Capital for the businesses lenders generally like.
Law firms, CPA firms, consulting practices, advertising agencies, IT services — the knowledge-business category lenders quietly love. Strong owner credit, professional licensing, predictable revenue, and asset-light operations all underwrite well.
How does a law or accounting firm borrow without hard assets?
On the strength of the owner and the billings. A firm with no equipment, no inventory, and a leased office still gets funded, because lenders here are underwriting the practitioner. They read your personal credit, the license behind the practice, and 12 months of billing and collection history. The two usual structures are a line of credit for the gap between billing and payment, and a term loan for something with a defined cost, like buying out a partner. Owners with real home equity often do better still with a business HELOC, since a secured loan prices lower than an unsecured one.
What we see funded
- Working capital lines. Smoothing the gap between billing and collection. Most professional services firms bill monthly and collect 30–60 days later; lines fill the gap cleanly.
- Partner buyouts and ownership transitions. Term loans for buying out a retiring partner or transitioning ownership.
- Technology investments. Practice management software, case management, billing systems, AI tooling.
- Office build-out and relocation. A new office, lease build-out, furniture, signage.
- Marketing and growth investment. Hiring senior talent ahead of revenue, expanding into new service lines, M&A of smaller competing practices.
What a professional services deal usually looks like
A four-attorney firm bills about $2.1M a year. One of the founding partners is retiring, and his stake is valued at $480K. We place a $500K term loan over seven years, structured so the payment is covered by the work the remaining partners absorb. Underwriting runs one to two weeks, mostly personal financial statements and three years of firm returns.
Working capital is faster. A firm that bills on the first and collects around the 45th day usually opens a $150K line of credit and carries a $40K to $70K balance most months. Approval takes two to three days. A practice-management software rollout at $60K goes on a 36-month term loan, and for an owner with home equity a HELOC at a lower rate often beats both.
What lenders look at
Your personal credit matters more here than in any other industry on this site. There is no equipment to repossess and no inventory to sell, so the lender is betting on you.
Beyond credit, three things.
Billing trend. Is gross billing flat, rising, or sliding? Direction counts more than the raw number.
Realization rate. The share of hours you bill that you actually collect. A firm billing $2M and collecting $1.4M has a 70% realization rate, and lenders will size the loan off the $1.4M.
Client concentration. One client at half your revenue is a problem. If that relationship ends, the firm changes overnight.
The contrast is sharp with restaurants, where owner credit barely registers and the bank statements decide everything. Here it is close to the reverse.
What we recommend
If you own a home with real equity, price a HELOC first. It is usually the cheapest money on the table for an owner-operator. For business-side capital, a line of credit is the workhorse — it fits the billing cycle exactly. Term loans for partner buyouts and anything with a fixed price tag. We rarely recommend RBF here. The cost only makes sense against a short, specific opportunity.