You’re looking at the wrong sources for funding. That’s your first problem. Your second problem is yet to be told, I would need to review your business plan see if it has all the elements that are required to actually get consideration.

My first question is how much of your own funds do you have available to put towards the business?

There’s both good and bad news here. The bad news is that what you’re finding - can’t get a loan to provide general capital for a startup landscaping company - is typical. The good news is that landscaping is inexpensive to get into and there are others routes to try. Bootstrapping is common; save up to buy a lawnmower and edger, use those to provide service to your first few clients then add equipment and marketing as you generate money from them. If you have good personal credit, equipment loans are not difficult to obtain as there’s some collateral.

Do you have experience in landscaping or managing a similar business? How much funding were you thinking you needed?

The most common ways to fund a start-up business is self-funding, venture funding, or a business loan.

In your case, venture funding would involve raising money from angel investors such as family and friends.

You could raise all or some of the total project cost.

However, in exchange for the money, angels will want a portion of ownership in the company, and, therefore, a share of profits.

If you don’t want to give up ownership and share profits, you could attempt to obtain a bank loan.

Issue here is meeting lender’s criteria. This includes loan amount, collateral, net worth, ownership/management experience, and so forth.

Unless you have long standing relationship with local bank or credit union, SBA loan program may be your best bet.

Here, you might qualify for micro-loan (less than $50K). However, even a micro loan has requirements for collateral and personal guarantee.

Collateral is a borrower’s pledge of specific asset to a lender to secure repayment of a loan.

I work with 250 lenders i can possibly explore maybe getting you a line of credit to get you started. Nothing guaranteed though if you interested message me a good email.

You can restructure your business plan to make it a marketing service provider, specializing in landscaping clients. You’ll be your first client and If you need proven track record of marketing data I can help you with that. I’m a marketing consultant. I can even help set up your first necessary campaigns. The other option looks like you’d be better off financing the equipment.