Every June, for some industries, a familiar pattern emerges. Phones seem to ring less often. Invoices start to stretch. Decision-makers seemingly vanish, their joyful “out of office” replies taking their place.
During the summer, B2B companies may notice a slump in sales that stretches beyond just a few months, resulting in major long-term consequences and forcing an increased reliance on cash.
For those running with tighter belts, this slump is a structural threat to working capital. Gateway Commercial Finance, an invoice factoring company, analyzed data from the Federal Reserve, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and K-12 Dive to understand this cash flow problem and develop solutions for the industries hit hardest.
Understanding the summer cash flow problem
Cash flow has officially become one of the top worries among American business owners. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Index, a quarterly survey conducted by Ipsos, found that the share of owners who feel very comfortable with their cash flow dropped to 20% in early 2026, an 11-point decline in just two quarters. The Chamber’s most recent report, released in July 2026, showed that unease about cash flow continued to build even as owners rated their overall business health as stable.
The Federal Reserve’s 2025 Report on Employer Firms adds additional context. It notes that 51% of small employer firms cited uneven cash flows as a major financial challenge over a 12-month period, and 56% noted struggling to cover operating expenses. Seasonality can increase that pressure. Revenue slumps for many businesses in the summer, but rent, insurance, loan payments, and more don’t take time off.
The 6 industries most affected by summer cash flow trends
This issue isn’t evenly felt across all businesses. Federal data shows just how uneven it is: research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago analyzing Bureau of Labor Statistics employment figures found that construction activity swings by nearly 20 percentage points over the course of a year, while sectors like retail vary by less than half that. Drawing on this data and its own experience working with seasonal businesses, we identified six industries that experience either surges or slumps in revenue during the summer:
While not every industry is harmed by constrained cash flows in the warmer months, preparing is important even when revenues are expected to be up. Anticipated seasonality is an important metric when planning long-range, which is why knowing the specific impacts is critical.
Education-adjacent services
Businesses related to the education sector live and die by a calendar. Tutoring centers, test preparation companies, and school transportation contractors all see a steep revenue dropoff when the final school bell rings in June. As students step away for their summer breaks, these businesses see a seasonal dip in revenues.
Depending on institutional budgets also adds another layer of risk. Federal data analyzed by K-12 Dive showed that 78% of public schools offered some form of tutoring in late 2024, but school contracts either paused or reset over the summer.
Successful operators don’t have to accept the inevitable, though. They can convert the summer slump into a product. By selling structured summer school programs, enrichment camps, or refresher courses, it’s possible for some businesses to keep at least a little money flowing in.
Construction
Summer is construction’s busiest season. While this might seem like a good problem to have there are still major ramifications to account for. Activity peaks and payroll and material costs surge, but payment often lags.
When payment disagreements escalate, the stakes are enormous. The 2025 Global Construction Disputes Report from design and engineering consultancy Arcadis found that the average US construction dispute is worth $60.1 million and takes roughly a year to resolve in North America. For a contractor waiting on contested invoices during peak season, that timeline can be brutal for working capital.
Top contractors can navigate around these problems by front-loading contracts with mobilization payments and billing progressively instead of at completion. Factoring receivables is also another strategy to convert slow-paying invoices into immediate working capital to meet payroll and material needs.
Staffing agencies
Staffing firms arguably face one of the most challenging timing mismatches. Workers are usually paid weekly or biweekly, but the company is forced to wait 30, 60, or 90 days for clients to pay invoices. Summer breaks can widen this gap because client decision-makers go on vacation, causing hiring approvals to stall and payments to slip. In an effort to counteract the slump, payroll funding and invoice factoring have become standard tools for ensuring smooth cash flow regardless of when clients pay.
Manufacturing (B2B / industrial)
During the summer, industrial clients often schedule plant shutdowns, trim orders, and delay purchasing decisions until their budgets refresh in the fall. However, manufacturers still need to buy raw materials and build inventory ahead of that surge.
The pattern is big enough to show up in national statistics: the Federal Reserve’s industrial production reports regularly note that manufacturers, particularly automakers, idle production lines in June, July, and August for maintenance and retooling. Holding cash reserves through those months becomes a necessity. Disciplined manufacturers can sweep peak-season cash into interest-bearing money market reserves to fund the downturn, while also factoring outstanding B2B invoices to keep production lines moving.
Professional services (B2B consulting, legal, and accounting)
Consulting firms, corporate law practices, and accounting shops all make money by selling decisions. However, decisions often stop being made in July and August when executives and clients are all on vacation. This can cause approvals to stall, pipelines to freeze, and any project-based revenue to pause.
One solution: Firms can focus on restructuring how they bill, shifting clients from project-based invoices to monthly retainers that are paid in advance. Additionally, they can use these quiet months to focus on business development so that the pipeline can stay full when business resumes.
Landscaping and outdoor services
Finally, landscaping’s summer problem seems counterintuitive. The season itself provides peak revenue. Unfortunately, it’s also peak cash consumption.
Crews, fuel, and equipment must all be paid for weeks before cash from a client arrives, and the spring ramp-up requires heavy capital investment. This is also the time when reserves are at their lowest. Operators should aim to factor commercial invoices to fund payroll during this period and push residential clients onto structured payment plans that can help level out revenue.
The 4 strategies that work across every industry
Across all six sectors, the same trends keep appearing. There are four main choices a business can make to help keep summer more profitable.
- Accelerated receivables: Aim to invoice early, offer early-pay incentives, or factor outstanding invoices to compress days sales outstanding.
- Seasonal financing: Establish lines of credit or working capital loans during peak revenue periods, not during the cash crisis.
- Revenue diversification: Add a counter-seasonal service line to reduce single-cycle dependency.
- Pre-billing and retainer structures: Shift clients to annual contracts or monthly retainers billed in advance, converting lumpy project revenue into predictable monthly cash.
There’s no reason to sit back and allow historic trends to define your business. By using these four strategies, you can reduce the cash flow struggles that most businesses face in summer.
The cash flow takeaway
The summer cash crunch is brutal but also predictable. Unlike a recession or the loss of a major customer, the midyear season dip will always arrive on schedule. This means it can be modeled out, financed, and planned for well in advance.
Companies can work around this dip by locking in credit during the strong months, compressing receivables where possible, diversifying product offerings, and billing ahead of the work. In an environment where cash flow is now among the most reported problems businesses are facing, it pays to plan ahead.
This story was produced by Gateway Commercial Finance and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
