Changelog and redline

Last updated: 13 September 2026

This records what has changed in the toolkit, and where the Google Drive copy and this markdown copy differ.

There are two copies of this toolkit:

• This markdown set (the zip). The source of truth. Plain text, nothing lost in conversion.
• The Google Drive set. 34 documents and 2 spreadsheets, fully interlinked.

The Drive connector can create documents but cannot edit an existing one. So when the markdown changes, the Drive copy needs a manual paste. This file tracks that gap.

Change 1: shortcut path for people whose name is already decided

Date: 13 September 2026
Reason: The branding sequence assumed every reader was starting from nothing. Someone with a registered name was being sent through a naming prompt and a naming-focused competitor scan they did not need.

Added

Already have your name (shortcut) — new file, about 1,200 words.

What it does:

• Maps all 12 branding prompts to skip / modify / still do. The answer is: skip one, modify one, do the other nine.
• Supplies a replacement for Prompt 2 that drops naming patterns and adds two questions the original never asked: what does my name already suggest visually, and does it create visual constraints (too long for a vehicle door, awkward at small sizes, hard to set in type).
• Records the three checks still worth doing when a company name is registered: domain and handles, CIPC trade mark search, and saying the name aloud to speakers of the relevant languages.
• Explains that a CIPC company name protects nothing in the market.
• Repeats the section 32 requirement, which now applies because the name is registered.

Status in Drive: DONE. Created as "00 Already have your name - start here in this folder" in the 02 Branding and marketing folder.

Changed: signposts pointing at the new file

Change 2: mood and materials step

Date: 13 September 2026
Reason: Nothing in the branding sequence established the overall visual direction. Prompts 5, 7 and 8 each made their own aesthetic call, so the logo, palette and photography could contradict each other. Materials were also absent everywhere except as constraints.

Added

Mood and materials (use after Prompt 4) — new file, about 1,300 words. Prompt A sets a visual territory; Prompt B sets signage, print, vehicle and clothing materials. Includes a line to paste into Prompts 5, 7 and 8 that forces them to agree.

Two things were verified before writing it:

• Colour psychology is weak. Elliot and Maier (2014) find no universal colour meaning. The famous "62 to 90% of snap judgment is colour" figure traces to a 2006 literature review, not an experiment. What holds up is colour-to-personality fit (Labrecque and Milne, 2012). The prompts therefore ask about fit and difference, and instruct the AI not to give colour meanings.
• South African UV is a real design constraint. Zone 3 UV, vinyl fading in roughly a third of its European life, horizontal installs losing 50 to 70%. Cast versus calendered guidance added. Sources and their limitations recorded.

Status in Drive: DONE. Created as "01a Mood and materials - decide this before the logo".

Changed: signposts

Change 3: missing entry document in the Core folder (fix)

Date: 14 September 2026
Reason: A numbering error, spotted by the user. In Drive the 01 Core folder ran 02 to 09 with no 01, because Core: start here had been folded into the root START HERE when Drive was built. The result looked like a missing file, and it left Core as the only folder without its own entry document. Every other folder has one.

Added

Drive document "01 Start here - what is in this folder" in the 01 Core folder. It carries the reading order, a table of the eight core documents with when to read each, which ones apply to which readers, and a short note explaining that the numbering starts at 02 because this document is 01.

It is deliberately not a copy of the root START HERE. Root START HERE indexes the whole toolkit; this one orients you inside the Core folder.

Status in Drive: DONE.
Status in markdown: No change needed. Core: start here already existed and already served this role.

Lesson

The root START HERE absorbed two markdown files, Start here and Core: start here. Merging the README was right, because a Drive folder listing does what a README does. Merging the Core start-here was wrong, because it was a folder entry document, not a repository readme. They looked like the same kind of file and were not.

Change 4: you are the business, plus three corrections

Date: 14 September 2026
Reason: Re-reading the toolkit as a sole-director, sole-employee Pty Ltd exposed a missing subject and three factual errors.

Added

You are the business — no safety net if you cannot work, the escalation ladder for an unpaid invoice, and continuity if you are not there.

Corrected

Status in Drive: NOT YET. The new document and all four corrections need to be carried across.

Change 5: closing as a sole proprietor

Date: 13 October 2026
Reason: Running a Pty Ltd explained how to close a company. Nothing explained what a sole proprietor does when they stop trading.

Added

Closing as a sole proprietor — the people to tell (SARS, the municipality, SAPS, the Information Regulator, the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the Compensation Fund), the bank account, the debts and records that stay yours, and a closing checklist.

Changed

Not opened. The environment that wrote this file could not reach SARS, gov.za(external link) Official or the law-report websites. The five new register entries (the Tax Administration Act, the Value-Added Tax Act sections 8(2) and 24, the Unemployment Insurance Act, POPIA section 14 and the Prescription Act) cite each Act without its text being opened, and each entry says so. Every other fact in the file repeats what the guide already sources. Confirm a section in the Act before you rely on it.

Status in Drive: NOT YET. The new document and the register changes need to be carried across.

What you need to paste into Drive

Five edits. Each is one line or one short block. Open the document, paste, done.

1. "01 Branding prompts" — paste at the very top, under the title

Already have your name? If your business name is settled and you know
what you trade as, read "00 Already have your name" in this folder
first. It tells you which of these prompts to skip.

2. "02 Register - what you actually need" — paste under the heading "Choosing the name"

If your name is already registered and decided, see "00 Already have
your name" in the Branding and marketing folder. It lists the three
checks still worth doing.

3. "01 How to use this toolkit" — add a row to the Path 3 table

My name is already decided, what do I skip?  →  00 Already have your name

4. "00 START HERE" — add a row to the Branding and marketing table

00 Already have your name   |   Shortcut path if the name is settled:
which prompts to skip, and the three checks still worth doing

5. "02 AI disclosure and how this was checked" — paste into the corrections log, before the line beginning "The lesson generalises"

Ninth pass: a shortcut path for people whose name is already decided.
The branding sequence assumed every reader was starting from nothing,
and sent someone with a registered name through a naming prompt and a
naming-focused competitor scan they did not need. A new document maps
which prompts to skip, supplies a visual-only replacement for the
competitor scan that also asks whether the existing name creates visual
constraints, and records the three checks still worth doing when a
company name is registered. The point it turns on is that a registered
company name protects nothing in the market.

Known structural differences between the two copies

These are deliberate, not errors.

How to keep the two copies in sync

For a small change, edit the Google Doc directly. The document ID stays the same, so every link pointing at it keeps working.

For a full rewrite of one document, open the existing Google Doc, select all, delete, and paste the new content. The ID survives because the file does.

Never download, edit and re-upload. That creates a new file with a new ID, and every link in the toolkit would still point at the old one.

Update this changelog whenever you change either copy.