The way money moves through construction is unlike any other industry. Subcontractors buy materials, pay crews, and cover overhead in the first 30 days of a project, then wait an average of 51 days after submitting a pay application before a general contractor pays them. That means routinely carrying two to three months of expenses before a single dollar comes back. How you cover that funding gap determines whether your business can absorb a missed payment or take on the unexpected opportunity that shows up at the wrong time.
The answer isn’t a single financing solution. It’s a diverse capital stack: a mix of working capital sources, each with its own cost, capacity, and best use. This guide is built for commercial subcontractors who want to fund growth without running short on cash, whether you’re managing a single bank line today or building a more deliberate capital strategy. It walks through every working capital option available to you, where each one fits, the order to deploy them, and how to build the stack before you need it.
What you will learn
- The six working capital sources available to subcontractors, what each one costs, and when to use it: supplier terms, project-based financing, credit cards, a bank line of credit, a construction-specific line of credit, and cash
- How to evaluate a bank line of credit, including the covenant requirements, the 30-day clean-up period, and the bonding-capacity trade-off most subs overlook
- The right order to deploy your capital, from least flexible to most flexible, so you never drain your safety net first
- How to build and scale your capital stack before a cash crunch hits, not during one
- How to set growth goals your capital can actually support, so you don’t win more work than your business can fund