Terms of Service

1. Agreement to Terms

By accessing or using the services of Small Business Elevate ("Company," "we," "us," or "our"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use our services.

These Terms apply to all services we provide.

2. Services

Small Business Elevate provides technology services for small businesses. The list below describes the kinds of work we commonly do. It is not exhaustive, and we may add, change or stop offering a service at any time. What we do for you is whatever your written proposal or agreement says.

Where a written proposal or agreement between us says something different from these Terms, the proposal or agreement applies.

Websites & Custom Apps

• Websites, web applications, mobile applications and internal tools
• Service pages, inquiry forms and customer portals
• Agreed search and accessibility foundations
• Ownership and handoff instructions on delivery

AI Assistants & Knowledge Tools

• Custom AI chatbots and conversational agents
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) applications
• Voice and text tools built on agreed source material

Custom AI Agents & Workflows

• Workflow automation and AI agent development
• System integration and deployment
• Ongoing system optimization and maintenance

Tool Advice & Hands-on Training

• Tool and platform evaluation, comparison and setup
• Hands-on team training programs
• Prompt engineering and AI tool proficiency
• A scoped review of account access and information handling

3. Client Responsibilities

As a client, you agree to:

• Provide accurate and complete information
• Provide necessary content, data, and materials in a timely manner
• Ensure you have the rights to all content, data and materials you give us
• Review and provide feedback on deliverables promptly
• Make payments according to the agreed schedule
• Use our services in compliance with applicable laws and ethical guidelines
• Not use our services for any illegal or harmful purposes
• Maintain confidentiality of any API keys or credentials provided

Communication and Timelines

• Email is the channel of record for requests, approvals and changes
• Any timeline we give is an estimate unless your agreement says it is a fixed date
• Timelines depend on timely feedback, content and access from you
• Delays in client feedback may extend project timelines

4. Terms for Work That Includes AI

This section applies only where a project includes AI features, such as an assistant, an agent or an automated workflow. It does not apply to websites, apps, advice or training that do not use AI.

AI Service Acknowledgments

Where we build or set up AI features for you, you acknowledge and agree that:

• All AI-generated content must be reviewed by a human before business use
• AI outputs are suggestions only and may contain errors
• You are responsible for verifying accuracy and appropriateness of AI outputs
• We do not guarantee any specific accuracy rate or business outcome

Data Usage and Ownership

• You retain ownership of all content and data you provide
• You grant us a limited license to use your data solely for providing services
• AI models built on your data remain customized for your use only
• We do not use your data to train models for other clients

Acceptable Use

You agree not to use our services to:

• Generate illegal, harmful, or discriminatory content
• Violate intellectual property rights
• Create misleading or fraudulent content
• Compromise security or privacy
• Violate any applicable laws or regulations

Interactive Demos

Our website includes interactive demonstrations that simulate AI capabilities using pre-written scenarios and client-side processing. These demos are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent the full capabilities, accuracy, or performance of custom implementations built for your business.

5. Project Scope and Changes

• Specific deliverables are defined only in the signed proposal or agreement
• Changes to scope require written approval and may incur additional fees
• Revision rounds are defined in the proposal
• Additional scope includes, for example: new pages or features, new data sources, additional integrations, or extended support

6. Payment Terms

Fees, deposits, payment schedules and cancellation terms are set out in your proposal or agreement. The terms below apply only where your proposal or agreement is silent.

Payment Structure

• Fixed-price projects: a deposit before work starts, progress payments per milestone, and final payment before delivery or handover
• Monthly or recurring services: invoiced in advance and due on receipt
• Hourly, advisory and training work: invoiced on completion or monthly
• Overdue invoices: we may pause work and hosted services until the account is brought up to date, and may charge interest on overdue amounts at up to 1.5% per month or the maximum the law allows, whichever is lower

Cancellation Terms

• Deposits reserve time in our schedule and are non-refundable
• If you cancel during a project, you pay for the work completed and any third-party costs committed up to the date of cancellation
• Monthly or recurring services: 30 days written notice
• We may end an engagement with written notice if we cannot continue the work; you then pay only for work completed

Platform Subscriptions

• Ongoing platform fees are billed separately as pass-through costs
• Subscription cancellations require 30 days notice

7. Intellectual Property

Client Content

You retain all rights to content you provide. You grant us a license to use this content solely for the purpose of providing our services.

Deliverables

Upon full payment:

• You own custom work product created specifically for your project
• You receive the right to use any configurations, prompts, assistants or automations we create for you
• We retain rights to generic code, techniques, and methodologies

Platform Accounts

• All third-party platform accounts must be created in your name
• You are responsible for maintaining accounts and platform payments
• We provide setup assistance but accounts remain your property

Portfolio Rights

We reserve the right to reference your completed project in our portfolio and marketing materials unless otherwise agreed in writing.

8. Warranties and Disclaimers

We carry out our work with reasonable care and skill. Beyond that, and except where your written agreement says otherwise, our services and deliverables are provided "as is" and without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied.

• We do not warrant that websites, apps or AI features will be uninterrupted, error free, or accurate and complete in every output
• We do not guarantee specific results or business outcomes
• We do not promise search rankings, traffic, leads, savings or revenue
• AI outputs should be reviewed by a person before they are relied on
• We are not responsible for third-party platform limitations or changes

9. Limitation of Liability

Our total liability for any claim shall not exceed the amount paid for the specific service giving rise to the claim. We are not liable for:

• Indirect, incidental, or consequential damages
• Lost profits or business opportunities
• Damages from errors or inaccuracies in AI outputs or automated actions
• Third-party platform outages or changes

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Small Business Elevate from any claims arising from:

• Your use of our services
• Content, data or materials you provide to us
• Your use of AI-generated content
• Violation of these Terms
• Violation of any laws or third-party rights

11. Termination

Either party may terminate the service agreement with 30 days written notice.

Upon termination:

• You must pay for all work completed
• We will provide files and access as agreed
• Your data, and anything built from it, will be handled per the project agreement
• Ongoing platform subscriptions must be transferred or cancelled

12. Confidentiality

Both parties agree to:

• Keep confidential all proprietary information
• Use confidential information only for agreed purposes
• Protect confidential information with reasonable care
• Return or destroy confidential information upon request

13. Data Protection

We comply with applicable data protection laws and will:

• Process personal data only as instructed
• Implement appropriate security measures
• Notify you of any data breaches promptly

14. Force Majeure

Neither party is liable for delays or failures due to circumstances beyond reasonable control, including natural disasters, government actions, internet infrastructure failures, or third-party platform outages.

15. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by the laws of Virginia, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

16. Dispute Resolution

Any disputes shall be resolved through:

1. Good faith negotiations
2. Mediation if negotiations fail
3. Binding arbitration as a last resort

17. Miscellaneous

• Entire Agreement: These Terms and any project agreements constitute the entire agreement between parties.
• Severability: If any provision is found invalid, the remaining provisions continue in effect.
• Assignment: You may not assign these Terms without our written consent.
• Notices: All notices must be in writing and sent to the addresses provided.

18. Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. We will notify you of material changes by posting the updated Terms on our website and updating the effective date.

19. Contact Information

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us: