The Legal Bit
These Terms were last updated on: 2nd September 2026
These terms are between Avapond ("we", "us" or "Avapond").
Company number: 12486999.
Address: Ground Floor, 13 Cable Court, Pittman Way, Fulwood, Preston, England, PR2 9YW.
And you: ("you", "customer" or "client").
1. Drawing the lines
These terms define how you can use our advice and our work. We'll do our best to make sure the language is in plain English, so there's no confusion.
1.1 What's the jurisdiction?
As we're a UK-based company, you agree to settle any disputes through the UK legal system. If any part of these terms is unlawful, void or impossible to enforce under English contract law, that section alone gets ignored. Everything else still stands.
1.2 You choose whether to use our advice
We give advice and we create things, but the final decision to act on that advice, or use what we've made, lies with you. We aren't liable to you, or any third party, for any damages, including lost profits, complaints, claims or litigation.
All advice and content that we give you will be factually correct, to the best of our ability. And it'll never infringe on anyone else's copyright.
1.3 We aren't lawyers or accountants
Any advice we give is based on how we think your market, your customers, or your team will respond. It's about the health of your business and your reputation. It's not legal or financial advice.
2. What do we both agree to do?
As the client, you agree that:
- You can hire us on behalf of your company.
- You'll give us the materials we need to do the project, in a reasonable time.
- You'll review the work, give feedback and sign off by the deadlines we've agreed.
- You'll stick to any payment schedule we've agreed.
And, from our side, we agree that:
- We have the experience and ability to perform the services you need.
- We'll deliver the work by the deadlines.
- We'll respect the confidentiality of any information you give us. (More details on that later.)
3. How do we deal with changes?
Our bigger projects run in phases. Each phase has its own agreed scope and deliverables, set before the phase begins.
Feedback within that agreed scope is part of the phase, no extra charge. If you ask us to look back at a decision from a phase you've already signed off, or you ask for something beyond the agreed scope, that's new work. We'll need to agree to a separate fee before starting it.
Once you've signed off the end of a phase, that phase is closed. Anything more from that point is scoped and priced as new work.
For smaller, single-phase projects, the same principle applies at a smaller scale: agreed scope going in, sign-off at the end, anything beyond that is a new job.
3.1 There are exceptions
We want you to be happy with what we deliver. But if the changes you want come from something outside our control, information that turned out to be wrong, a shift in your market, a decision made elsewhere in your business, we'll need to charge for the extra work.
4. Who owns what?
We split this into two.
Deliverables made specifically for you (your strategy documents, brand assets, website copy, campaigns, and anything else built for your business) become yours once you've paid the relevant invoice. Until then, we give you temporary permission to use them, unless there's a dispute over payment.
Our own methods and frameworks (our diagnostic process, our templates, our cascade systems, and anything else we use across multiple clients) stay ours. You get a licence to use them as part of what we deliver to you, but we keep the right to reuse, adapt and improve them for other clients.
This split protects you (you own what's specifically yours) and protects us (we can keep building better tools without starting from scratch on every project). If you're ever unsure which category something falls into, ask. We'll tell you straight.
This is also to protect us more generally. If you decide not to pay for work you don't like, we'll revoke permission to use it.
4.1 We can talk about working with you
We reserve the right to show snippets of the work we've done with you and talk about it.
5. Handling deadlines
If you don't send materials, give feedback on time or don't respond to our questions, we'll need to push back the deadline.
We'll try to make sure there's always somebody on our end to pick up the slack. But sometimes there are family emergencies, illnesses, floods or wars in the world. If anything outside our control affects the deadline, we'll let you know as soon as we can.
6. Making payments
We'll invoice you at the end of each month, or at the end of each agreed phase for phased projects, and you agree to pay within 31 days. If you don't, we will add a 10% late fee. If we don't get any feedback or comments within two weeks of sending a document to you, we'll assume that you're happy with the work and invoice you for it.
If you cancel a workshop, training session, or anything else that needs to be in person, within two weeks of the date, we'll need to charge you for half the amount.
We're VAT registered. All our prices are excluding VAT. If your business is outside the UK, you might not need to pay UK VAT. However, it's your responsibility to tell us if you have a UK subsidiary.
7. Keeping your secrets
While we'll obviously never share anything you've told us in confidence, we occasionally use contractors and freelance writers. In these cases, we might need to share certain information to make sure they can do their jobs. We work on a four-tier system of confidentiality:
- Public. This is information that anybody can know about. Largely the stuff you actively want to tell people.
- Confidential. This is information that should stay internal. We'll never share this with anybody outside Avapond, except for freelancers or contractors who need to know it to do their work.
- Secret. This is information that you'd rather didn't go much further. We will never share this with anybody outside Avapond. If a freelancer or contractor needs to know about it, we'll ask you first.
- Top secret. This is information that shouldn't be shared, even around Avapond itself. If you tell any of our people something that's Top Secret, they won't share that information with anybody else at Avapond. (The only exceptions are our directors.)
We assume everything you tell us is confidential, unless you tell us otherwise. (Or unless it's obvious that it's public information already.)
Before you tell us something Top Secret, check with our directors. We want to make sure there's not a conflict of interest, first.
7.1 Why four tiers?
It helps stop conflicts of interest. It's not practical to tell you about every client we might have. And we might work with one of your competitors. This creates a wall between our people and stops them from accidentally leaking information.
8. What happens if our terms change?
Things change, so we may update these terms at any time. If we do, we’ll let you know.
The new terms will kick in from whichever is later:
- The start of your next phase or project with us
- One month after we’ve told you about the change.
So if you’re on a rolling contract (like a retainer), you have a month’s notice.
The exception is if we need to make a change to stay compliant with the law. In that case, the new terms kick in straight away and we’ll tell you why.
9. Using our digital products
This section covers standalone digital guides we sell directly and any future guides we create. When you buy one from us, we're granting you a licence to use it. You're agreeing to the terms in this section and to give us accurate information about yourself.
We aren't giving you the copyright. All our digital products are protected by UK copyright law.
9.1 What does the licence include?
We allow you to:
- Use the product across the world.
- Download the product at least three times.
- Share the product with your employees or staff, if you're a business.
- Print the product for you or your staff.
We don't allow you to:
- Redistribute, resell, or repackage the product to anyone else.
- Share any part of the product with anyone outside your business.
- Transfer ownership of the product to another business.
- Use the product for illegal, unethical or fraudulent reasons.
9.2 What if you break these rules?
You'll repay us for all lost sales that come as a direct result of you breaking these rules.
9.3 How do we deliver the product?
You'll be able to download the product immediately after you've paid. If you have any problems, email help@avapond.com with your receipt.
9.4 How do we deal with refunds?
Because of the nature of the product, we don't offer refunds unless the law requires it.
9.5 How long does this licence last?
Indefinitely. However, we reserve the right to stop your access to the product if you break these terms.
If we want to stop offering the product for any reason, we'll give you four weeks' notice, so you have a chance to download it one last time. After that, it won't be available.
9.6 What if we update it?
We might update the product. But we don't guarantee it.
9.7 We're not liable
We don't guarantee any results from using the product and don't take responsibility for how you use it. We're also not responsible for any issues that third-party platforms might cause.
10. How can you get in touch with us?
If you have any questions, you can reach us at hello@avapond.com, or call us on 07775 696293.