If you run a business in Nassau or Suffolk County and you need capital, the short version is this: you apply once, a broker shops your file across a network of competing funders, and you pick from the strongest offers. We are a broker rather than a funder, and the funder pays our commission, so the application costs you nothing.
We are based at 1377 Long Island Motor Pkwy in Islandia, Suffolk County, so we underwrite New York businesses the way they actually operate — including the seasonal swings the East End and South Shore live with, which are the single thing national funders most often read as a red flag.
Start here: what a Long Island broker actually does
A direct funder has one product to sell: theirs. A broker has access to many. When you call a direct funder and you do not fit their box, the answer is no, and you start over somewhere else. When you bring one application to us, we match it to a funder network, then show you the strongest 2 or 3 offers side by side.
Most funding companies competing for Long Island businesses are national online funders and marketplace brokers that have never set foot in Hauppauge, Riverhead, or Massapequa. We are physically on the Island. That matters when a funder is reading your bank statements and trying to understand why your deposits doubled in June and dropped in November. We can explain a landscaper, a clam shack, or a marina because we see them every week. Read more on our about page, and check the service areas we cover across Nassau and Suffolk.
The Long Island economy underwrites differently
The business mix here is heavy on owner-operated trades and services: restaurants and food service, contractors and the building trades, landscaping, auto repair, medical and dental practices, salons and spas, retail, and logistics. Many of these run lean on cash and thick on receivables, equipment, and labor.
Seasonality is the part national funders get wrong. East End and South Shore hospitality businesses swing hard between summer and winter. A restaurant in Montauk or a shop near the beach can do most of its year in four or five months. A funder that underwrites off your last 3 to 6 months of bank deposits handles that swing better than one that divides annual revenue by twelve and decides you are too small. Part of our job is matching your file to the funders that read deposits, not just annual averages.
The product menu, in plain terms
There is no single best product. There is the right product for your timeline, your margins, and how your cash moves. Here is what we place:
- Merchant cash advance (MCA): $5,000 to $500,000, 4 to 24 months, factor rate 1.20 to 1.49. Decisions same day to 48 hours. Repaid as a fixed daily or weekly amount. Fast and flexible, and the most expensive option, so use it when speed pays for itself. See merchant cash advance.
- Term loans: $10,000 to $500,000, 6 to 60 months, roughly 9% to 35% APR equivalent. Predictable fixed payments. Good for expansion, buildouts, or refinancing more expensive debt. See business term loans.
- Line of credit: $10,000 to $250,000 revolving. Draw what you need, pay interest on what you use, reuse it as you pay it down. Good for businesses with uneven cash timing.
- Equipment financing: $5,000 to $500,000, 12 to 72 months. The equipment secures the loan, so it is often easier to qualify for. See equipment financing.
- SBA 7(a): $25,000 to $5,000,000 through SBA preferred funders, typically 2 to 6 weeks to close. The lowest cost money available, with the most paperwork and the longest timeline. Worth it when you can plan ahead.
The eligibility floor is straightforward: 6 or more months in business and $10,000 or more in monthly revenue. Hit that, and you have options worth comparing.
A worked example: a Suffolk County landscaper before spring
Numbers make this concrete. Say a Suffolk County landscaping company does $45,000 a month in season and needs $40,000 to buy equipment and cover payroll before the spring rush starts. Cash is tight in late winter, so an MCA gets the work crews ready on time.
A $40,000 advance at a 1.30 factor rate means the total payback is $40,000 times 1.30, which is $52,000. On an 8-month schedule, that is roughly 168 business days (about 21 business days a month). Divide $52,000 by 168 and you get about $310 per business day. The cost of capital here is $12,000 ($52,000 minus $40,000). The question is simple: does getting crews and equipment running for the spring season earn back more than $12,000? For most landscapers heading into their busiest months, it does. If the math does not clear, a term loan at a lower cost may fit better, and we will tell you that. If you want to understand the pricing, read what is a factor rate.
Can you get a business loan on Long Island if you are self-employed?
Yes. Self-employed owners on Long Island qualify on business bank deposits rather than W-2 pay stubs, so a sole proprietor, a single-member LLC or a 1099 contractor is judged on the same core numbers as anyone else: 6 or more months operating, $10,000 or more in monthly revenue, and 3 recent bank statements that show it. No incorporation paperwork is required to apply.
What changes for a self-employed file is which account the money runs through. If your revenue lands in a personal checking account mixed with household spending, funders have to guess at what is business income and they price that uncertainty. Opening a separate business account and running everything through it for even two or three months before you apply is the single highest-return thing a self-employed owner on Long Island can do, and it costs nothing. Deposit consistency matters more than the total: twelve steady weeks reads better to an underwriter than one very good month.
Documentation is short. The application, your 3 most recent business bank statements, a valid ID and a voided check cover most files. A sole proprietor with no EIN can usually apply on a Social Security number; if you have an EIN, use it. Where a file is thin, an equipment financing structure is often the easiest approval, because the equipment itself secures the deal rather than your paperwork. Contractors and tradespeople in particular should read our guide for 1099 contractors before applying. Checking your options won't affect your credit score.
How big is Long Island's business base — and why it matters to a funder
Nassau and Suffolk counties together held 111,141 private-sector establishments and 1,124,843 private-sector jobs in 2024, on annual averages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is a genuinely large economy split almost exactly down the middle between the two counties, and it is why national funders keep guessing wrong about it.
| County | Private establishments | Private employment | Avg weekly wage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nassau | 55,671 | 553,439 | $1,446 |
| Suffolk | 55,470 | 571,404 | $1,455 |
| Long Island combined | 111,141 | 1,124,843 | — |
The two counties look nearly identical in count — 55,671 establishments in Nassau against 55,470 in Suffolk — but they do not behave the same way. Nassau is denser and closer to the city, with more professional and medical practices per square mile. Suffolk carries more of the trades, marine and agricultural businesses and almost all of the East End seasonality. Suffolk also employs more people at a slightly higher average weekly wage ($1,455 against $1,446), which is the payroll cost that shows up in your bank statements as the fixed obligation a funder is really underwriting.
Two practical consequences. First, an average of roughly ten employees per establishment across the Island means the typical business here is small enough that one bad month is visible in the deposit record — so explain a seasonal dip up front rather than letting an underwriter find it. Second, funders that price off a national average are pricing off a payroll number well below Long Island's, which is exactly the mismatch a broker exists to correct. See the service areas we cover across both counties.
New York disclosure: you get the math before you sign
New York's Commercial Finance Disclosure Law requires standardized cost disclosures on many commercial financing offers made to New York businesses. We treat that as the baseline, not the ceiling. Any offer you see through us comes with the math spelled out: the factor rate or rate, the total payback, and the payment schedule, all before you sign anything. Where a specific product requires licensing, we work through licensed partners. We are a broker, and we do not give legal advice, so if you want a contract reviewed, talk to your attorney. The point is that you should never sign Long Island financing without knowing the total dollar cost.
How to apply, and how fast funding moves
One application starts everything. We pull your most recent bank statements, look at your deposits and timing, and match your file to the funders most likely to say yes at the best terms. You see the strongest 2 or 3 offers, you choose, and the funder pays our commission. There is no fee to you, and checking your options won't affect your credit score.
On an MCA, same-day funding is possible when the application, your 3 most recent bank statements, a valid ID, and a voided check are in before 12 PM ET. Term loans and lines of credit usually take a few days. SBA runs 2 to 6 weeks. The more complete your file is up front, the faster every one of these moves.
Industry specifics matter, so we have dedicated guides: restaurant financing, contractor financing, auto repair shops, and salons and spas. Each industry has its own cash rhythm, and we underwrite to it.
Long Island credit union business loans: what membership actually requires
A Long Island credit union business loan starts with membership, not with the application. You qualify to join through where you live, work, worship or attend school, or through an employer or association, and only then does the business file get underwritten — usually on two or more years of tax returns and financial statements rather than on your recent bank deposits.
There is also a federal ceiling most owners never hear about. Under 12 U.S.C. § 1757a, an insured credit union cannot let its total member business loans outstanding exceed the lesser of 1.75 times its actual net worth or 1.75 times the minimum net worth it needs to be well capitalized. Credit unions chartered for business lending, those serving predominantly low-income members, and certified community development financial institutions are exempt. The practical effect for a Nassau or Suffolk owner is blunt: a smaller credit union can simply be out of business-lending room in a given year, and a good file gets slowed or declined for a reason that has nothing to do with your numbers.
Timing is the other difference. A credit union business loan runs on a committee calendar — expect a few weeks from complete application to close, longer if an appraisal or an SBA guarantee is involved. That is fine when you are buying a building or a piece of equipment you have been planning since the winter. It does not work when a walk-in cooler dies in July. We are not trying to talk you out of your credit union: if you already belong to one, have two clean years of returns, and can wait, that is often the cheapest money available on the Island and we will say so. Where a broker earns its place is the file that needs several funders reading it at the same time, which is most seasonal Long Island businesses and nearly every business under two years old.
Banks, credit unions, online funders or a broker: where Long Island owners actually get funded
Long Island business funding comes from four places: a community or national bank, a credit union, an online funder, or a broker who runs one application past many funders at once. They differ less on paperwork than on what they read. Banks and credit unions underwrite years of tax returns and financial statements; online funders and brokers underwrite your recent bank deposits.
The Federal Reserve Banks' 2026 Small Business Credit Survey puts numbers on how that mix has shifted. 38% of firms applied for a loan, line of credit or merchant cash advance in the 12 months before the survey, and the share of applicants going to online fintech lenders climbed from 17% in the 2020 survey to 29% in the 2025 survey. Applicants at small banks were still the most likely to be fully approved, at 57%. Read those together and the practical lesson is the one we give every Long Island owner who calls: bank and credit union money is the better answer when you qualify and can wait, and the fastest-growing alternative is the channel that most needs a second set of eyes on the paperwork — 60% of firms that borrowed from online lenders reported borrowing costs higher than they had expected.
| Where you apply | What it underwrites | Typical timeline | Best fit for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Community or national bank | 2–3 years of tax returns, financial statements, collateral | Several weeks | Planned purchases, refinancing, established books |
| Credit union | Same, plus membership eligibility and the business-lending cap above | Several weeks | Existing members with two or more clean years |
| Online funder | 3–6 months of business bank deposits | Same day to a few days | Speed, newer businesses, seasonal revenue |
| Broker (that is us) | One file, read by many funders at once | Same day to a few days | Owners who want competing offers rather than one answer |
One more Long Island-specific point. Because Suffolk carries more of the trades, marine and East End seasonal businesses, a Suffolk file is more likely to be read wrong by a single underwriter working off annual averages — which is exactly the situation where several funders looking at the same statements produces a materially better offer than one. Nassau's denser professional and medical practices usually show the steady month-to-month deposits that bank and credit union underwriting rewards, so a Nassau owner with two clean years genuinely should price a credit union first. If the timeline is the problem rather than the file, compare a short-term business loan or a business line of credit before reaching for the fastest product on the shelf, and read what a factor rate is so you can compare an advance against a loan on total dollars rather than on the headline number.
See what you qualify for
One 2-minute application is matched to the funders whose guidelines you meet. It's free, and checking your options won't affect your credit score.
See What I Qualify For →The bottom line: Getting a business loan on Long Island comes down to one application matched to the right funder for your numbers and your timeline. We are a broker based in Islandia, we match your file to a funder network, and the funder pays us, so there is no fee to you. See our FAQ or review the service areas we cover across Nassau and Suffolk County.
Frequently asked questions
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), 2024 annual averages, private ownership, Nassau County NY and Suffolk County NY. 12 U.S. Code § 1757a — Limitation on member business loans (total member business loans capped at the lesser of 1.75 times actual net worth or 1.75 times the minimum net worth required to be well capitalized, with exceptions for business-lending charters, predominantly low-income credit unions and CDFIs). Federal Reserve Banks — 2026 Report on Employer Firms, Small Business Credit Survey (38% of firms applied for a loan, line of credit or merchant cash advance; online fintech lender applicants rose from 17% in the 2020 survey to 29% in the 2025 survey; 57% of small-bank applicants were fully approved; 60% of online-lender borrowers reported higher costs than expected).