Funding for Oil Field Services in Oklahoma City

I was driving down I-40 the other day, passing through Yukon, and I saw a convoy of service trucks heading out west. Probably headed to the SCOOP or STACK plays. It got me thinking about a conversation I had just a couple of weeks ago with a business owner named Mark (not his real name, obviously) who runs a directional drilling support crew out of an industrial park in South OKC.

He was stressed. Not because he didn't have work—he was booked solid for three months. He was stressed because two of his trucks were down, parts were backordered and expensive, and his biggest client was sitting on a $45,000 invoice that was already 45 days old.

Here's the thing. If you work in oil field services in Oklahoma, you know this story. It’s the industry standard. You do the work today, you sweat, you bleed, you break your equipment, and the big operators pay you... eventually. Usually Net 60 or Net 90. But your crew needs to get paid on Friday. Your diesel bill is due now. And if a pump blows, you can't tell the supplier you'll pay them in three months.

That's where revenue-based funding comes in. It’s not a magic trick, and honestly, it’s not for everyone. But for guys in the oil patch dealing with cash flow gaps, it handles a problem that traditional banks just don't understand.

Why banks in OKC get cold feet

I love banks. I really do. I bank with a local one here in the city. But when it comes to lending money to oil field service companies, they tend to get skittish. Especially when the price per barrel bounces around like it has been lately.

A bank looks at your business and sees risk. They see heavy equipment that depreciates the second you drive it off the lot. They see a volatile market. So, they ask for three years of tax returns. They want a mountain of collateral. They want a personal guarantee that includes your house in Edmond or Moore. And then, after you give them all that paperwork, they start a committee review process that takes six weeks.

You don't have six weeks. If you don't get that equipment fixed by Monday, you lose the contract. Simple as that.

We see this all the time at LoanQuail. Revenue-based funding is different because we aren't looking at your tax returns from 2021 to decide if you're good for the money today. We look at your cash flow. Your revenue. The actual money moving through your business accounts right now.

So, what actually is Revenue Based Funding?

Different people call it different things. Merchant cash advance, business cash advance, purchase of future sales. But let's strip away the finance talk.

Basically, a funding company buys a portion of your future revenue for a discount. We give you a lump sum of capital today—cash you can use to make payroll, buy pipe, fix a rig, whatever. In exchange, you pay back that amount (plus a fee) over time via a small percentage of your daily or weekly sales.

It’s fast. That’s the main thing. I'm talking funding in 24 to 48 hours usually.

And it's flexible. If you have a slow week because rain washed out the access roads and nobody could drill, your payments might adjust down (depending on the specific structure). It flows with your business. It's not a rigid monthly mortgage payment that stays the same whether you made $10 or $10,000.

Common headaches we solve for OKC service companies

Living and working in Oklahoma City, we know the rhythm here. It's an energy town. Always has been. But running a service business here is tough. Here are the specific situations where I've seen this funding make the most sense:

• The "Growth" Problem: You just won a bid for a new site out in West Texas or Western Oklahoma. Great news, right? Except now you need to hire five more guys and buy two more trucks before you've seen a dime from the contract. You need capital to mobilize.
• Equipment Failures: Stuff breaks. Usually at the worst possible time. I had a client last year who needed a new transmission for a heavy-haul truck. It was $8,000 he didn't have liquid. We got him funded the next morning, truck was back on the road by Thursday.
• Payroll Gaps: This is the one that keeps owners up at night. The invoice from Chesapeake or Devon hasn't cleared yet, but payroll is due. You can't miss payroll. You just can't. Revenue-based funding bridges that gap.

Is it expensive?

I'm gonna be real with you. Yes, it costs more than a traditional SBA loan at 7%. If you have perfect credit, three years of profitable tax returns, and you can wait two months for the money, go to a bank. Seriously. I'll even recommend a few good ones in OKC.

But if you need the money now—like, this week—and you're trading future income for immediate liquidity to save a contract worth ten times the cost of the capital? Then the cost is just a line item. It's the cost of doing business. It's the cost of diesel. It's the cost of not losing the job.

We had a guy come to us recently who operates a roustabout crew. He did the math. The funding cost him a certain percentage, but having the cash allowed him to take a job that netted him $40k profit. Without the funding, he would have had to pass on the job. No brainer.

The Oklahoma City Context

Look, the economy here is resilient. We survived the bust in the 80s, the drop in 2014, and the weirdness of 2020. OKC is booming in a lot of ways. But the oil field is still the heartbeat for a lot of the industrial sector. From the machine shops on the south side to the corporate offices downtown, everyone is connected to it.

Because we focus on this area, we understand that just because your revenue dipped last month doesn't mean your business is failing. It might just mean the weather was bad, or a rig moved. We get the context. Algorithms don't always get that.

How to know if you qualify

Honestly, it's pretty straightforward. We aren't looking for perfect credit scores. We know that in the oil patch, personal credit can take a hit during the lean years.

Generally, if you've been in business for at least 6 months and you're generating consistent monthly revenue (usually over $10k or $15k a month), there’s a good chance we can help. We need to see business bank statements. That's the main thing. We want to see that cash is flowing, even if it's lumpy.

If you're sitting there staring at a broken piece of equipment or worrying about making payroll this Friday, stop stressing and just reach out. Check your eligibility with us at LoanQuail. It doesn't cost anything to look, and it won't wreck your credit score just to see what the numbers look like.

Give us a shout. We'll look at your situation—your actual situation, not just a credit score number—and see if we can get you the capital you need to keep the bit turning to the right.