New Website For Social Entrepreneurs

The Tool Factory have just launched a new website for Social Entrepreneurs called ‘For More Than Profit’.

The site has a number of useful resources for social entrepreneurs, the opportunity to ask questions about being a social entrepreneur to experts and a link to Bev Meldrum’s ‘For More Than Profit’.

The For More Than Profit Blog launched last month provides useful hints and tips for social entrepreneurs that want to become more effective at what they do.

With posts about the latest in the world of social entrepreneurship, becoming more productive, business planning and tools and resources that can help you, the blog is a great place to be.

Visit For More Than Profit.

Two Days To Go Until The Social Entrepreneur Show Comes To Town

With only two days to go until The Social Entrepreneur Show here at The Tool Factory we are running around trying to get everything ready.

If you are coming to the show do come and visit us at Stand 132 where will be giving you the opportunity to win a £50 Amazon voucher, buy copies of our software and get your hands on our new free e-book on Business Planning.

We’ll see you there.

Business Plan Writer Presented At Brighton University

Students at the Business School at Brighton University will be treated to a demonstration of Business Plan Writer: Social Enterprise Version next week.

Bev Meldrum, one of the partners at The Tool Factory will be travelling down to Hastings next Tuesday to introduce the students to Business Plan Writer: Social Enterprise Version.

Clifford Conway, of the Business School at Brighton University, invited Bev to the lecture after receiving a trial copy of the software at the Social Enterprise Research Conference in July 2007. Clifford, was at the conference presenting a paper on business planning in social enterprises. His paper can be downloaded here.

Visit our stand at The Social Entrepreneur Show, 2-3 November

The Tool Factory will be taking a stand and running workshops at this years Social Entrepreneur Show.

This is a brand new event run run by the people who organise the incredibly successful Business Start Up Exhibition the Social Entrepreneur Show is your opportunity to find all the support you need in one place.

At the Social Entrepreneur Show, in one single location you can:

• meet hundreds of funded and private organisations which can help you
• seek expert answers to the specific questions you have about your chosen type of company and aspirations
• choose from a range of seminars covering everything from accessible e-commerce to worldwide ethical banking, and every stop in between
• register for one-to-one advice on a number of specialist topics
• review your business plans and ideas with enthusiastic experts
• hear from people like you who’ve tried and tested the theory of starting a social enterprise: learn from their fortunes and failings
• network with like-minded individuals: forge valuable new business and personal contacts for your new life

If you would like FREE tickets to this event email us at info@thetoolfactory.com with your details.

New Release of Business Plan Writer: Social Enterprise Version

We are pleased to announce that the new update for Business Plan Writer: Social Enterprise Version is now available (release 1.1.1.SocialEnterprise).

The new update comes with a number of improvements, including:

• more extensive help files
• improved sample business plans
• improved menu system including new context menus for the ‘Words’ section
• fixes for the bugs that we have found

All customers can receive a FREE upgrade to the updated version by clicking on the link below.

Customers who have purchased a copy of the software through any of our partners will need to contact us directly to get the free update for their software.

Customers who have not already upgraded should get in touch by emailing support@thetoolfactory.com

Business Plan Writer: Co-operative Version to be announced

The Tool Factory will be at Co-operative Congress this weekend in Brighton announcing a new version of Business Plan Writer for co-operatives.

Business Plan Writer: Co-operatives Version will include the Social and Co-operative Performance Indicators and new sample business plans from a wider variety of co-operatives.

If you are coming to Congress in Brighton this weekend don’t forget to come and visit us at Stand 5 and you could win a £50 Amazon voucher.

System requirements for Business Plan Writer

Here are the system requirements for the software:

RAM
Minimum 192 MB
Recommended 512 or higher

Processor
Pentium III compatible or higher
Minimum 500 MHz
Recommended 1 GHz or higher

Display
Minimum 800 x 600 256 colours or higher
Recommended 1024 x 768 High colour (16 bit)

Prerequisite Software
Windows Installer version 3.1
Microsoft NET Framework 2.0

Operating System
Windows XP Professional
Windows XP Home Edition
Windows XP Tablet Edition
Windows XP Media Edition

How customers can upgrade to version 1.0.1.2

During 2007 any of our customers can upgrade (at no charge) to the latest version of Business Plan Writer. Currently, as of 16th April the latest version is 1.0.1.2 - this website and our product pages will always show what the current version is.

How do I find out which version I’ve got?

You can find out which version you have by selecting the ‘Help’ menu and clicking on ‘About Business Plan Writer’

What do I do if I want to upgrade?

Until we have created an ‘upgrading’ installation package you should either email support@thetoolfactory.comfor advice or look elsewhere in this blog for instructions.

Once you have heard back from us with details of where to download the latest version from, you can use the following pro-tem instructions to move from your current version to the latest one. if you get stuck just email support@thetoolfactory.com and we will help you out.

Pro-tem instructions

These instructions will be of use until our ‘upgrading’ installation package (as opposed to a clean install) is ready.

Keep any existing data or start again?

Do you want to keep the data you typed into your old version of Business Plan Writer? You will need to uninstall the old version before installing the new one - and if you have typed in any data you want to keep you will need to make sure that this is saved in a separate folder before uninstalling.

Section A - To keep data you typed into the old version do the following:

1. Ensure that your copy of Business Plan Writer is closed
2. Assuming your local hard drive is “C:” navigate to “C:\Program Files\The Tool Factory\Business Plan Writer - Social Enterprise Version”
3. Select the file “ProjectX.mdb” and copy it (right-click and select “Copy”)
4. Navigate to another folder such as “My Documents” and paste the file you just copied (right-click and select “Paste”)
5. The data you typed into Business Plan Writer has now been copied to another folder

Section B - To uninstall the old version of Business Plan writer do the following:

1. Decide whether you want to keep the data you typed into your old version of Business Plan Writer
2. If you do want to keep the data, complete the steps in Section A above and then return to this Section
3. Click on “start” (at the bottom-left of your screen)
4. Click on “Control Panel”
5. Double-click on “Add or Remove Programs”
6. From the list select “Business Plan Writer - Social Enterprise Version” and click on the “Remove” button
7. Click the “Yes” button on the next pop-up window
8. Your old version of Business Plan Writer has now been removed from your computer

Section C - To install the new version of Business Plan writer do the following:

1. Ensure you have uninstalled the old version of Business Plan Writer
2. Go to the location on the Internet where we have told you you can download the newest version - click on the relevant ling and start the download process as you did before
3. Once installed, start up Business Plan Writer and enter the same registration key you received with your old version of our software
4. Your new version of Business Plan Writer is now installed and should work properly

Section D - To attach your saved data to the new version of Business Plan writer do the following:

1. Ensure you have successfully installed your new version of Business Plan Writer and ensure that it is closed
2. Navigate to where you saved the “ProjectX.mdb” file, select it and copy it (right-click and select”Copy”)
3. Assuming your local hard drive is “C:” navigate to “C:\Program Files\The Tool Factory\Business Plan Writer - Social Enterprise Version” and overwrite the copy of “ProjectX.mdb” there with the one you have just copied (right-click and select “Paste”, and then confirm you want to overwrite)
4. Start up your copy of Business Plan Writer and ensure that your saved data is displaying properly
5. Go back to where you saved the “ProjectX.mdb” file and delete it (its now redundant)

Upgrading to version 1.0.1.2

The first two releases of Business Plan Writer: Social Enterprise Version were 1.0.1.0 and 1.0.1.1 - if you bought these versions you can upgrade to version 1.0.1.2 free of charge.

How do I find out which version I’ve got?
You can find out which version you have by (from within the software) selecting the ‘Help’ menu and then clicking on the ‘About Business Plan Writer’ option.

What do I do if I want to upgrade?
Until we have created an ‘upgrading’ installation package you should uninstall your current version and install the new one, or contact us if you want to save data you have already typed in.

Launch Date for Business Plan Writer Announced

The Tool Factory has announced that their forthcoming software Business Plan Writer will be launched on Monday 5th March 2007.

Pre-orders are now being taken at www.thetoolfactory.com