Terms and Conditions
Created: 12/2/2025
Bottom Line Up Front
These terms explain how we work together, what you can expect from me, what I need from you, and what happens when things don't go as planned. They're legally binding once we start working together.
1. Services I Provide
Consulting Services: Strategic messaging advice, brand positioning assessments, stakeholder interviews, and recommendations.
Deliverables Projects: I create specific work products you'll own and use: Brand Positioning Documents, LinkedIn profiles, messaging frameworks, sales presentations, case study templates, website copy, and similar documents.
Retainer Relationships: Ongoing monthly access to my expertise for messaging challenges, content review, strategic advice, and project work. Includes a defined number of hours or outputs per month.
Premium Ghostwriting: I write content that appears under your name (articles, op-eds, LinkedIn posts, speeches, executive communications). The work is yours. Your voice. Your byline. I don't exist in this equation (see Section 6).
Future Digital Products: Paid templates, guides, and webinars when launched.
2. How We Start Working Together
Our working relationship begins when you sign a project proposal or Statement of Work (SOW) that references these Terms of Service. The proposal outlines the specific work, timeline, fees, and deliverables.
Each proposal specifies what you're getting. For deliverables projects, this typically includes the work product plus two rounds of substantive revisions. Anything outside the original scope triggers additional fees. If you're not sure whether something is in scope, ask before I do the work.
3. Your Responsibilities
Timely Feedback and Materials: When I send you drafts or requests for information, respond within agreed timeframes. If you go dark for three weeks, the project timeline pauses until you resurface.
Access to Relevant People and Systems: If I need to interview your CEO or review existing materials, you'll make those connections happen.
Honest About Constraints and Goals: Tell me what you're really trying to accomplish and what's actually realistic. I can work with constraints. I can't work with surprises.
Payment: Pay invoices when due. For most projects, 50% upfront before work begins, balance on delivery. Retainers bill monthly in advance. Freelance articles follow publication payment terms.
4. My Responsibilities
Quality Work, Delivered on Timeline: Professional work that meets our agreed standards, delivered when promised. If something's going to be late, I'll tell you before the deadline passes.
Confidentiality: Everything you share about your business stays confidential. I don't discuss your strategy with competitors or share internal challenges. This is especially critical for ghostwriting clients but applies to everyone.
Communication: For active projects, you'll hear from me at least weekly. For retainers, we'll establish a regular check-in cadence.
Honesty When Something Isn't Working: If your draft messaging is headed in the wrong direction, I'll tell you. If the timeline is unrealistic or scope has crept beyond what we agreed, we'll address it.
5. Payment Terms
Consulting and Deliverables Projects:
50% due upon signing (before work begins)
50% due upon delivery
Two rounds of revisions included
Additional revisions or scope changes billed at my hourly rate
Retainer Relationships:
Billed monthly in advance
Includes defined hours or outputs per month
Unused hours don't roll over
Either party can end with 30 days' notice
Premium Ghostwriting:
50% due upon signing
50% due upon delivery
One round of substantive revisions included
Rush timelines (under two weeks) may incur additional fees
Freelance Articles:
Payment follows publication's standard terms (typically net 30)
Future Digital Products:
Full payment before access
No refunds after download or access begins
Late Payment:
Invoices unpaid after 30 days accrue 1.5% monthly interest
Work stops if payment exceeds 30 days overdue
I may require full payment upfront for future projects if past invoices were chronically late
If your payment fails or is reversed, access to products or in-progress work may pause until resolved
Chargebacks may be treated as project cancellation and grounds to decline future work together
6. Ownership and Usage Rights
Ghostwriting Services
Work-for-hire. Once you pay the final invoice, you own everything: content, byline, credit, all of it.
I cannot and will not claim authorship, show it in my portfolio, or mention our working relationship without your explicit written permission. If asked if I wrote it, my answer is "I don't discuss client work."
This is why I can't show you a ghostwriting portfolio. Previous clients have the same protection. Occasionally I'll ask if you're willing to let me reference a specific piece in my portfolio. You're free to say no.
Consulting Deliverables
You own the final deliverables I create (positioning documents, LinkedIn profiles, messaging frameworks, presentations). You can use them however you want.
I retain rights to my underlying methodology, templates, and processes. You're buying the fish, not the fishing rod.
Digital Products and Templates
You're buying a license to use for your own business. You can use them internally, modify them, and share within your organization.
You cannot resell them, share them publicly, or distribute them outside your organization.
Articles for Publications
Ownership depends on the publication's agreement. If you've hired me to write an article you're submitting elsewhere under your name, we'll clarify ownership in the project proposal.
Portfolio and Case Studies
For consulting and deliverables work, I may ask permission to include your project in my portfolio or reference it in client conversations. You can say no.
7. Revisions and Scope Changes
Most deliverables projects include three rounds of substantive revisions. Ghostwriting includes two rounds.
What Counts as a Revision:
Adjusting tone or voice
Refining messaging based on feedback
Fixing errors or unclear sections
Updating based on new information
Reformatting within the same deliverable
What Counts as New Work (triggers additional fees):
Adding new sections or deliverables not in original scope
Changing target audience
Starting over because leadership changed direction
Creating additional versions for different stakeholders
Expanding to cover new product lines or business units
The Rule: If you're asking "Is this a revision or new work?", it's probably new work. When in doubt, ask before I do it.
Additional Work Process: If something falls outside original scope, I'll send a written estimate (hours and cost) before starting. You approve it or we discuss alternatives.
Timeline Impacts: Scope changes push timelines. I'll give you a revised timeline with the cost estimate.
8. Cancellation and Refunds
If You Cancel Before Work Begins: 100% refund (minus any transaction fees).
If You Cancel After Work Begins: Upfront deposit is non-refundable. You pay for work completed to date at my hourly rate. Unused portion of deposit may be refundable depending on work completed.
For Retainers: Either party can cancel with 30 days' written notice. You're responsible for payment through that 30-day period. No prorated refunds for mid-month cancellation.
For Digital Products: No refunds after download or access. If there's a technical issue preventing download, I'll fix it.
If I Cancel: I'll refund any unearned portion of your payment. You get any completed work and pay only for what's been delivered.
Disputes About Quality or Delivery: If you feel you didn't receive what was promised, the first step is a direct conversation, not a credit card dispute. Email me with specifics about what's not working, and I'll address it.
9. Confidentiality
I Keep Confidential:
Your business strategy, financials, internal challenges, competitive positioning
Customer, employee, and partner information
Anything marked confidential or obviously sensitive
For ghostwriting: The fact that I wrote the content
You Keep Confidential:
My processes, methodologies, and proprietary frameworks
Draft work shared for review
Strategic recommendations before implementation
Exceptions: With your written permission, if required by law, or to protect my legitimate business interests (contract disputes).
For projects needing heightened confidentiality, we can sign a separate NDA.
10. Limitation of Liability
Here's the hard truth: I provide strategic advice and create professional content. I don't guarantee specific business outcomes. You can have strong messaging and still lose the pitch. You can tighten your LinkedIn profile and still not get the interview.
What I'm Responsible For: Delivering professional-quality work on time that meets our agreed standards. Missing deadlines, factual errors I should have caught, breach of confidentiality.
What I'm Not Responsible For: Your team's internal issues, stakeholders changing their minds, competitors copying your messaging, third-party technical problems, market conditions, ordinary business risk.
Financial Liability Limits:
To the fullest extent allowed by law, Friction Free Communications LLC is not responsible for indirect or consequential damages, including lost revenue, lost opportunities, or lost data.
If a dispute arises and I am found responsible, the total amount you can recover is limited to what you paid me in the previous twelve (12) months for the specific service or product at issue.
You agree not to bring claims based on disappointment with subjective outcomes or variables I cannot control.
11. Intellectual Property
The work I create doesn't infringe on anyone else's intellectual property. Any materials you provide for me to work with don't infringe on others' rights. If someone claims infringement, we'll address who's responsible based on where the problem originated.
12. Dispute Resolution
These Terms are governed by Pennsylvania law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.
If we have a dispute:
Step 1: Email me first at peter@frictionfreecommunications.com with a clear description of the issue and what you're asking for. Direct conversation solves most problems.
Step 2: If we can't resolve it informally, we'll try mediation with a neutral third party (we split costs).
Step 3: If mediation fails, any legal claims will be handled in the state or federal courts that cover my business address in Pennsylvania, unless law requires a different venue.
You agree not to bring or join any class action or representative claim related to this site, services, or products.
13. Independent Contractor
I'm an independent contractor, not your employee. You don't withhold taxes, provide benefits, or control how I complete work. I may work with other clients simultaneously. This doesn't create a partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship.
14. Standard Terms
Force Majeure: If something catastrophic (natural disaster, pandemic, war) prevents either of us from meeting obligations, we're both off the hook for that period.
Entire Agreement: These terms, plus your signed proposal, represent our complete agreement. Verbal discussions don't count without documentation.
Amendments: I can update these terms as my business evolves. Changes apply to new projects. I'll post updates with a new date and email clients with active projects for significant changes.
Severability: If one term is unenforceable, the rest still applies.
Assignment: You can't transfer your rights without my written permission.
Waiver: Me being flexible once doesn't set a permanent precedent.
15. Contact
If something's unclear or doesn't fit your situation, ask before we sign anything.
Friction Free Communications LLC
Email: peter@frictionfreecommunications.com
I respond personally.