no obligation
- Decisions usually inside 24 hours
- Up to $500K