The agreement.

1. How we work

We charge per thing. You tell us what you need, we quote it, you say yes or no. When you say yes, we do the work and send an invoice for it. Each invoice describes the specific work it covers. There's no retainer and no minimum, and nothing locks you in for a term. If the work stops, the payments stop.

Two things work differently and both are spelled out below: a deposit is paid before the work it covers, in section 3, and a flat-rate monthly plan charges a set amount on a schedule until you cancel it, in section 4. You're told which applies before you pay.

2. Payment

Payment is due on receipt unless the invoice says otherwise. We accept card and standard online payment through Stripe. If an invoice goes unpaid, we may pause work until it's settled. You're responsible for the amount on the invoice. Any bank or card fees on your side are yours.

3. Deposits

Some work starts with a deposit. The onboarding deposit is $250. It isn't an extra fee. It pays for the research and the first build, and it comes off the total when you go ahead with the rest.

Once we've started, the deposit isn't refundable, because the work it pays for has been done by then. If you look at the first build and decide not to continue, that's fine and there's nothing further to pay. You keep the research and the build, and we keep the deposit. If we turn the job down, or we don't deliver what the deposit covers, you get it back in full.

4. Monthly plans

There are two ways to buy ongoing work and they bill differently. Which one you're on is stated before you pay.

Capped plans bill the way section 2 describes. We invoice monthly for the work that actually shipped, up to the monthly cap. A quiet month is a smaller bill. Nothing charges automatically.

Flat-rate plans are a card subscription. You authorize a recurring charge when you start. It's the same amount every month whatever the month holds, and it charges on the same day each month. Every charge shows on your card statement as Tend the Tech, and you can ask us for a receipt any time. Some flat-rate plans open at a stated introductory rate that steps up on a stated schedule. Groundwork is $250 a month for three months and $500 a month after that. A step we told you about before you paid is part of the price you agreed to, not a price change.

You can cancel a subscription any month. Text us or email [email protected] and we'll stop it. One message is enough and you don't have to explain yourself. Cancelling stops every future charge. You keep everything that shipped during the month you're in, and that month isn't refunded. The one exception: if you tell us before your next charge date and that charge goes through anyway, we refund it in full. The clock is when you sent the message, not when we read it. If we ever change a standing rate, we'll tell you at least 30 days ahead, and you can cancel before it takes effect.

5. What you're paying for

You're paying for the work described on the invoice, on the plan, or in the quote it came from, nothing more, nothing less. If you want something outside that description, that's a new thing: we quote it, and you decide. We don't add work you didn't approve, and we don't bill for it.

6. Who owns the work

Finished work is yours once it's paid for in full. Until then, it's ours. This includes pages, copy, configurations, and files we produce for you. Tools, templates, and underlying methods we bring to the job stay ours. You get to use the result, not resell the toolkit.

7. Access and your accounts

To do the work, you may give us access to your accounts, your website, Google Business Profile, hosting, and the like. You confirm you have the right to grant that access. We keep your logins and data confidential and use them only to do the work you asked for. When a job is done, you can revoke access anytime.

8. Third-party platforms

A lot of what we tend lives on platforms we don't control, Google, Meta, Yelp, your hosting provider, your email provider, and others. We're not responsible for their outages, policy changes, account suspensions, price changes, or decisions. If Google changes how something works or a platform goes down, we'll help you deal with it, but that's not a failure on our end and it doesn't entitle you to a refund of work already done.

9. What we don't promise

We do good work and we're straight with you about what it can do. We do not promise specific search rankings, a number of leads, revenue, or any outcome that depends on third parties or the market. Anyone who guarantees you a Google ranking is selling you something. We're not.

10. Confidentiality

What you share with us about your business stays with us. What we share with you about how we work stays with you. Neither of us discloses the other's private information without permission, except where the law requires it.

11. Stopping

There's no contract to get out of. You can stop working with us any time, and so can we. If we stop mid-job, you only owe for the work done and approved up to that point, and we'll hand over what's finished and paid for. No penalty, no notice period, no exit fee.

Two things that aren't penalties but are worth saying plainly. A deposit already spent on work we've done isn't refunded, see section 3. Cancelling a monthly plan stops future charges but doesn't refund the month you're already in, unless a charge lands after you told us to stop, which we refund in full. Section 4 has both halves. Nothing else is owed either way.

12. Limits of liability

We'll fix our mistakes. But to the extent the law allows, our total liability for any job is limited to what you paid us for that specific job. We're not liable for indirect or consequential losses: lost profits, lost data held by third parties, downtime on platforms we don't run. This keeps pricing honest and the relationship simple.

13. Changes to this agreement

We may update this page. The version that applies to any job is the one posted here when you paid for it. We won't change the terms of work you've already paid for.

A monthly plan renews, so its terms are the version posted when each month's charge is taken. If we change something that materially affects you, we'll tell you at least 30 days ahead and you can cancel before it takes effect. We won't apply a change backwards to a month you've already paid.

14. Questions

If anything here is unclear, ask before you pay. Text us or email [email protected]. We'd rather answer a question now than have a misunderstanding later.

That's the whole agreement. Per thing. Pay for what you approve. Own it when it's paid. Leave whenever. The point is the work.