Terms of Service — Website Development Services
Cleverly Genius LLC

By submitting this form and paying the retainer fee, you ("Client") agree to the following terms governing website development services provided by Cleverly Genius LLC ("Company," "we," "us").

1. Retainer Fee
Website development work begins with a retainer fee, paid in advance. Your project work is billed against this retainer until the retainer amount has been fully used.

2. Hourly Billing
Work performed during the retainer period — that is, work billed against your prepaid retainer — is billed at a rate of $45.00 per hour. Once the value of work performed reaches the amount of the retainer fee, all further work is billed at a rate of $55.00 per hour.

3. Estimates Are Not Fixed Prices
Any estimate we provide is a good-faith approximation of what your project may cost based on the information available at the time — it is not a quote, a fixed price, or a guarantee. Because website projects involve variables that cannot always be predicted in advance, the final cost of your project may be less than or more than any estimate given. Work is billed at the actual hours required and the rates described in these Terms, regardless of any estimate. An estimate should be used for planning purposes only and does not cap or commit us to a final total.

4. Additional Work and Scope Changes
The rates above cover the features and pages agreed upon at the start of your project. If you request work outside of the original agreed-upon feature set, or additional pages beyond what was originally scoped, that work will be billed separately at the applicable hourly rate. We will treat such requests as additions to your project and bill them accordingly.

5. Consulting
Consulting — any time spent discussing your project between you and Cleverly Genius LLC, including meetings, phone calls, and planning discussions — is billable at a rate of $40.00 per hour. This includes project-related phone calls received while traveling. For in-person meetings, the consulting rate applies to the full round-trip travel time to and from the destination, as well as the time spent at the meeting.

6. Travel Expenses
For any work or consulting that requires travel, you will be billed for mileage to and from the destination at the current IRS standard mileage rate plus $0.50 per mile. This mileage charge is in addition to any consulting charges that apply to travel time under Section 5.

7. Start of Work and Notification
You will receive an email notification once work on your project has begun. The date of this notification is considered the project start date.

8. First Invoice
An invoice will be sent within 7 business days of the project start date. You will have 7 business days from the date the invoice is issued to pay it in full.

9. Non-Payment and Stoppage of Work
If the first invoice is not paid within 7 business days, work on your project will stop. A new invoice will then be issued totaling all work performed from the point at which the retainer funds were exhausted. You will have 7 business days from the date this invoice is issued to pay it in full.

10. Resuming Work
For work to resume after a stoppage, all outstanding invoices must be paid in full, and a new retainer fee must be collected. Work will not restart until both conditions are met.

11. Completion and Refund of Unused Retainer
If your project is completed and a balance remains on your retainer, the unused portion will be refunded to you.

12. Acceptance
By checking the agreement box and submitting payment, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms of Service.