Most contractors know they need a bond to win certain jobs. Fewer understand why their bonding capacity keeps hitting a ceiling, and almost nobody talks about what to do about it before they’re standing in front of a surety broker asking for more.

New data from Mobilization Funding’s 2026 Construction Growth and Cash Flow Report, which surveyed 250 senior decision-makers at US commercial construction firms, found that bonding capacity ranked as a top-three growth constraint, trailing only equipment access and cash flow. Surety and bonding support ranked as the second most valued growth partner among contractors looking to scale. That tells us that contractors want more bonded work, and they know they need help getting there. However, the path forward starts long before a surety broker is ever involved.

Having worked in middle-market banking before joining the construction finance world, I’ve noticed that growing your bonding capacity isn’t about how many bonds you can chase. You have to build the underlying business that makes bonds possible in the first place. 

What a Surety Is Actually Evaluating

A bond is not a loan, and a surety company is not a lender. What a surety is doing, in plain terms, is agreeing to guarantee your performance on a project. In exchange, they’ll hold you personally responsible, through an indemnity agreement, if that performance falls short. That indemnity typically extends to your personal assets and the entire business.

While they evaluate you based on factors like credit score and accounts receivable, ultimately sureties care about whether you can perform. They want to see your track record on similar work, your systems for forecasting and tracking costs, your history of paying subs and suppliers on time, and evidence that you understand the type of job you’re bidding.

They also want to see working capital, and this is where most contractors run into trouble.

The Working Capital Formula 

Sureties use a formula to determine bonding capacity, and working capital is a primary variable. A common benchmark is 20 times a contractor’s available liquidity. That liquidity can come from cash on hand, availability on lines of credit, or other liquid assets. The number sounds large because the exposure is large.

Banks compound this problem in a way most contractors don’t fully appreciate. When a bank looks at your borrowing base for a line of credit, they ask which of your accounts receivable come from bonded jobs. The answer to that question effectively removes those receivables from your collateral. The surety is in first position on bonded receivables, which means the bank will not lend against them. You’re doing the work, bearing the costs, and earning no additional liquidity from it, at least through a traditional lending structure.

What to Do Before You Call a Surety Broker

The best time to develop a surety relationship is before you need a bond for a specific job. That’s not how most contractors approach it, but it’s the approach that produces the best outcomes.

When you do meet with a surety broker, come prepared to tell a clear story about your business. That means articulating the types of projects you do well, the types you don’t pursue, your systems for tracking job costs against estimates, and your process for paying down the payment chain on time. Sureties are looking for self-awareness and documentation. Show them where you’ve struggled and what you changed as a result. That kind of transparency builds more credibility than a clean presentation that glosses over hard years.

Ask the broker the same kind of questions you would ask any professional vetting you. Have they placed companies similar to yours before? What were the constraints the surety placed on those programs, and how did the contractor work through them? If you’re growth-oriented, ask for a real example of how a company grew its bonding capacity over time. A good broker should be able to walk you through that story in specifics.

Managing Risk on the Jobs You Win

Getting bonded is only the beginning of the risk conversation. The indemnity agreement means the surety has real recourse against you personally if a job fails. That’s not a reason to avoid bonded work, but it should make you selective about which bonded work you pursue.

The practical question before accepting a bonded project is whether you’ve done this kind of work before. Not whether you are capable of learning it, but whether you have a team, a cost history, and a production track record on this type of job in this kind of environment. Taking on a bonded project that is both the largest job you have ever bid and the first time you’ve worked in a new delivery method or geographic market compounds risk in ways that are hard to recover from.

Bonded work offers real advantages, including less competition at certain project sizes, stronger credibility with general contractors and owners, and access to project types that non-bonded contractors simply can’t reach. The 2026 report data reflects the fact that the opportunity is there, and contractors want to capture it.

That starts with being intentional about building the financial foundation underneath the business nurturing lending relationships before they’re under pressure. Ultimately, increasing your bonding capacity reflects the decisions you made in the years before you needed it.