Part 8 of 8 · Execute
Getting Started in Polokwane: Compliance, Funding and the First Ninety Days
Customer commitment before capital expenditure. Almost every failed business in this guide fails in the same way, and the sequence below is designed to prevent it.
Section 7The compliance baseline
Whatever you choose, these apply. Assemble them before trading, not after your first order.
| Requirement | Why it matters here |
|---|---|
| CIPC company registration | The entry point to everything else. Sole proprietorships are excluded from most institutional and mine procurement |
| SARS tax compliance status PIN | Required for every public sector order and most corporate vendor registrations. It expires — diarise renewal |
| Central Supplier Database registration | Mandatory for supplying any organ of state. Your MAAA number must appear on every invoice or it will not be processed |
| B-BBEE affidavit or certificate | An exempt micro-enterprise affidavit is free and sufficient below R10m turnover. It affects scoring on most tenders |
| Municipal business licence and land use rights | Polokwane Municipality requires a licence for food, health and certain trades. Confirm zoning before signing any lease |
| UIF and Compensation Fund registration | Required the moment you employ anyone, and the letter of good standing is a precondition of most contracts |
| Sector-specific licensing | CIDB for construction, PSIRA for security, HPCSA for health, SETA accreditation for training, SARS licensing for customs |
Section 8Where to find funding locally
- SEDFA — the merged sefa, Seda and CBDA entity, formed on 1 October 2024 — provides direct lending from roughly R50,000 to R15 million, plus business development support and a credit guarantee scheme for viable businesses that lack collateral. This is the first stop for most of the businesses in this guide.
- The Limpopo Economic Development Agency and the provincial department of economic development support enterprise development and investment facilitation in the province.
- The dtic incentive schemes, particularly the Agro-Processing Support Scheme with grants reported in the region of 20 to 30 per cent, which materially changes the capital case for entries 9, 10 and 12.
- Mine enterprise and supplier development programmes, which are budgeted, measured and actively looking for local suppliers. For entries 5, 6, 7 and 8 this is often the single best funding and customer route simultaneously.
- Commercial banks and asset finance, appropriate where the asset secures itself — vehicles, workshop equipment, refrigeration plant and solar installations.
- Invoice discounting and purchase order funding, the correct instruments for the procurement-led businesses in Group A, because they resolve the 60 to 120 day payment problem without adding permanent debt.
Section 9The first ninety days
| Period | What you do |
|---|---|
| Days 1–15 | Run the ten-call test on your two shortlisted businesses. Do not register anything yet. The objective is to eliminate one of the two on evidence |
| Days 16–30 | Register the company, apply for tax compliance status, register on the CSD, and obtain the B-BBEE affidavit. Confirm zoning and licensing for any premises |
| Days 31–50 | Build a monthly cash flow for eighteen months. Calculate the working capital requirement explicitly. Establish whether you can survive the gap between first cost and first payment |
| Days 51–70 | Secure the first customer commitment in writing — a contract, a memorandum of understanding, an order or an accreditation. Do this before spending on premises or equipment |
| Days 71–90 | Arrange funding against that commitment, complete sector licensing, and only then commit to premises, stock or plant |
ClosingStart a business today
Polokwane rewards a specific kind of business: unglamorous, business-to-business, attached to an industry that is already spending, and solving a problem that a Gauteng supplier can only solve slowly. It punishes businesses built on discretionary consumer spend, on competing with national chains, or on the assumption that a city of this size behaves like a small Johannesburg.
The most valuable thing you can do with this guide is ignore the entries that flatter your preferences and look hard at the ones that match your capital, your runway and your existing relationships. Number six is a poor business for someone who is not an artisan. Number seventeen is a poor business for someone who cannot wait fourteen months. Number twenty is available to almost anyone with a laptop and the discipline to specialise.
Then make the ten calls. Everything in this document is a hypothesis until somebody who would actually pay you confirms it.
