SBA loans for janitorial and commercial cleaning companies

What SBA lenders approved for cleaning companies

Janitorial services (NAICS 561720: office, building and facility cleaning) took 1,558 SBA 7(a) loans from FY2024 through June 2026, worth $360,717,700, from 193 lenders. This is a small-loan industry. The median loan of $138,250 sits below the national median of $150,300, the middle half ran from $50,000 to $250,000, and the 90th percentile was $500,000. Only 52 loans, 3.3%, reached $1 million.

Small loans cost more under SBA's structure. Variable 7(a) rates are capped at the base rate plus 6% from $50,001 to $250,000 and plus 6.5% at $50,000 or less, and most janitorial loans fall in those bands. The median rate at approval was 10.5%, above the national 10.25%, with the middle half from 9.75% to 11.5%. Size alone does not explain the gap over the national figure, because the national median loan sits in the same cap band. Where a lender prices inside the cap reflects its view of the credit, and a cleaning company offers little hard collateral.

Why so much of it is SBA Express

More than a third of janitorial loans were SBA Express, which goes up to $500,000 with a 50% guaranty and runs on the lender's own credit process. The need usually fits: a floor machine fleet, vans, or working capital to take on a new building. Because SBA guarantees only half of an Express loan, against 85% of a standard 7(a) of $150,000 or less and 75% above that, lenders keep more of the risk and often want a stronger file than the loan size suggests.

Standard 7(a) is the better fit for anything larger or longer: buying a competitor, refinancing debt, or a loan where the collateral is thin and the guaranty matters to the lender's decision. See SBA 7(a) vs SBA Express.

What the lender is really lending against

A cleaning company's equipment is worth little at auction, and it seldom owns its premises. The value is in the recurring contracts and the ability to staff them. A lender reading a janitorial file works through the contract book the way a real estate lender works through a rent roll.

Labor is the other half. Wages are usually the largest cost, turnover is high, and how the workforce is classified matters: crews paid as independent contractors when they work like employees expose the business to back taxes and penalties a lender will not want to finance. Workers' compensation claims history, bonding and liability insurance come up in every file. See customer concentration.

Buying a cleaning company

Purchases were 155 loans at a median of $369,700 and 9.75%, 9.9% of janitorial lending and close to the national 10.4%. A buyer is paying mostly for contracts and relationships, so the purchase is almost all goodwill. Where the amount financed, less appraised real estate and equipment, exceeds $250,000, SBA requires an independent business valuation, and the loan for the purchase cannot exceed it.

• An equity injection of at least 10% of total project costs; a seller note counts toward half of it only if it is on full standby for the life of the SBA loan.
• SBA prohibits an earnout, so a buyer worried about losing customers after closing cannot tie part of the price to retention. A seller note that is not on standby is allowed, but it counts as debt in the coverage test. See earnout vs seller note.
• The seller may consult for up to 12 months, or up to 24 months under SOP 50 10 8.1 from 1 October 2026, and in a relationship business that time is best spent introducing the buyer to every major customer.
• Contracts that need consent to assign should be identified in diligence. See change-of-control consents.
• From 1 October 2026, SBA requires financial due diligence on every change of ownership, and a change of ownership must show 1.25x debt service coverage on historical results.

More on the deal is in financing a janitorial company acquisition.

In a cleaning company purchase, the lender's first question is how many of the contracts the buyer will still hold a year after closing.

Franchises, start-ups and working capital

Start-ups were 18.8% of loans and franchises 19.5%. Commercial cleaning franchise systems commonly sell a territory with an initial book of accounts, and lenders look at how that franchisor's units have performed and whether the accounts come with any assurance. SBA requires at least 10% of total project costs as equity for a start-up.

The recurring need in this industry is working capital: payroll goes out every week while customers pay on invoice terms. A growing company that wins a large building has to fund weeks of labor before the first payment arrives. A line of credit sized to receivables usually fits that better than a term loan. See lines of credit for commercial cleaning companies.

Preparing a janitorial file

The SBA list: 2–3 years of business tax returns, a P&L and balance sheet with a year-to-date P&L through last month-end, a debt schedule with copies of notes being refinanced, and personal tax returns and a personal financial statement for each owner of 20% or more, with the owner's resume for Form 1919.

Add a customer list with monthly billing by customer, the contracts themselves with their terms and cancellation clauses, a receivables aging, payroll registers, the workers' compensation policy and claims history, and an equipment and vehicle list. Transparent builds the file into a full lender package — financing model, lender presentation, blind teaser and underwriting memo — in a day once the documents are in, and takes it to the lenders in its book that write SBA 7(a) and 504, 278 of them. On SBA loans the lender pays Transparent, not the borrower. See the package.