Client Commitment

Before we start building out your project, it's important for you to know the standards we set so that we'll have a great relationship.

We don't just want to be a team of great designers who delivers amazing services, we want to be the designers you've enjoyed working with the most in all of your years of business. Here's what we've found helps facilitate that.

The Quick Version:

You (the Client), are hiring Belt Creative, LLC (referred to here as "We" "Us" and "Company") to produce work for you such as a website or other project for the price we outline in our proposal or on our website.

By hiring us, you are agreeing that you have the authority to enter into an agreement on behalf of yourself, your company, or your organization. You'll give us everything we need to complete the project when and in the format we need it. You'll review our work; provide feedback and approval in a timely manner too. Deadlines work two ways, so you'll also be bound by dates we set together. You also agree to stick to our payment schedule.

We have the experience and ability to do everything we've promised you and we'll do it all in a professional and timely manner. We'll endeavor to meet every deadline and milestone that's set. You'll have plenty of opportunities to review our work and provide feedback. We'll have regular, possibly daily contact.

We specify in our Fair Use Policy how revisions work. Revisions can not include completely new un-agreed upon elements. We're happy to be flexible. If you want to change your mind or add anything new, that won't be a problem as we'll provide a separate estimate for that.

We specify in our Payments Policy how payment schedules work. All projects quoted at under $5,000 USD require full up front payment. For projects over $5,000 USD, we specify how our payment plan works.

As designated by our Portfolio Rights section, we reserve the unrestricted right to display drafts and completed versions of your deliverable in our online portfolio, as well as the right to link to and discuss the project in blogs, videos, social media posts, and other mediums. If you anticipate that aspects of your project will need to be kept confidential, please let us know ahead of time so we can accommodate your needs.

The final deliverables for most types of work will be provided via their respective platforms (ex: Webflow Websites will be transferred to your Webflow Workspace). Any other deliverables will be shared via Google Drive for up to 30 Days once the project is complete. Please be sure to download your files during that time, as we are not obligated to keep a copy of your files after that.

By utilizing any of our services, products, or resources, you accept these terms, our general terms, (and any other terms included in our proposals or on our website). Everyone should copies for their records. Our terms will be updated from time to time, so it's a good idea to print or take a screenshot of this page.

Fair Use Policy

SCHEDULE AND PUNCTUALITY

In order to ensure that we can do our best work on your project, we have certain practices and internal policies in place to ensure that our team sticks to the schedules we submit to our clients. That commitment goes both ways, so please make sure to read the following terms to know what we will need from you to deliver your project on time.

We will submit first drafts of the project deliverables according to the timeline outlined in the Project Proposal, effective when you sign the proposal and pay (in full) the invoice we send your way.

To do this, we will need initial direction from you, and all the content required to complete the project, such as copy (text), brand guidelines, and photos.

Upon completion of this stage, we'll ask you to confirm acceptance for the basic design. Once this acceptance is received from you, the work necessary to complete the project will continue.

By agreeing to these terms, you are acknowledging that you are be responsible for performing the following in a reasonable and timely manner:

• Coordination of any decision-making with parties besides us.

• Provision of Client Content in a form suitable for reproduction or incorporation into the Deliverables without further preparation.

• Final proofreading.

Within 10 business days of the receipt of each deliverable, you will provide us, in writing, of any failure of such deliverable to comply with the specifications as agreed on in the proposal, or of any other objections, corrections, changes or amendments you'd like made to the deliverable.

Any such written notice must be sufficient to identify with clarity the objection, correction, change, or amendment, and the we will get to work to correct it.

In the absence of any such notice from you within those 10 business days, the deliverable shall be deemed accepted, thus becoming a final deliverable. Any changes and amendments thereafter will be invoiced at our full hourly rate of $150 per hour, with a 2 hour minimum.

THE PAUSE CLAUSE

If a client deliverable required to continue work on the project — such as input, approvals, or payment — is late by more than 5 business days the project will be considered “on hold.” Should a deliverable be late by more than 10 business days, we reserve the right to terminate the project without a refund, effective immediately. At our discretion, once the deliverable is received and the project is reactivated, it may be rescheduled according to our current workload and availability.

In addition, the project will be subject to a reactivation fee equal to 10% of the original quote of the project plus any costs incurred by placing the project on hold (including, but not limited to, website hosting fees, software licenses, etc.).

To be clear, it is imperative that you communicate with us upfront and early if you anticipate significant delays. We have many client projects in our queue, so it may be weeks or months before we can get your project back in the queue.

We understand that there are sometimes extenuating circumstances and we’re happy to work with you in advance to find ways to keep your project on track.

ROUNDS OF REVISION

We are committed to ensuring that our final deliverable to you provides real results for your business. To that end, our team provides an industry-standard 3 rounds of revision for each deliverable. An example of a round of revision would include...

• You provide us with a list of revisions for the deliverable (be it copy or design). This list should be complete in that it should contain every edit you'd like in the final deliverable.

• Once you've confirmed your changes, we will implement them and send you an updated deliverable. This concludes the first round of revisions.

• If the deliverable continues to need revisions, we will repeat the process up to two additional times, with each resubmitted deliverable concluding a round of revision.

Any changes requested beyond these rounds of revision will be subject to the fees outlined in our Additional Cost Allowances Policy.

CLIENT AMENDMENTS

We pride ourselves in providing excellent customer service. To that end, we actively encourage input from our clients during the design process. However, if you request significant changes to a deliverable that already has been built to your specification, please note that our agreement does not include a provision for significant modification or creation of additional work in excess of our original agreement.

If significant modification is requested after a deliverable has been built to your specifications, it is considered an additional deliverable. Some examples of significant project modification at the request of the Client could include:

• Designing a new website layout or structure to accommodate a substantial redesign.

• Recreating or significantly modifying a logo and/or graphic.

• Replacing more than 100 words of body copy to any given page.

If significant modification is requested by the Client, an invoice with estimated costs will be submitted for Client approval and payment prior to changes being made.

WEBSITE-SPECIFIC PROVISIONS

Our websites are designed using modern techniques in order to produce creative layouts and functionality. As such, you agree that we are not responsible for and understand that we do not develop solutions for legacy systems and browsers. Examples of legacy browsers that we explicitly do not support include Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Copyright Policy

By using our services, you guarantee that all elements of text, images or other artwork you provide are either owned by your good selves, or that you have permission to use them.

By doing so, you're granting us a license to use, reproduce, and modify your content in connection with the delivery of our services.

We reserve the right to assign certain subcontractors to projects to ensure the right fit for the job as well as on-time completion. We warrant all work completed by subcontractors for this project.

When your final payment has cleared and the project is complete, copyright will be automatically assigned as follows:

• You'll own the visual elements that we create for this project. We'll give you the finished files and you should keep them somewhere safe as we're not required to keep a copy.
• You'll own the rights to use any stock elements for the final deliverable. For example, a stock photograph licensed for your website may be used for that website, but you will be required to pay any licensing fees to use that image in your other marketing materials.
• You own all elements of text, images and data you provided, unless someone else owns them.

PORTFOLIO RIGHTS

We love to show off our work and share what we've learned with other people, so we reserve the right to discuss, display, and link to your project as part of our portfolio and to write about it on websites, in magazine articles, and in books.

We often work with subcontractors on projects, and they will also have the same rights to reference and display your project in their respective portfolios.

We promise to always display our portfolio work respectfully. We're not keen to share your pricing tables, proprietary copy, or other information that is obviously private. With that said, the best way for us to know what could constitute private information is to let us know, in writing, ahead of time. We will do our very best to make sure that we protect your privacy while retaining the ability to share design work that we're proud of.

Payments Policy

All projects quoted at under $5,000 USD require 100% upfront payment. No exceptions. Additional costs (if any) associated with modifications to the scope of work will be invoiced separately at a significant project milestone.

For projects quoted at over $5,000 USD, we understand that it's not always possible to pay in one go. Thus, on request, we provide the option to split the payment into multiple invoices - the first is due before we start working on your project, and the final payment is due before we turn over the final deliverable. By using our services, you agree that any work we've done for you does not belong to you in any way until your account is completely paid up.

We also reserve the right to place projects on hold until payment has cleared. Any missed deadlines or delays caused by the lack of prompt payment are your sole responsibility, and should a pattern of poor conduct be established, we reserve the right to terminate your project and invoice you for any hours worked, billed at our full hourly rate of $150 per hour.

We understand that life happens! If a payment delay is anticipated, please contact us immediately so we can adjust accordingly. We hope this never happens, but if collection proves necessary, you are responsible for paying all fees incurred by that process.

PAYMENT METHODS

Payments can be made by Credit Card via Stripe, ACH bank transfer, check, and through a variety of other methods using PayPal.

All PayPal payments should be sent to: billing@beltcreative.com

ADDITIONAL COST ALLOWANCES

If you would like to purchase extra assets for your project, we'll be happy to include that in the project proposal. Once that's been signed and finalized, you are responsible for reimbursing us for any additional project costs (at your request) that are not delineated in the initial project quote. Examples of this could include:

• Purchase of specific fonts at your request.

• Purchase of specific photography at your request.

• Purchase of other third-party services at your request.

• Rounds of revisions beyond our standard three rounds.

Additional services or alterations outside the scope of the proposal will be quoted as needed at a base rate of $89 per hour, with a 2 hour minimum.

Ethics Policy

You represent to us and unconditionally guarantee that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork furnished to us for inclusion and/or use producing the deliverables are owned by you, or that you have permission from the rightful owner to use each of these elements, and will hold harmless, protect, and defend myself and my team from any claim or suit arising from the use of such elements should it turn out that you did not in fact, have permission.

Additionally, you agree that no material submitted as a proposal nor for publication will contain anything leading to an abusive or unethical use of our services. Abusive, obscene, and/or unethical materials include, but are not limited to: pornography, obscenity, nudity, violations of privacy, computer viruses, harassment, illegal activity, spamming, advocacy of illegal activity, and any infringement of privacy.

We reserve the sole right to determine what is abusive, obscene, and/or unethical practice.

It is also understood that we will not publish content nor perform any action at your request which we have reason to believe may lead to the harm of another person.

Our Commitment to You

As a client of ours, we want you to know that you have the right to expect the following standards from us:

You will receive a personalized, friendly, fun and sometimes spontaneous service from creative designers who are totally focused on you. You will be respected as a person and never taken for granted.

You'll find us honest, truthful and ‘up-front' with you at all times. We'll pitch it to you direct, with no filters.

You'll receive a timeline from us to keep your project moving ahead swiftly. You'll have our 100% commitment to stick to the dates outlined and to deliver on time, within budget, and with superior results.

You'll receive prompt turnaround on all your projects, small or large, without sacrificing quality. You'll have initial concepts after your approval to commence within the first week, and your amendments will be returned to you swiftly.

You'll rarely find our services to be the cheapest in the market. You will, however, always get the best quality and value to give your business real benefits. Your investment in our services will always be rewarded with exceptional quality and a purpose-driven solution that will add significantly to your business.

As you refer your friends and colleagues to us, we promise that they will also receive this commitment, so you can feel confident in your recommendation.

We will communicate with you frequently as we build a win-win long term partnership and friendship to help you reflect your vision, realize your objectives, and unleash your sales potential, market awareness, and the branding effectiveness of your business.

You'll receive ideas from us, some left of field, along the way and a sincere passion to educate you in the myriad of opportunities available through online design and marketing related activities so that you can make educated and informed decisions.

You won't get billed any hidden costs. You'll receive your solution for what our proposal reads and if the project specifics change and this is impossible, you'll always be notified upfront when it arises, not when you receive an invoice.

Your feedback is critical to our ongoing development as designers and people. If we've made a mistake please tell us, and please, too, let me us when we've done well. Your ideas, comments and suggestions are always wanted. We want to set the standard - but if we do make a mistake you can be assured we will learn from it and fix it quickly.

Your Commitment to Us

In order to ensure your success, we have worked hard to develop efficient systems and workflows for the services we deliver.

Making sure that those systems maximize the your return on investment is a big part of what we do. To see that goal through, we set out the following expectations for my clients:

We've done the hard work of testing and refining my strategies so that we can help you improve your bottom line. By hiring us on, you're agreeing that you'll trust our expertise and follow our proven processes.

You are prepared to invest time as required for your project so that we can continue to provide solutions that bring your business success.

You will offer honest feedback at all times. This includes giving praise when we've helped you achieve the results you're after and offering suggestions to us if we have made a mistake.

You will be truthful and upfront with us at all times. If you have a problem with us or our work, you will provide us the courtesy of speaking with us first so that we can resolve your concerns quickly and efficiently. We will also display this courtesy to you.

You are committed to providing all of the information, data, and assets that we require, in addition to amendments and sign-off on or before the date written in your project timeline. If this is impossible you will communicate with us and we will adjust the timeframe accordingly.

If we call and leave a message for you or send you an email, you will acknowledge this communication with us before the end of the next working day. If you can't provide a full answer right away, that's all right, but please let me know when you expect that you will be able to do so. We will also display this courtesy.

You will make yourself available for pre-arranged meetings at your earliest convenience so that we can keep your project running to schedule and meet your deadlines. We, of course, will do the same in return.

Let's create something amazing together.

In Conclusion…

Just like a parking ticket, you can't transfer this agreement to anyone else without our permission. These terms stay in place and need not be renewed. Although we do our best to keep the language simple, the intentions are serious and these are legally binding terms under the exclusive jurisdiction of Saint Petersburg, FL, and the United States of America.

We can't guarantee that our work will be error-free and so we can't be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you've advised us of them.

We are an independent consulting company, not your employees. We will provide services under your general direction but we will determine the manner and means by which the services are accomplished.

Working together does not create a partnership nor joint venture, and neither party is authorized to act as agent nor bind the other party, except as expressly stated in a proposal. All rights granted to you are contractual in nature and are wholly defined by the express written agreement of the parties and the various terms and conditions of our proposals.

Although project ownership transfers to you once the final project payment has cleared, we will always retain the right to include the deliverables and all draft designs in our portfolio.

Finally, if any provision of these terms shall be deemed unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision is severable from the rest of our terms and will not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.