Months 1–2

Founder equity committed; company, Central Supplier Database and SARS registrations; CIDB Grade 1GB registered and activated within 48 working hours

Months 1–5

Yard leased and container offices established; plant, vehicles and scaffolding acquired; estimating, project and accounting systems commissioned

Months 3–12

First private residential and small commercial contracts won and delivered; every project confirmed on the Register of Projects at award

End Year 1

Gate 1: two contracts above R1m completed and certified; audited financials prepared; every project registered

Year 2

Grade 3GB registered; first public tenders submitted; guarantee facility established on small bonds; invoice discounting facility drawn

End Year 2

Gate 2: debtor days at or below plan; guarantee facility in place; no contract loss-making at final account

Year 3

Grade 4GB registered; growth equity of R6.50m drawn; site management layer appointed; estimating function professionalised. EBITDA turns positive

End Year 3

Gate 3: gross margin at or above 17.4% across all completed contracts; facility sized to the public order book

Year 4

Grade 5GB registered; scale within existing systems with no new class of works; quantity surveying function established

End Year 4

Gate 4: EBITDA positive; retention register current with all releases claimed

Year 5

Grade 6GB registered on both financial and works capability; working capital funded to a 90-day delay tolerance

End Year 5

R52.00m turnover; R3.52m EBITDA; first profit after tax at R66 000

CIDB Grade 1 registration

Any public tender, and the whole ladder above it

48 working hours at R450 per class; no track record required, so there is no reason to delay it

Central Supplier Database registration

Every public tender submission

Free; links CIPC, SARS and bank details. Required before the first bid, not after

Two contracts above R1m completed

Gate 1 and therefore Grade 3

Private work, which is not grade-limited; this is the point of the Section 4 strategy

Audited financial statements

Grade 2 and above; the financial capability test

Grade 1 requires none, so the first audit must be commissioned before it is needed

Register of Projects registration

Works capability credit on every public contract

Client’s responsibility within 21 days; the contractor’s responsibility to confirm it happened

Guarantee facility

Most public and larger private awards

Established in Year 2 on small bonds; capacity constrains the order book thereafter

Invoice discounting facility

Everything from the first public certificate

Sized to the debtor book; approved before public work is bid, not after it is won

Growth equity at Year 3

The step change in working capital as public work scales

Conversations begin in Year 2 with two years of audited financials and a clean final-account record