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Banker Intelligence Series

Know the business before you walk in.

Field guides to how specific kinds of business actually operate — the revenue mix, the seasonality, the tools they run every day and what they are honestly good at, where the cash gets stuck, and what to ask in the first meeting. Written for bankers, credit unions, CDFIs and the people who sit across from these owners.

Free to read. Nothing to fill in.

Guides are not programs, and the two lists do not match.

A guide teaches your bankers the operating layer of a vertical so they can hold a real conversation with the owner. An industry program is software your institution turns on, built to go head to head with the vertical SaaS these businesses pay for today. Most guides have no matching program, and some programs have no guide yet. See the industry programs.

Trades and field services

HVAC contractors

Three revenue streams on three different clocks, two dead months a year, and six to ten tools that do not talk to each other.

9 min · NAICS 238220 Program available Trades and field services

Landscaping and grounds care

Recurring maintenance contracts that look like a subscription business, wrapped around project work that does not.

8 min · NAICS 561730 Program available

Coming next

The list keeps growing, and you can steer it.

We are working through the verticals our partner institutions ask for most. If your book is heavy in a trade that is not here, say so — these are written from the operating layer up, and a request from an institution is the fastest way onto the list.

Request a vertical

Next up, ranked by how many of these businesses actually exist

Limited-service restaurants 270,088Full-service restaurants 258,626Offices of physicians (except mental health specialists) 204,617Religious organizations 186,801Offices of lawyers 165,491Offices of real estate agents and brokers 163,894Offices of dentists 135,665Residential remodelers 135,337Insurance agencies and brokerages 133,728Administrative management and general management consulting services 104,494Gasoline stations with convenience stores 96,002Snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars 85,140General automotive repair 84,859Beauty salons 84,176Electrical contractors and other wiring installation contractors 83,342Child day care services 82,162Lessors of residential buildings and dwellings 74,459Custom computer programming services 68,051Janitorial services 67,799Engineering services 63,233Supermarkets and other grocery (except convenience) stores 62,947Residential property managers 60,818New single-family housing construction (except for-sale builders) 60,635General freight trucking, long-distance, truckload 60,137Computer systems design services 58,113Hotels (except casino hotels) and motels 55,895

331 U.S. industries qualify as small-business-shaped: at least 1,000 establishments nationally and fewer than 50 employees each on average. That list, not a guess, is the roadmap. Counts from the U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023.

Brand these for your institution

The Banker Intelligence Series can carry your name and cover the verticals in your market. Thirty minutes to see how it works.

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