AWAKE AT 3AM. THEN A $300K CASH FLOOR.
A $7.1M turnkey civil contractor had grown from $500,000 in his first year to $5M in his second, and every month the business committed money to new work faster than it collected on finished work. Two lines of credit, an SBA loan, and a personal line secured against his house were all maxed out. We built a cash flow forecast, slowed the pace of new work for two months so receivables could catch up, and overhauled billing and collections. $310,000 came in during the first 30 days, and both lines of credit and the SBA loan were paid off within 90.
Growth is what this owner was rewarded for and what almost cost him his house. Revenue went from $500,000 in the first year to $5M in the second, with $12M projected for the third, and each of those steps consumed cash before it produced any. Every shortfall was covered by borrowing until four facilities were carrying the business, one of them secured against his home, and merchant cash advances were days away from being the fifth. The work was good and the crews were good. What was missing was a forecast that showed which week ran short before it ran short, pay applications going out on a fixed date instead of whenever paperwork allowed, and somebody calling about overdue invoices on a schedule rather than in a panic.
A $7.1M CIVIL SUB. WINNING WORK, LOSING CASH.
A turnkey civil contractor doing $7.1M a year and self performing concrete, earthwork, utilities, and asphalt. The business started in March 2025 and grew hard: $500,000 in the first year, $5M in the second, and $12M projected for the third. The crews could build anything the drawings asked for. By November the owner was waking at 3am afraid he was going to lose his house.
SPENDING IT FASTER THAN HE COLLECTED IT.
Every month the business spent more than it took in. Work was won, crews mobilised, material was bought, and payment for the last job was still somewhere in a general contractor's approval queue. The account balance was never a number anybody could plan a month from.
Covering the difference meant borrowing, and then borrowing again. Two lines of credit were maxed. There was an SBA loan on top of them and a personal line of credit secured against his house, which is why 3am was the hour he was awake for. Merchant cash advances were the next thing on the list and he was days away from signing one.
Billing was the part nobody had time for. Pay applications went out when somebody got to them instead of on a fixed date each month, and overdue invoices sat there because the week was spent finding money rather than collecting the money already owed.
BILLING AND COLLECTIONS, NOT SALES.
The chain ran from billing that went out late, into receivables nobody chased on a schedule, into a cash position that couldn't fund the next mobilisation, into borrowing that made the following month worse. Growth put more weight on every link in it. At $500,000 of revenue the delay was survivable. At $5M it was four credit facilities and a house pledged behind them.
The Cash Flow Cycle System was the system that wasn't running. Nothing in the business owned the calendar between doing the work and holding the money: no schedule of values built for how the billing would be reviewed, no fixed submission date for the pay application, and no week where calling about overdue invoices was somebody's job.
Slowing the pace of new work for two months was the other half of the diagnosis, and it's the half owners resist. Every new job in this business consumed cash before it produced any, so taking on less for two months was the only way receivables could catch up to what had already been committed.
WHAT CHANGED, WEEK BY WEEK.
THE NUMBERS, NOT THE FEELING.
Both lines of credit and the SBA loan were paid off within 90 days, funded by collections and not by more borrowing. Clean books and a credible cash flow projection then got the business approved for a $750,000 loan it couldn't access before, and line of credit availability was later increased to $750,000. The business is projecting $12M in 2026 with $300,000 in the bank as a floor. The house is still his.
Total time from first call to both lines of credit and the SBA loan reading zero: about 90 days. The first $310,000 was collected inside the first 30, because collecting money already owed doesn't wait for a system to be finished.
DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?
Contractors in this position are almost always growing. Revenue is up every year, the schedule is full, and the bank balance hasn't followed any of it. There's a credit facility that was opened to cover a shortfall and not to buy equipment, and usually a second one opened to cover the first.
The signal worth taking seriously is a personal asset standing behind an operating shortfall. A house pledged against a slow month is a business telling you the money isn't moving, and winning more work doesn't fix it, because the new work is what consumes the cash first. The order of the fix counts for more than the size of it.
Every figure on this page came off this client's own books rather than a survey or an estimate, and where a number couldn't be verified it was left out. No client is identified here or anywhere else on this site, because a contractor's financial position is his own business.
See how CFOS applies to civil subcontractors specifically on theCivil Operating System page, or book a 20 minute call and bring your own numbers.
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