Ledgecrest Lending takes the request by phone or the request form, and funding partners decide whether to offer inventory financing, a line of credit, equipment financing, working capital or a merchant cash advance.
Madison County, KY store types by share of small employers (CBP 2023), with invented cases for an e-bike order paid down bike by bike, pianos and amplifiers for a music store, and a closeout lot priced on a credit line, a four-month term and an advance, plus retail counts from Nonemployer Statistics 2024 and ZBP 2023.
At a glance
- Retail trade, Madison County, KY
294 employer establishments (CBP 2023)
- Madison County, KY retailers under 5 employees
128, or 43.5% (CBP 2023)
- Retail employers at a ZIP 40475 address
221 (ZBP 2023)
- Retailers with no paid employees, Madison County, KY
649 (Nonemployer Statistics 2024)
Small-staff stores in Madison County, KY: size shares by store type, CBP 2023
A store owner in Madison County, KY shares the retail row of County Business Patterns 2023 with 293 other employer establishments; 128 of the 294 (43.5%) had a staff of fewer than five. That share moves a good deal from one kind of store to the next.
| Store type | Employer establishments | Fewer than 5 employees | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automobile dealers, NAICS 4411 | 20 | 7 | 35.0% |
| Grocery and convenience stores, NAICS 4451 | 11 | 6 | 54.5% |
| Gasoline stations, NAICS 4471 | 53 | 24 | 45.3% |
| Clothing and clothing accessories stores, NAICS 448 | 19 | 8 | 42.1% |
| Furniture and home furnishings stores, NAICS 442 | 9 | 6 | 66.7% |
| Building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers, NAICS 444 | 26 | 9 | 34.6% |
| Health and personal care stores, NAICS 4461 | 27 | 8 | 29.6% |
| Other miscellaneous store retailers, NAICS 4539 | 21 | 14 | 66.7% |
Two of the selected types, furniture and home furnishings stores and other miscellaneous store retailers, had two in three establishments under five employees (66.7% each), while health and personal care stores had 29.6%. The table leaves out general merchandise stores, whose small-store count is not published at this level, and it is not a ranking of every retail code.
A store with three people on the floor and a store with thirty can both ask about funding; the size counts only show how the county's retail employers are spread. All codes together are on the Richmond, KY page.
An e-bike order for a Richmond, KY bicycle shop, paid down as each bike sells
Illustration only, invented figures: a Richmond, KY bicycle shop orders 12 e-bikes at $2,140.00 each, $25,680.00 at cost, through inventory financing at a 13.2% annual rate. Each month the shop pays interest on the balance it started with and pays down the cost of every bike it sold.
| Month | Balance at the start | Interest for the month | Bikes sold | Paid down | Balance at the end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $25,680.00 | $282.48 | 3 | $6,420.00 | $19,260.00 |
| 2 | $19,260.00 | $211.86 | 4 | $8,560.00 | $10,700.00 |
| 3 | $10,700.00 | $117.70 | 3 | $6,420.00 | $4,280.00 |
| 4 | $4,280.00 | $47.08 | 2 | $4,280.00 | $0.00 |
Across the four invented months the order costs $659.12 of interest, because every sale takes $2,140.00 off the balance before the next month's interest is figured.
If bikes sell at a lower pace than in this invented table, the balance stays higher for longer and the interest grows; some inventory agreements also set a date by which unsold units must be paid off, which is worth asking about before ordering.
Pianos and amplifiers for a Madison County, KY music store on equipment financing
Illustration only, invented figures: a Madison County, KY music store prices two upright pianos for its lesson rooms at $15,800.00 and a set of amplifiers and stage keyboards at $4,960.00, $20,760.00 together.
With equipment financing at a 10.75% annual rate for 42 months, the store's invented monthly bill would be $595.28. The 42 payments total $25,001.76 in this invented case, which puts $4,241.76 of interest on top of the price.
Pianos and amplifiers the store keeps for its own lessons are equipment. Instruments it buys to sell are stock, and stock suits inventory financing or a line of credit, so the quote should keep the two kinds of goods on separate lines.
A closeout lot at a discount: a credit line draw or a four-month term for a Richmond, KY variety store
Illustration only, invented figures: a Richmond, KY variety store is offered a closeout lot of housewares with a list value of $16,400.00 at 35% off, so it pays $10,660.00 and keeps the $5,740.00 difference as margin when the goods sell. Each option in this invented comparison finances the discounted $10,660.00, the amount the store actually pays.
| Option | How it is paid | Cost of the money |
|---|---|---|
| Line of credit draw, 13.35% annual rate | Cleared after 75 days as the lot sells | $292.42 |
| Working capital, 4 months at 14.35% | Four payments of $2,745.15 | $320.60 |
| Merchant cash advance, 1.22 factor | A share of each day's card sales | $2,345.20 |
In this invented example the line of credit draw costs $28.18 less than the four-month term, as long as the lot sells within the 75 days. The invented merchant cash advance costs the most of the three here, $2,345.20, and it is not a loan: the provider buys part of future card sales.
The discount is what makes the lot worth carrying, so the cost of the money has to stay well under the margin the discount creates.
Madison County, KY retailers without paid employees, and the ZIP 40475 store count
Nonemployer Statistics, which counts businesses with no paid employees, listed 649 retail businesses of that kind in Madison County, KY for 2024, with $24.7 million of receipts between them. That receipts figure is a total across all of them and is not the sales of a typical shop.
In ZIP 40475 the 2023 ZIP Code Business Patterns file shows 221 retail employers, and 42.5% of those stores kept fewer than five people on payroll.
An owner-run shop can send the same request as a store with a staff, and funding partners may weigh its deposits and its time in business before answering. Retail is one of several trades on the industries page.
By Ledgecrest Lending ยท Updated
