Contents

Every page in this guide, with its sections.

Start here

1. Start here
   • Read this first
   • Where to start
   • What is in here
   • The short version of the whole toolkit
   • Licence
2. How to use this toolkit
   • What this toolkit is
   • Choose your path
   • How to use the AI prompts
   • How the legal parts are written
   • How to read the facts in this toolkit
   • What this toolkit deliberately leaves out
   • Common mistakes this toolkit is trying to prevent
   • Making the files easier to use
   • If something here is wrong
3. How this was made and how to check it
   • This toolkit was generated by AI
   • How it was made
   • What was verified, and what was not
   • Known limitations
   • What this is not
   • How to check anything in this toolkit
   • When to pay a human instead
   • Corrections log
   • If you share this toolkit
4. What has changed
   • Change 1: shortcut path for people whose name is already decided
   • Change 2: mood and materials step
   • Change 3: missing entry document in the Core folder (fix)
   • Change 4: you are the business, plus three corrections
   • Change 5: closing as a sole proprietor
   • What you need to paste into Drive
   • Known structural differences between the two copies
   • How to keep the two copies in sync

Core: applies to everyone

1. Core: start here
   • The honest truth first
   • Order to do things
   • What is in this toolkit
   • How to use the AI prompts
   • If the legal words are hard
   • About the numbers in this toolkit
2. Register: what you actually need
   • Two ways to trade
   • Which one should you choose
   • How to register a company yourself
   • Choosing the name
   • Business bank account
   • POPIA: register your information officer
   • B-BBEE affidavit: free, do not pay for it
   • Things you can skip at the start
   • Your registration checklist
3. Tax and SARS
   • The short version
   • What SARS wants from a sole proprietor
   • What SARS wants from a company
   • How to pay little or no tax, legally
   • VAT: probably not yet
   • Records
   • Your tax year calendar
   • Two things that are not legal
4. What you need to sell things
   • The general rule
   • If you sell food
   • If you sell beauty or body treatments
   • If you sell alcohol
   • If you sell medicines, supplements, or health products
   • If you sell second-hand goods
   • If you sell online
   • If you import anything
   • If you sell to government
   • If you provide professional or regulated services
   • If none of the above applies
   • Rules that apply to everyone selling anything
   • Your licence checklist
5. Vehicles and your business
   • If you are a sole proprietor
   • If you have a registered company
   • The decision most people get wrong
   • The logbook
   • Other things to check
6. Running a Pty Ltd
   • What changes the moment you have a company
   • Your annual duties, in order of how often they are missed
   • What happens if you stop filing
   • When the company does not protect you
   • Records the company must keep
   • Employees, including yourself
   • What happens if you are not there
   • Closing a company properly
   • Your Pty Ltd annual checklist
7. Paying yourself from a Pty Ltd
   • The problem this file solves
   • Option 1: salary
   • Option 2: dividend
   • Option 3: loan account
   • Which to use
   • The rules that prevent all of this
8. Adding new lines of business
   • Can one company trade in more than one thing
   • Registered name and trading names
   • Tax: one company, several activities
   • Should the new line be a separate company
   • Records when you have more than one line
   • Checklist before you add a line
9. Working from home and meeting safely
   • The short version
   • Part 1: what the rules allow when you work from home
   • Part 2: doing business by phone, WhatsApp and voice note
   • Part 3: money, when you never see the customer
   • Part 4: meeting a customer to inspect or test drive
   • Part 5: if something goes wrong
   • Your checklist
10. You are the business
    • Part 1: if you cannot work
    • Part 2: when a customer does not pay
    • Part 3: if something happens to you
    • Checklist
11. Closing as a sole proprietor
    • What closing means for a sole proprietor
    • Tell SARS
    • If you had staff
    • Licences and registrations
    • Your bank account
    • Debts: yours before, yours after
    • Records: keep them for five years
    • Your closing checklist

Branding and marketing

1. Already have your name (shortcut)
   • The short answer
   • Three checks still worth doing
   • If the name is registered but you are having second thoughts
   • The rule that applies to you because the name is registered
   • Do you need a tagline?
   • Modified Prompt 2: competitor scan, visual only
   • Where to go next
2. Branding prompts
   • Read this before you start: why most AI branding looks the same
   • What the AI cannot do, and what you must do yourself
   • How the loop works
   • Prompt 0: the business brief
   • Prompt 1: what my business actually is
   • Prompt 2: what my competitors already look like
   • Prompt 3: the name
   • Prompt 4: the tagline
   • Prompt 5: logo direction
   • Prompt 6: make the logo
   • Prompt 7: colours and type
   • Prompt 8: how my business looks in photographs
   • Prompt 9: how my business speaks
   • Prompt 10: the about paragraph
   • Prompt 11: put it all together
   • A worked example
   • Next
3. Mood and materials (use after Prompt 4)
   • Why this step exists
   • Before you start: what the research actually says about colour
   • Prompt A: the visual territory
   • Prompt B: materials and finishes
   • What the sun does to signage in South Africa
   • The cheap version is usually fine
   • Where this fits
   • Checklist
4. Brand applications and polish
   • Part 1: the files you must have
   • Part 2: print basics that save money
   • Part 3: where the brand actually gets used
   • Part 4: the quality tests
   • Part 5: the critique prompt
   • Part 6: what to pay for and what to do yourself
   • Part 7: your brand folder
   • The one rule
5. Marketing prompts
   • Where South African small businesses actually get customers
   • Do these two things first, before any content
   • Prompt 1: content pillars
   • Prompt 2: a month of posts
   • Prompt 3: WhatsApp messages you send every week
   • Prompt 4: your Google Business Profile description
   • Prompt 5: answering the questions that stop a sale
   • Making the images
   • What to ignore in your first year
   • The one metric that matters

Paperwork and templates

1. Documents and templates
   • Invoice numbering
   • If you are a Pty Ltd: the header line that is required by law
   • Template 1: quotation
   • Template 2: invoice if you are NOT registered for VAT
   • Template 3: invoice if you ARE registered for VAT
   • Template 4: receipt
   • Template 5: privacy notice (POPIA)
   • Template 6: cash book
   • Template 7: vehicle logbook
   • Prompts to generate the rest
   • Documents you probably do not need yet
2. Free tools
   • Which office software to use
   • The recommendation
   • Set up Google Drive properly on day one
   • Other free tools worth having
   • Practical notes for South African conditions
   • What to avoid
3. Quotation (template)
   • To
   • What I will do
   • What is included
   • What is NOT included
   • Timing
   • Payment
   • Acceptance
   • Three rules that save you money
4. Invoice, NOT VAT registered (template)
   • To
   • What this is for
   • Payment details
   • Invoice numbering
   • Before you hand anything over
5. Tax invoice, VAT registered (template)
   • To
   • Supply
   • Payment details
   • The seven things a full tax invoice must show
   • Working with 15%
6. Receipt (template)
7. Privacy notice, POPIA (template)
   • Who we are
   • What we collect
   • Why we collect it
   • Who we share it with
   • How long we keep it
   • Marketing
   • Your rights
   • If you take ID copies

Your kind of business

1. Pick your business type
   • How much regulation each type carries
   • What everyone needs, regardless of type
   • What nobody needs on day one
2. Vehicle dealer
   • Quick answer: what you must have
   • Layer 1: SAPS second-hand goods dealer registration
   • Layer 2: getting vehicles registered to the business
   • Layer 3: motor trade numbers
   • The legal risk that matters most: the Consumer Protection Act
   • VAT: register earlier than other businesses
   • Paperwork on every deal
   • Two things about stock that surprise new dealers
   • Holding deposits
   • Other registrations that may apply
   • Dealing from home, with no yard
   • Growing beyond vehicles
   • Insurance
   • Your startup checklist
3. Food business
   • The one document you cannot trade without
   • Everything else you may need
   • Realistic timing
   • Working from home
   • Labelling
   • The wider law
   • Branding and marketing notes
   • Your checklist
4. Beauty and personal care
   • You need a municipal licence
   • Tattoo and piercing studios
   • Working from home
   • If you make or sell products
   • Insurance you actually need
   • Consumer law applies to services too
   • Bookings, deposits and no-shows
   • Branding and marketing notes
   • Your checklist
5. Retail and online shop
   • Do you need a licence
   • If you sell second-hand goods
   • Selling online
   • The six-month warranty
   • Importing stock
   • Payments
   • Stock records
   • Branding and marketing notes
   • Your checklist
6. Services and trades
   • Check whether your trade is regulated
   • Occupational health and safety
   • Consumer law on services
   • Quoting: where trades lose money
   • Deposits and payment
   • Insurance
   • Vehicles
   • Branding and marketing notes
   • Your checklist
7. Professional and creative work
   • What you need
   • The turnover tax trap
   • The home office deduction
   • Contracts matter more here than anywhere else
   • Intellectual property
   • Getting paid
   • Tax point most freelancers miss
   • Branding and marketing notes
   • Your checklist

Look it up

1. Glossary
   • Registration and companies
   • Tax
   • Compliance
   • Licensing
   • Vehicles
   • Working from home and getting paid
   • Money and documents
2. Master checklist
   • Key to the short words
   • Part A: everyone, in order
   • Part A2: extra, only if you registered a Pty Ltd
   • Part B: additions by business type
   • Part C: recurring calendar
   • Part D: the four things that cause real trouble
3. Sources and verification register
   • How to use this file
   • Legislation this toolkit relies on
   • Tax and SARS
   • Company registration
   • Running a Pty Ltd: annual returns, financial statements, directors
   • Paying yourself from a company
   • B-BBEE
   • POPIA
   • Consumer law and online selling
   • Vehicle dealing and vehicles generally
   • Second-hand goods dealing
   • Used vehicle sales and the Consumer Protection Act
   • Food businesses
   • Business licensing
   • Credit and financial services
   • Working from home, payments and personal safety
   • You are the business: UIF, COIDA, courts and continuity
   • Closing as a sole proprietor
   • Colour research and signage materials
   • Branding tools referenced
   • Where to go when this toolkit is not enough