Hazelford Funding, a small-business funding service in Lebanon, Tennessee, helps boutiques, furniture stores, hardware and building supply dealers, general merchandise and specialty shops in Wilson County, TN request inventory financing for stock, lines of credit for slow months, and equipment or term loans for fixtures and remodels. Partners review sales history, inventory turnover and bank statements, and decide.
| Stores with payroll across Wilson County, TN | 485, the county's largest sector, CBP 2023 |
|---|---|
| Clothing and accessory shops on payroll | 57 employers (NAICS 448), CBP 2023 |
| Shops without paid employees | 1,255 no-payroll firms in the 2024 NES file |
How money moves through a retail store
A store commits cash to inventory weeks or months before it sells. Clothing and gift buyers order seasons ahead; furniture stores carry floor samples and warehouse stock; hardware dealers keep thousands of items on hand for contractors and homeowners. Rent and payroll continue whether or not the stock moves, and markdowns eat into margins when it does not.
Business loans for retail are mostly about timing and inventory turn. The faster stock sells, the easier it is to fund.
Retail in Wilson County, TN
Retail Trade was Wilson County, TN's largest sector by establishment count in 2023, with 485 employers, 10,443 employees and $392.8 million in annual payroll; 45.8% had fewer than five employees (County Business Patterns 2023). The county also had 1,255 retail businesses without payroll in 2024 (Nonemployer Statistics 2024), a separate program and year.
| Kind of store (2017 NAICS code) | Employers | Share under 5 | On ZIP 37087, 2023 ZBP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clothing and clothing accessories (448) | 57 | 40.4% | 17 |
| All other general merchandise (452319) | 30 | 10.0% | 16 |
| Furniture and home goods, NAICS 442 | 29 | 62.1% | 11 |
| Building supply and garden centers, NAICS 444 | 29 | 37.9% | 12 |
| Grocery stores (4451) | 29 | 51.7% | 14 |
Clothing shops and boutique business loans
A boutique business loan usually funds a season's buy. A business loan for a clothing store is easier to assess with the order confirmation, last year's sell-through by category and the markdown history. Some boutiques pair it with a line of credit for reorders of fast sellers. The inventory financing page covers the mechanics, including a loan to buy inventory for a boutique.
Furniture, home furnishings and general merchandise
Furniture stores carry large, slow-turning items and often offer delivery, which ties up trucks and staff. General merchandise and discount stores tend to turn stock quickly. In both cases partners look at turnover and gross margin by category, along with fixtures and point-of-sale systems that can be financed as equipment.
Business loan for a hardware shop or building supply dealer
Hardware stores and building supply dealers serve contractors, who often buy on account. That creates receivables on top of inventory. A line of credit can carry contractor accounts while inventory financing supports a larger order. The county had 29 building material and garden supply employers in 2023, with 810 employees (CBP 2023).
Store costs and the funding shape for each
| Need | Funding shape |
|---|---|
| Seasonal or volume stock buy | Inventory financing |
| Slow weeks between busy ones | Line of credit |
| Fixtures, POS, delivery truck | Equipment financing |
| A refit, or a second storefront | Term loan |
| Heavy card sales and a near-term need | Merchant cash advance, which buys future card sales |
Grocers and specialty food counters
Grocery stores are large employers for their count. Wilson County, TN had 29 grocery employers in 2023 with 1,274 employees and $37.5 million in annual payroll (County Business Patterns 2023), and 14 of them were in ZIP 37087 (ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023). Perishable stock turns quickly, refrigeration is essential, and supplier terms can be short. A grocery store business loan is usually a mix: equipment financing for coolers, freezers and checkout systems, and inventory financing or a line of credit for stock.
Specialty food stores, butchers and bakeries follow a similar pattern with smaller tickets. The equipment financing page covers refrigeration and display cases.
Small business loans for a retail store: sizing the buy by hand
A partner reading a business loan for a retail store wants to see how the order turns back into cash. Three numbers do most of the work: the order cost, the expected sell-through at full price, and the week the markdowns start.
Illustration only: a clothing store orders $18,000 of fall stock. Last year the same categories sold 60% at full price within ten weeks and the rest at a markdown by week fourteen. Writing those weeks out shows when the order pays for itself, and therefore how long the funding needs to run. The figures are an example, not an offer.
Store size matters to that read. Wilson County, TN clothing and accessories stores averaged about 12.2 employees each in 2023, against about 27.9 at building material and garden supply dealers (County Business Patterns 2023, our arithmetic). A hardware dealer's request usually carries a larger payroll and contractor receivables; a boutique's carries the season's buy.
What partners read in a store's file
- Sales history, ideally by month and by category.
- Inventory turnover and the supplier order behind the request.
- Deposits and card batches from recent months.
- The lease and any existing loans or advances.
Illustration only: a home goods shop in Lebanon, TN plans a $24,000 holiday buy, based on last year's sell-through of roughly 70% by the end of December. The remaining stock is marked down in January. A request that shows both numbers, and the cash that comes back each month, is far easier to assess than a request for a round sum. The figures are an example, not an offer.
Gas stations and convenience stores have their own station funding page. More store types are on the industries page, and county figures are on the Lebanon, TN page.
