How every project works.

01Who this is between

These terms are between Helpful Company (“we,” “us”) and the business or person buying a project from us (“you”). By paying for a project, you agree to them. If you're buying for a business, you're confirming you're allowed to agree on its behalf.

02Quotes and scope

Every project starts with a written quote or proposal that states the tier, the price, what's included, and an estimated delivery date. That is the whole scope.

Anything not listed is extra. We'll quote it separately, and we only do it after you agree to the new price in writing. Email counts as writing.

03Payment

Prices are in US dollars. The full price is paid before design work starts, through a secure Stripe checkout or a Stripe invoice. Stripe processes the payment. We never see or store your card number.

04Timeline

The delivery estimate in your quote starts once we have your content, which usually means your completed intake form. If we're waiting on you for something, the clock pauses until we have it.

If we ask for something we need to continue and don't hear back for 60 days, we'll tell you before closing the project, then hand over whatever is finished at that point. Section 11 then applies as if you had canceled.

05Changes and revisions

Each tier includes rounds of changes: two for Foundation, and three for Presence and Full Overhaul. A round is one list of changes you send us together.

Changes that alter the agreed scope, such as adding pages or features, or starting a new direction after you've approved a design, are quoted separately and only done if you agree.

06Your content

You're responsible for having the right to use anything you send us, including logos, photos, and text, and for the facts about your business being accurate. We won't invent claims, reviews, awards, or credentials, and we'll ask you to check the site before it goes live.

If someone makes a claim against us because of something you provided, such as a photo you didn't have the rights to or a statement about your business that isn't true, you agree to cover the reasonable cost of dealing with it, including legal fees.

07Who owns what

Once you've paid in full, we assign to you all the rights we hold in the design, the text we write, and the code we create specifically for your project. Use them, change them, copy them, or hand them to someone else. We don't hold your site hostage.

We keep the tools, templates, and reusable code we had before your project or build for general use. Where any of that ends up inside your site, you get a permanent, royalty-free license to keep using it as part of your site, including if someone else takes over the site later.

Fonts, stock photos, and open-source code stay under their own licenses. We only use ones that let you keep using them after handover.

Designs we show you before you hire us, such as a preview or a proposal, stay ours unless you buy that project. If a payment is later reversed, the assignment above is reversed with it.

We'll ask before showing your project in our own portfolio.

08Domains, hosting, and accounts

Your domain name, hosting, and any subscriptions are paid by you directly and registered in your name, so you're never locked to us.

We never ask for your passwords. If something needs changing in an account you own, you make the change and we tell you exactly where to click, or you give us limited access through that service's own sharing tools, which you can remove at any time.

09Your site and the law

Your website has to follow the laws that apply to your business, and that responsibility is yours. It includes:

• Accessibility laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Having a privacy policy if your site collects visitors' information, for example through a contact form.
• Rules specific to your industry, such as licensing disclosures, health privacy, or advertising rules.

We build to widely used accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.1 Level AA) as a target, and we'll tell you about anything we notice. But we're not lawyers, and we don't guarantee your site complies with any law. If you need certainty, have your own lawyer or an accessibility specialist review it.

10Services we don't control

Your site may rely on outside services: hosting, domain registrars, form handling, maps, booking tools, fonts. They have their own terms and prices. We'll tell you which ones your site uses, but we aren't responsible if they change, go down, or shut down.

11Refunds and cancellation

• Before design work starts: full refund.
• After it starts: we refund the price minus the work already done, itemized for you in writing.
• After final files are delivered: the sale is final. The revision rounds exist so it never comes to that.

Refunds go back to the original payment method. If something's wrong with a payment, talk to us first. We'll sort it out faster than a bank will. If you dispute a charge with your bank instead, we'll share our records of the project with them, including your agreement to these terms.

12Fixes after handover

If something we built doesn't work the way we agreed, tell us within 30 days of handover and we'll fix it at no charge. Full Overhaul also includes 30 days of general support after handover. New content, new pages, or a new direction aren't fixes; we're glad to quote them.

Apart from the promises in these terms, the work is provided as is. To the extent the law allows, we make no other warranties, express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

13What we don't promise

We don't guarantee search rankings, traffic, calls, leads, or revenue. A well-made website helps, but results depend on things neither of us controls.

14Limits on liability

If something goes wrong, the most we're responsible for is the amount you paid for that project. We aren't responsible for indirect losses, such as lost business, lost profits, or lost data. Nothing here limits anything the law doesn't allow to be limited.

15If we disagree

Tell us in writing what's wrong. We'll both try, in good faith, to settle it directly for at least 30 days before either of us takes it further. Most problems end with a conversation.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Michigan. If a dispute can't be settled directly, it will be decided by the courts located in Michigan, including small claims court for any amount that qualifies.

16Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The version on this page on the day you pay is the one that applies to your project, and we keep a copy of every version.

17Questions

Email hello@helpful-co.com. If anything here is unclear, ask before you pay. That's what it's for.