Rain, Drought & Credit Lines

I’ve never run a landscaping crew, but I understand the cycle. You get rain, everything grows. Jobs stack up, phones ring, and you’re working as fast as you can to keep up. Then things dry out. The calls slow down. The same business that felt wide open a few months ago starts to feel tight. 

Different trade; same pattern. I’ve seen it in just about every kind of business.

Early on, before anything felt stable, I had my own version of that cycle. I was working for someone else, learning the business, doing things the “right” way. I asked my boss if I could try going out on my own part-time — just weekends. He didn’t take it seriously.

I did it anyway.

A couple of weekends in, I had a truck, a name on the side, and more work than he expected. That’s when the conversation changed. It went from casual permission to a hard line: pick one or the other.

That moment forces clarity. You realize pretty quickly that if you’re going to bet on yourself, you’d better have more than optimism backing you up.

What made it possible for me wasn’t just the work — it was the cushion. My wife and I had saved enough to handle a stretch where income might not be consistent. That didn’t make things easy, but it made them survivable. And in any feast-or-famine business, survival is the first priority.

Here’s where I see a lot of good operators get caught off guard: they prepare for the work, but not for the gaps between it.

Preparing for the Drought

You know how to do the job. You’ve got the equipment, the crew, the reputation. But when things slow down, the question becomes: what’s holding you up while you wait for the next wave?

Savings is one answer. Credit is another — and too many people ignore it until they need it. Credit isn’t just for emergencies. It’s a tool for smoothing out the cycle. 

If your revenue comes in uneven waves, your financing shouldn’t. A well-structured credit profile gives you the ability to cover short-term gaps without scrambling, without taking bad deals, and without putting everything on the line every time things slow down. But that only works if you build it before you need it.

Before you take on new fixed costs, ask yourself a simple question: does this still make sense in the slow season?

Start with the basics. Separate your business and personal finances completely. If everything runs through your personal accounts, you’re limiting your options from the start. Lenders want to see a real business with its own identity.

From there, establish trade lines. Work with vendors and suppliers that report your payment history. Pay them on time, every time. It may not feel like much in the moment, but you’re building a record that other lenders will look at later. Think of it like reputation, but on paper.

Over time, that opens doors — higher limits, better terms, more flexibility. And flexibility is what gets you through the dry spells.

Another thing to understand: not all credit is created equal.

Short-term, high-cost options might solve an immediate problem, but they can create a bigger one if you’re not careful. The goal is to position yourself so you qualify for lower-cost, more stable forms of financing before you’re under pressure.

That comes back to timing. You don’t wait for the drought to start digging the well.

I’ve seen businesses do everything right operationally and still struggle because they didn’t prepare financially. They were busy, profitable on paper, but cash got tight at the wrong moment. Without reserves or access to credit, they had to make decisions they wouldn’t have made otherwise — cutting corners, taking on the wrong jobs, or stepping into expensive financing just to stay afloat.

That’s not a position you want to be in.

Keeping it Fluid

On the flip side, when you have both—cash reserves and available credit — you operate differently. You can think clearly. You can be selective. You can protect your margins instead of chasing volume just to keep money moving.

That’s what I mean by building a “waterproof” business. You’re not trying to control the weather; you’re making sure it doesn’t control you.

There’s also a discipline piece here that’s easy to overlook. When things are busy, it’s tempting to expand too fast — more equipment, more overhead, more commitments. Growth is good, but only if it holds up when conditions change.

Before you take on new fixed costs, ask yourself a simple question: does this still make sense in the slow season?

If the answer is no, you may be building something that only works when everything goes right.

I’ve had seasons where things were uncertain and others where they felt predictable. The businesses that last aren’t the ones that avoid cycles — they’re the ones that prepare for them.

You save when you can. You build credit before you need it. You keep your structure flexible, and you stay aware of where you actually stand, not where you hope to be.

Rain will come, but drought will, too. The goal isn’t to guess which one is next. It’s to be ready for both.