What is an equipment lease and what will it do for my business? An equipment lease is simply a long-term agreement to rent equipment. You maintain the equipment and the lease term usually does not exceed the life of the equipment. At the end of the lease term, you turn the equipment back over to the company which originally leased it to you. But in the meantime, you’ve enjoyed the use of newer equipment to grow your business without having to raise a down payment that would have been required if you tried to purchase equipment. Best of all, you are not stuck with obsolete equipment.

When the average person thinks about equipment leasing, what typically comes to mind is building cranes, dump trucks and tractor trailers. Equipment leasing is much broader than that; what can be leased has expanded considerably. For instance, leases are available for:

• Furnishings and equipment for doctors’ offices and medical facilities
• Office furnishings, including computers
• Restaurant furnishings for front and back of the house, practically turn-key
• Church furnishings
• Agricultural machinery
• Trucks and commercial vehicles
• Road-building equipment
• Construction equipment, including office trailers

Leasing is one of the fastest growing ways to acquire equipment. Companies ranging from Fortune 500 to family businesses lease a portion of their equipment. Businesses often have limited cash flow but still find themselves needing to add equipment. Let’s look more closely at the five ways leasing helps your cash flow: Read more »