Skybank Business Loans, a small-business funding service in Wausau, Wisconsin, explains bar business loans for Marathon County taverns and bar-restaurants: remodels, cooler and tap equipment, stock, buying an existing bar, and how a liquor license fits into a request. Marathon County had 63 bars with employees in 2023 (CBP).
At a glance
- Bars with employees, Marathon County, WI
63 (CBP 2023)
- Bar employees
484 (CBP 2023)
- Bars with fewer than five employees
24 (CBP 2023)
Tavern employers, staff and wages in Marathon County, WI
Bar business loans in Marathon County serve a sizable group of employers. The county had 63 drinking places with employees in 2023, employing 484 people and paying $6.7 million in wages (CBP, NAICS 7224). 24 of them had fewer than five employees, and 12 had an address in ZIP 54403 (ZBP 2023).
Nonemployer Statistics counted 47 drinking places without paid employees in the county in 2024, with $4.9 million in receipts; that is a separate program with its own year. By our arithmetic, bars with employees paid about $13,893 per employee, a figure that reflects part-time shifts.
A loan for a bar and restaurant in Wausau, WI
A bar that also runs a kitchen carries both sets of costs: food and liquor stock, kitchen equipment, coolers and taps. A loan for a bar and restaurant is read on combined sales, so separate food and bar sales on the profit and loss statement if the point-of-sale system can. The restaurant loans page covers the kitchen side.
Business loans for bars in Wausau, WI
Business loans for bars cover the same ground as for any business: remodels, equipment, stock and purchases. Remodels and purchases suit a term loan; coolers, draft systems, ice machines and point-of-sale terminals suit equipment financing; liquor and beer stock bought ahead of busy weeks suits inventory financing or a line of credit.
Bar business financing options in Marathon County, WI
- Term loan for a remodel or a purchase
- Equipment financing for coolers, taps and ice machines
- A line of credit for stock and payroll swings
- Inventory financing for a large stock order
- A merchant cash advance, which is not a loan, priced against the alternatives
Liquor licenses and loans for Marathon County, WI bars
A liquor license is issued by the municipality and comes with conditions on who may hold it and how it transfers. Whether a license can be pledged as security, and how it moves when a bar is sold, are legal questions to confirm with the municipal clerk and a lawyer before any purchase.
For a funding request, what matters is that the license is current and that the business plan does not depend on a license the buyer has not yet secured.
Can you finance a liquor license if you run a Wausau, WI business?
A license can be part of a purchase rather than something financed on its own. In a tavern purchase, the price may include the business, its equipment and its goodwill, and the license transfer runs alongside the sale under the municipality's process. Ask the partner how it treats the license in a purchase, and ask the clerk about timing before you set a closing date.
Remodeling a Wausau, WI tavern: an example
Illustration only, invented figures: a tavern owner borrows $60,000 for a new bar top, coolers and restrooms over 60 months at an assumed annual rate of 11%. In this invented example, the payment comes to about $1,305 a month, with about $18,273 in total interest.
In this invented example, the owner compares $1,305 a month with the bar's average monthly profit from the last year of statements before signing.
Taking over a tavern someone else built in Marathon County, WI
Buying a bar means reading the seller's records closely: three years of tax returns, monthly sales, pour costs, the lease and its assignment clause, the equipment list, and any outstanding liens. Partners may ask for a down payment and for the buyer's experience running a bar or restaurant.
A small business loan for a bar near Wausau, WI
A small business loan for a bar is reviewed on deposits, profit, existing debts and the lease. 24 of Marathon County's 63 bars with employees had fewer than five on staff in 2023 (CBP), so an owner who also works behind the bar sends the same request as anyone else. Keep business and personal accounts apart; it makes the deposits readable.
Stock and wages between deliveries at a Wausau, WI tavern
Beer, wine and liquor arrive by delivery and are paid for on the distributor's terms, while wages go out every pay period. When a large stock order and a payroll land in the same week, a small line of credit drawn for the gap and repaid from the next weeks' sales keeps the account from running thin. A partner reading that request wants to see the bar's weekly deposit pattern and existing payments.
Records for a bar funding request
- Bank statements, three to six months
- The latest filed tax return
- Profit and loss statement with food, liquor and labor costs
- The lease and its renewal terms
- The current liquor license
- Equipment quotes or the seller's equipment list
See also cafe business loans, the industries list, and the Wausau, WI figures.
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