Terms & Conditions

1. Who these terms are between

These terms govern services provided by EJ Creative Strategies LLC, a California limited liability company ("EJCS," "we," "us"), to the client engaging those services ("you"). They apply to every project unless a signed written agreement between us says otherwise, in which case that agreement controls.

2. What we do

EJCS provides website design and build, brand identity systems, marketing automation and CRM configuration, local search and Google Business Profile setup, and optional ongoing hosting, maintenance, and support.

Services not listed here are not included in any engagement unless they appear in your written proposal.

3. Proposals and scope

Work begins from a written proposal describing the scope, the deliverables, and the total price. Nothing outside that written scope is included. If you ask for something outside it, we quote it separately before doing the work.

4. Availability retainer and payment

Work begins only after an availability retainer is paid.

• The availability retainer is a one-time fee that reserves your place in our schedule. It is paid in addition to the project price and is not credited against it.
• What the retainer buys is exclusivity. Taking your project means turning other work away, and the retainer compensates that commitment. It does not purchase hours of work, deliverables, or any part of the project itself.
• Because it buys availability rather than deliverables, the retainer is earned when it is received and is not refundable.
• The project price is quoted separately, in writing, in your proposal.
• The balance of the project price is due on completion.
• For larger or longer projects we may agree a phased payment schedule tied to defined project phases. Where we do, the phases and amounts are set out in your proposal.
• Final access, logins, and transfer of the completed work follow full payment.
• We do not charge late fees.
• All prices are exclusive of third-party costs (see section 9).

5. Unpaid balances

No project starts without the availability retainer, and no completed work is released before final payment. That sequence is what keeps an unpaid balance from becoming a dispute.

• If a final balance goes unpaid, we hold the completed work. There is no time limit on this and the work is not deleted.
• You may return and pay at any time to take delivery.
• Your original quote does not survive indefinitely. A quoted price is valid for thirty days from the date of the proposal. If you return after that, the outstanding work is re-quoted at current rates.
• Work delivered this way is handed over only. Ongoing monthly support is not offered on a project where the balance went unpaid.

6. Revisions

Every build includes two rounds of revisions on the deliverables described in the proposal. A revision round is a consolidated set of requested changes, not an open-ended period.

Changes that alter the agreed scope, rather than refine work already produced, are quoted separately before they are made.

7. Your responsibilities

The build depends on information and materials only you can provide, including business details, logins and access, images, and approvals.

• You are responsible for the accuracy of everything you provide, including hours, prices, contact details, licenses, certifications, and claims about your business.
• We do not verify or warrant the accuracy of information you supply.
• Delays in providing materials or approvals move the schedule accordingly.
• You confirm you have the right to use any logo, image, text, font, or other material you give us.

8. Ownership and intellectual property

On full payment, you own the final deliverables produced specifically for you: the website's design and content, your brand identity files, and the photographs we produce for you. We will hand over your project work on request.

The following remain ours or are separately licensed:

• Our working files, internal processes, documentation templates, and methods
• Preliminary concepts and unused directions not selected for delivery
• Third-party assets such as fonts, stock imagery, and platform software, which are licensed rather than owned and are subject to their own terms
• Any work produced before full payment, which remains ours until payment clears

Reuse of underlying methods. Your content, your brand, and your data are yours. The techniques behind them are ours. We retain the right to store, reuse, and adapt the structure of any workflow, automation, or funnel we build, including on work built for you, and to apply those patterns for other clients. This covers the underlying construction only. It never includes your copy, your brand assets, your customer data, or anything that identifies your business.

9. Third-party services and costs

Domains, registration and renewal fees, phone numbers, licensed fonts, stock imagery, and platform usage are not included in project pricing. You choose whether we bundle them onto your invoice at cost with no markup, or you pay each vendor directly. Either way you are told the amount.

These services are governed by their own providers' terms. We are not responsible for their availability, performance, pricing changes, or policy changes.

10. Ongoing support

Ongoing support is optional and runs month to month. Either of us may end it with thirty days' written notice.

Support covers maintenance of what exists: hosting, platform updates, security patches, backups, and a set block of support time for questions, edits, and fixes.

Support does not cover new work. Anything that creates something that did not previously exist is quoted as a separate project, even where it would fit within the included support time.

Unused support time does not roll over.

11. Portfolio and promotion

Unless you tell us otherwise, we may feature your project publicly: in our portfolio, on our website, and in marketing and promotional materials.

You may decline this at signing. If you do, your project is kept off all public marketing and promotional channels, and declining does not affect the work or the price in any way.

You may also withdraw permission later, in writing, at any time. We will then remove the work from anything we control going forward.

12. Accessibility and compliance

We build to current industry standards and test against WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Testing reduces risk and does not eliminate it, and accessibility is not a fixed state: content changes can introduce new issues after launch.

We are not attorneys and nothing we provide is legal advice. Compliance obligations depend on your industry, location, revenue, and operations. Confirming that your business meets its legal obligations is your responsibility, and we recommend having an attorney review your policies, contracts, and any industry-specific requirements. Where we see something that needs a lawyer, we will tell you and tell you what to ask.

13. Warranties and limitations

We provide our services with reasonable skill and care. We do not warrant that any website, system, or service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that it will produce any particular business result, ranking, traffic level, or revenue.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability arising out of or relating to these terms or any engagement is limited to the amount you paid us for the specific project giving rise to the claim. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost revenue, or lost data.

14. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold EJCS harmless from claims arising out of content or materials you provide, claims about your business that you asked us to publish, and your use of the deliverables after handover.

15. Termination

Either party may end an engagement in writing. If you end a project in progress, you pay for work completed to that point. The availability retainer is not returned, for the reason given in section 4: it was earned when the schedule was reserved and other work was turned away. If we end a project, we will tell you why, and you are invoiced only for work completed.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The version in effect when your proposal was signed governs your project. Changes apply to new engagements from the date they are posted.

17. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict of law rules.

Any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or to any engagement will be resolved by binding arbitration seated in Sacramento County, California, rather than in court. Either party may instead bring an individual claim in small claims court where the claim qualifies.

18. Contact