It’s my personal belief that the best work comes from the best relationships and the best communication.
At Nolia Roots we build our relationships on honesty, respect, transparency, and gratitude. By way of our partnership, we agree to have a shared interest in treating each other with these values at all times. As much as legal documents are important to protect each representative party, what truly binds us is that collective ambition to do great work with great people.
This greatness is supported even more when complemented with a greater purpose: to achieve our results with mutual respect and trust.
Know that these Terms of Service serve as a general outline of the relationship and expectations we share with our clients. If any of these terms, conditions, or expectations infringe on your practice, values, or traditions please alert us directly and we’ll consider any necessary addendums or revisions. These Terms are secondary to the verbiage outlined in your formal contractual agreement.
Client Section
Instances in which the Client/Contractor relationship doesn’t seem like a sure-fit to we feel that our series or working style may not be appropriate for your needs, we will kindly pass up on the professional opportunity. Thankfully, the Creative space remains a close-knit one and we can oftentimes match you with an individual (or team) skilled and more appropriate for your needs.
Minimum Threshold and Spend
Nolia Roots is only accepting new collaborative partnership assignments that rise above the minimum threshold requirement of $5,000 USD.
Creative Team Availability
Nolia Roots is available to communicate with and service clients Tuesday through Thursday from the hours of 9 a to 5 p eastern time - outside of major public holidays.
Nolia Roots is closed and “offline” the days before, of, and after Easter, Independence Day (US), Thanksgiving, and the week between and including Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, and the week of Hanukkah are observed with time-off and/or half-days, respectively. Nolia Roots observes four non-consecutive weeks of collective sabbatical, annually. And, as a commitment to our corporate social responsibility, 'banking' and other public holidays - Martin Luther King, Memorial, Juneteenth, Labor, and Veterans Days - are reserved as days of community service.
Communication + Tools
Communication between the client and Nolia Roots will occur on a number of relevant (and required) platforms depending on the nature of the inquiry or need or deliverable. Nolia Roots relies heavily on traditional email communications and many of our account, project, and people management systems integrate well with email too.
Clients must have and maintain an active email address for the purpose of communicating with and engaging the company. Clients will also be required to activate and maintain accounts with the industry-leading platforms Slack, Google Drive, Asana, and Zoom throughout the duration of our partnership.
Nolia Roots requests that all documents and files be shared using the Google Drive software. We engage Asana as a comprehensive project and communication management tool. Zoom is used for the strict purpose of bridging face-to-face communications between the client and the agency. And Slack is used for any immediate needs through instant messaging and quick approvals. Responses to messages will be answered within 24 hours of the next business day.
THE CLIENT AGREES TO NOT TEXT OR DIRECTLY CALL ANYONE FROM NOLIA ROOTS.
Clients are encouraged to bookmark and make use of the new Nolia Roots Basket. The Basket puts immediate service request, communication, scheduling, data transfer, and other required tools at your fingertips with a simple click. Here you can find time on the team calendar, submit a Request for Work, access the Google Drive for quick transfers, and more.
Hourly Rates
Services are quoted and rendered per-project at one of three hourly rates. Nolia Roots’ Standard hourly rate is $175 USD per hour. On-Demand projects are billed at the increased rate of $225 USD per hour and Rushed orders are met with a $300 USD per hour rate.
Standard Projects ($175 p/hr) are considered to be those that fall within the more traditional long-lead proposal, acceptance, and completion window. On-Demand Projects ($225 p/hr) are those that require a more urgent completion date at the request of the client - usually with a push for fulfillment in less than ten business days. Rushed Projects ($300 p/hr) are those that require fulfillment in a [less-than-ideal] highly-urgent and/or egregiously demanded manner.
Requests for Work
Nolia Roots highly recommends existing clients to communicate individual macro needs with the submission of a formal Request for Work email that can be sent to hello@noliaroots.com.
Projects are received and assigned to a member of the staff for immediate and thorough review and quotation. Quotes for standard project requests can be expected within 48-72 hours from the time of submission whereas On-Demand and Rushed Projects will arrive more urgently.
PLEASE NOTE: Standard Project requests carry with them a five-hour minimum commitment in order to be considered for fulfillment. On-Demand and Rushed Projects require a minimum commitment of three-hours in order to be considered for agency fulfillment. No exceptions.
Consultations + RFPs
Consultation Fees are an industry standard and used to cover the cost of agency commitment required to acclimate a client in a longer-than-usual fashion. Respectively, Consultation Fees also protect the integrity of the projects an agency (and team) is affiliated with. (In other words, these Fees help to ensure projects find our desk in a most eager and ready status.)
Nolia Roots assesses a $100 Consultation Fee for every hour a new client (or project) discovery process exceeds the traditional three (3) hours required. For reference, Consultation Fees usually find the client after the first and second discovery or proposal review meeting(s). Consultation fees are applied to invoice and served within thirty (30) days of termination of interest and always waived immediately should a client retain Nolia Roots for service.
Mock-Ups and Proofs
Nolia Roots acknowledges design mock-ups and visual proofs as an industry standard and requirement for all new print, digital, and web design projects. A number of these assets, typically delivered during pre-production of a new project, come standard and/or are considered in any/all standard pricing. Time required to mock-up and/or proof On-Demand or Rushed projects is non-inclusive and will be tracked and added to the final cost of work. Mocks or Proofs that fall out-of-scope, at the request of the client, are billed at their respective rate and added to the final cost of work.
Revisions
Edits and revisions are an industry standard, too! Nolia Roots includes three reasonable rounds of complimentary revisions on any/all creative, design, and development work within thirty days of initial delivery - unless stipulated otherwise.
One revision at the rough draft (this should have robust feedback to talk about content, structure, organization, and design), a second revision at the final draft (this should be less robust, more tweaks), and a final revision before launch (this should include only small tweaks).
Revisions that fall out of scope, regardless of reason or timeline, are billed at the On-Demand rate of $225 USD per hour. No exceptions.
Invoicing and Late Fees
There is a strong importance of paying independent consultants in a timely manner to maintain a positive working relationship with Nolia Roots and keep the project moving forward. Invoices are due immediately, in-full on-receipt and in advance of the associated work unless otherwise noted or agreed upon in writing. Invoices carrying a balance for more than seven days are considered “late” or “past-due.”
Invoices that carry a past-due balance for more than 1 week are subject to immediate and automatic late fees. Late Fees are valued at $100 for each and every week payment is not paid. Therefore, if payment is 7 days late, $100 will be added to the invoice. If payment is 14 days late, an additional $100 ($200 total) will be added to the invoice.
No exceptions.
Payment
Payment breakup is determined by the scope and needs for each project. To assist clients in the financing of their project, Nolia Roots gladly accepts all major credit cards - American Express, Discover, Master Card, Visa, etc. - as well as ACH/EFT eCheck Transfers. However, the client is responsible for all transfer fees associated with these transactions. To avoid transfer fees, Nolia Roots recommends payment through Cash, Check, PayPal or Venmo.
Refunds
All invoice, self-service, and recurring payment sales are final. No exceptions.
Nolia Roots generously extends a 50% refund to any/all Deposit Fees tied to pending and not-yet-active assignments, with an exception to Special Offers. Request for a refund of a Deposit Fee must be received within the first seven days of the remission of payment. No refund is issued on any/all third-party costs, “time spent,” and other commitment-related expenses.
Retainer, Brokerage, + Management Fees
Most common fees tied to Nolia Roots projects include Service Retainer, Brokerage, and Management Fees. Service Retainer and Management Fees are simply calculated based on the hourly-rate tied to the related project. For example, a PPC Campaign that requires 10-15 hours per-month in management time will be billed a $1,500-2,250 USD monthly ‘Management Fee.’
Nolia Roots also charges (what we call) Brokerage fees when necessary, or wherever it better serves the clients. For example, if (after a ninety-day trial period) a PPC Campaign is said to be most reliable and in excellent standing, it would better serve the client to assess a small 5% to 10% Brokerage Fee to the overall cost of the campaign versus billing larger Maintenance Fees.
Brokerage Fees are structured as follows for recurring auto-pay service commitments:
• 15% of COS for total spends less than $10,000 USD
• 10% of COS for total spends between $10,001-24,990 USD
• 6% of COS for total spends at or greater than $25,000 USD
Markups + Reseller Fees
Reseller (non-Brokerage) Fees are assessed to all one-time third-party hardware, software, and licensing costs. These markups are calculated at a standard one-time 300% increase.
In conjunction and complicate with FTC Guidelines we ask that all clients bear in mind, while all third-party products and services are carefully curated and hand-selected to meet the needs of our individual clients and partners, recommendation to a service provider can (though not always) be tied to a financial incentive with Eric Michael & Associates as the beneficiary.
That’s about it!
Our Terms of Service are revised periodically throughout each calendar year. It is expected, as a client of our agency that you will retain, monitor, and continuously reference and adhere to these Terms of Service throughout our collaborative relationship.
Nolia Roots works diligently to share major revisions to this agreement at or before the time of adoption and always with the utmost respect to current client relationships and needs. If you have any questions regarding the content outlined in this agreement, you’re encouraged to contact us at your earliest convenience via email at hello@noliaroots.com.