Why do banks turn down landscaping businesses for loans?

A bank's model wants twelve smooth months. Landscaping produces four heavy ones, four moderate ones and four quiet ones, every year, by design.

Underwriting that samples a short window at the wrong time of year is looking at your worst quarter and treating it as the trend.

Equipment is financed and crews are seasonal, so there is little unencumbered security and little in the way of permanent payroll to demonstrate scale.

Twelve months of deposits shows the shape. A predictable seasonal curve is a pattern, and patterns are what underwriting is for.

Repayment as a share of deposits is the structural fit: it takes more in July and less in January, which is how the business actually earns.

Timing the application matters more here than in most industries. Applying in spring, on the back of your strongest recent months, produces a better offer than applying in February.

Working capital with weekly repayment, or a true holdback that takes a share of sales, fits a seasonal trade: a quiet winter means a smaller payment rather than a missed one.

Mowers, trucks and trailers are cheaper on equipment financing, ideally bought before the season rather than paid for out of it. Apply with a full year of statements so the underwriter sees the season, not just January.

Twelve months of bank statements rather than six, so the full season is visible.

Your contracted maintenance accounts, which are the recurring floor under the seasonal peaks.

For equipment, the specification and vendor quote.