Terms and conditions.
A plain-language summary of the Master Services Agreement that governs client work, covering fees, minimum terms, ownership, and what happens if you leave. Where anything here and your own signed agreement differ, your signed agreement takes precedence.
Who this is
Steve Welsh Marketing, East Ayrshire, KA3 2AP, United Kingdom (“the Consultant”, “I”, “me”). “The Client” means the party receiving services. It’s a one-person business, so where these terms or the underlying Agreement refer to obligations of the Consultant, the work is carried out directly by me unless otherwise agreed in writing.
The agreement itself
Client work is carried out under a Master Services Agreement, issued together with the relevant Schedule and pricing Appendix before work begins. This page is a plain-language summary of the parts most relevant to you day to day, it doesn’t replace the full Agreement, and where the two differ, the signed Agreement governs. A copy is provided to every client and is available on request before you commit to anything.
Covers strategy, SEO, content, paid advertising management, website work, and general consultancy, the services described on the services pages of this site.
Covers automated workflows, data extraction, and related tooling, each one scoped and approved separately before work begins.
Sets out fees for work covered by the Agreement, including ad hoc consultancy and automation build rates not already fixed-priced on the services pages.
Services and how work begins
The core services and their fixed prices are set out on the relevant service pages of this site. Work begins once you’ve confirmed you want to go ahead and I’ve confirmed the scope back to you, at which point the Agreement and the relevant Schedule apply. Additional services, or anything outside the originally agreed scope, are only carried out following written approval, and are chargeable in accordance with Appendix A.
Fees and payment
The core services on this site are fixed monthly fees or fixed one-off fees, agreed before work starts, never billed by the hour. Retainer fees are payable monthly in advance. Invoices are payable within 14 days of issue unless otherwise stated. All fees are non-refundable, and are exclusive of VAT unless stated otherwise. Project work outside the core services is typically payable 50% in advance and 50% on completion, unless a different schedule is agreed. Where a paid audit or rebuild fee is credited against a later service, that credit applies once, to that specific service, and isn’t transferable.
Minimum term and cancellation
Every ongoing monthly service has a 3-month minimum term from the date it starts. After that minimum term, it runs on a rolling monthly basis. To cancel, give one calendar month’s notice, before the 1st of a month, ending at the close of the following month, rather than a rolling 30-day countdown from whenever notice happens to be given. This keeps billing predictable for both of us, and reflects that some services include substantial upfront work in month one (such as a Google Business Profile rebuild) provided at no extra charge on the understanding that the relationship continues for a minimum period.
Ownership and intellectual property
This is split, deliberately, and worth being clear about upfront:
Final marketing deliverables created specifically for you, and paid for in full, belong to you once paid: website pages, written content, and access to accounts set up in your name (such as your Google Business Profile). Data outputs generated for you through automation work also belong to you.
Templates, frameworks, processes, methodologies, reusable components, and the underlying tools, automation systems, workflows, and AI configurations used to deliver the work. These are built up across all my clients, not rebuilt from scratch each time, and you receive no ownership rights in them unless expressly agreed in writing.
What happens if you leave
On exit, you receive everything that’s yours under “Ownership” above: your pages, your content, your accounts. The underlying systems, automations, and tooling used to deliver the work aren’t transferred, since they remain mine to reuse across clients. What I don’t guarantee is that results continue after the relationship ends, rankings and visibility built through ongoing work tend to hold for a period and then gradually decline as competitors keep publishing, that’s how search and local ranking work, not a penalty for leaving.
Where automation or data services were involved, one final export of your data is provided free, in CSV or a similar standard format, on request. Anything beyond that, restructuring, cleanup, or migrating it into your own systems, is chargeable at £150 per hour with a 2-hour minimum.
Automation and data services
Where the work involves automated workflows, data extraction, or scraping publicly accessible websites, a few things apply specifically. Each automation or workflow is its own service, scoped and approved in writing before work begins. These often rely on third-party platforms (such as Browse.ai or Make.com); their subscription costs aren’t included unless expressly agreed, and where I pay them on your behalf, they’re recharged at cost. I provide the technical implementation, I don’t provide legal or compliance advice, so you’re responsible for having a lawful basis to request, process, and use any data obtained this way, including compliance with UK GDPR and the terms of any website the data comes from. I can’t guarantee continued access to third-party websites, changes, blocking, or legal restrictions on the platform’s end can require a rebuild or stop a workflow entirely, and that’s outside my control.
Content and approval
Where a service includes writing content, I write it and you approve it before it goes live. You’re responsible for checking factual claims specific to your business, such as figures, qualifications, or regulatory statements, before approving. Reasonable input from you, generally around twenty minutes per piece, is factored into the service and expected as part of it.
Third-party costs
Third-party platform, software, hosting, or advertising costs are excluded unless expressly agreed. Where ad spend is involved, it’s paid by you directly to the advertising platform, never through me, and is entirely separate from my management fee, I don’t take a percentage of media spend.
Client responsibilities
To deliver effectively, I rely on timely access to information, systems, and approvals, and on final business decisions remaining yours to make. Delays on providing access, content, or feedback can affect timelines, and I’m not responsible for delays caused by that.
No guaranteed results
Search rankings, map placement, and enquiry volumes depend on factors outside anyone’s full control, including competitor activity and changes to how Google and other platforms rank results. I’ll always give an honest, evidence-based view of what’s achievable and by when, but no specific ranking position, timeframe, or volume of enquiries is guaranteed.
Liability
I’ll carry out services with reasonable skill and care. Beyond that, my liability to you for any claim arising from the services is limited to the fees you’ve paid in the three months before the claim arose, and I’m not liable for indirect or consequential loss. Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud, or anything else that can’t lawfully be excluded or limited under UK law. I act as an independent contractor and don’t provide legal, tax, or financial advice.
Confidentiality
Information you share about your business is kept confidential and used only to deliver the agreed services, and that obligation continues after the relationship ends (see the privacy policy for how personal data specifically is handled). With your agreement, results and quotes may be used in case studies or testimonials on this site, but never without asking first.
Late payment
Where invoices remain unpaid, I reserve the right to suspend services until the account is settled. This isn’t something I reach for quickly, but it protects both sides from an unpaid balance quietly growing.
Changes to these terms
This page may be updated occasionally, most often to reflect a genuine change in how services are delivered. The date at the top will always show when it was last reviewed. For anyone with an active, signed Agreement, changes are applied at the next natural point of change, such as renewal, scope adjustment, or a new service being introduced, not silently mid-term.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the law of Scotland, England and Wales.
Get in touch
Questions about any of this, or a request for a copy of the full Agreement before you book, go to sales@stevewelshmarketing.com or 07814 558325.
This page is a summary for reference. Where a signed Master Services Agreement is in place for your work, its terms and schedules take precedence over this page.
Clear on the terms? Let’s talk about the work.
Thirty minutes, no charge and no pitch. I will look at where you show up now and tell you honestly what I would fix first.