Size first
Wikipedia counts 2,181,654 people in San Bernardino County in 2020, the fifth most populous in California and 14th in the country. It has an area of 20,105 square miles, and the page calls it the largest county in the contiguous United States by area, close to the size of West Virginia. It lies in the Inland Empire, as part of the Greater Los Angeles area and the Riverside-San Bernardino-Fontana metropolitan area, with the city of San Bernardino as its county seat.
For an owner, the size is practical. A county this large is several regions, and your distance from a supplier, a customer and a repair shop is a main cost driver.
Pages in the county
| Part of the county | City pages |
|---|---|
| Valley and western side | San Bernardino, Redlands, Colton, Rialto, Chino, Upland, Yucaipa |
| High desert | Victorville, Apple Valley, Barstow |
| Mountains | Big Bear Lake |
| Colorado River side | Needles |
The groupings are ours, for navigation.
Distance as a line item
A trade or delivery business in this county has to price in the miles. Fuel, tires, maintenance, driver time and the cost of a vehicle breakdown are large and regular. A truck down for a week is more than a missed job: it can be missed jobs across several cities. Owners who run fleets, even a fleet of two vans, benefit from an honest estimate of the cost per mile and a plan for what happens when a vehicle is out of service. We do not offer funding for long-haul trucking, and this page is general cash-flow discussion only.
Different regions, different calendars
- Valley: year-round retail, trades, distribution and services, with competition and steady rent.
- High desert: long drives and heat, with outdoor work shaped by weather.
- Mountain resort areas: visitor-driven seasons around Big Bear Lake, with quiet shoulder periods.
- River communities: small local markets with long supply lines.
Illustration for a two-van service company
For illustration only, a two-van service company bills $45,000 a month and pays $32,000 in wages, fuel and parts. One van is out for ten days, which removes about a third of the month's billable work. Round numbers, not our terms or a typical outcome. The gap will be a few thousand dollars on paper, but it lands during a payroll week. That is the kind of squeeze working capital is used for, and the right size is the one the business can repay from recovered sales.
Terms
For owners weighing it up: we fund from $25,000 up to $5,000,000, with funding in as little as 24 hours. We consider FICO 500 and above. You send about three months of business bank statements, no tax returns are required, and the soft credit pull does not touch your score. A sole proprietor can apply the same way a corporation does.
It is a roughly five-minute form: apply here.