Terms and Conditions

These terms cover leaving, website ownership, and your service area for the Strategic Mind plans on Pricing.

• You can leave at any time, on either plan, by telling us in writing. The contract runs until you cancel. There is no notice period and no fixed term.
• Paid in full before release: we release your customer list, and on the Own Website Plan your business number and domain, once your account is paid in full, including every day of service up to the day you leave.
• Moving your domain and business number out (Own Website Plan): you start the move. Once your account is paid in full and you ask us in writing, we unlock your domain and business number so you can move them to the registrar and phone company you choose, at no charge. If you haven't moved them within one month of the day you leave, we stop renewing your domain and stop keeping your business number active, and either may lapse.
• Your domain and business email: on the Own Website Plan, your website's domain is registered in your name, and you are its owner of record from the day we register it or move it in. While your contract runs, we manage its DNS, keep its SSL certificate active and renewed, and manage your business email account in Gmail or Outlook, including its SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, so your automatic messages reach the inbox, not spam. You can move it out when you leave. On the Pay When Paid Plan, the shared website runs on our domain. We set up a business email account for you on that domain, with a calendar that holds your bookings. That account belongs to the shared website. When you leave, it stays open for a while so you can finish conversations in progress, and then it closes.
• Your business number: on the Own Website Plan, we move your current business number in, and the phone system works as soon as that move is done. You can move it out when you leave. On the Pay When Paid Plan, we provide your business number, and it stays with the shared website when you leave.
• Your Google Business Profile (Pay When Paid Plan): when you leave, you change your Google Business Profile's website link away from the shared website.
• Your customer list: on the Own Website Plan, your customer list is yours. When you leave and your account is paid in full, you get a full copy of it at no charge. On the Pay When Paid Plan, when you leave and your account is paid in full, you get a list of the customers you did work for from leads the shared website sent you. The list gives you no exclusive right to those customers' future work. The shared website keeps serving them and may send their future requests to another company. The warranty on work you did stays your responsibility. On either plan, you can also ask for a copy of that list at any time while your contract runs, at no charge.
• If we stop providing the service: we tell you in writing at least 60 days ahead. You get your customer list as described above, and on the Own Website Plan we unlock your domain and business number so you can move them, at no charge.

• One company per trade in each service area (Pay When Paid Plan only): while your contract runs, we do not sign another company in your trade whose service area overlaps yours. When you leave, that ends, and we may sign another company in your trade for that area.
• Your own website decides its work (Own Website Plan): your service area is the one your own website serves. You decide what work your website takes and where, and every request it brings in is yours.
• Your service area is a list of postal areas (Pay When Paid Plan only): your contract lists the postal areas in your service area, each named by the first 3 characters of a postal code, like M4C or L5B. No other company in your trade gets any of them.
• A request goes by where the job is (Pay When Paid Plan only): the shared website prices only work your trade does. A homeowner can price several jobs, and they add up to one quote. That quote goes to the one company whose service area holds the postal code of the job, not where the homeowner lives.
• Areas not yet taken (Pay When Paid Plan only): the shared website lists the postal areas it takes requests from and turns down a job outside them. A job in a listed postal area that is in no company's service area goes to the nearest company in that trade. That postal area is not yours, and once another company in your trade takes it, its requests go to them.
• You do the work you agreed to (Pay When Paid Plan only): when you join, you agree to provide every service the shared website describes for your trade, and to do the jobs it sends you, in your service area and in the areas not yet taken, at your own prices. You change a price only when the site visit shows the job differs from what the homeowner entered. A job may need more than one visit, and your price covers every one of them.
• Turning down a job (Pay When Paid Plan only): you can turn down up to 4 jobs the shared website sends you in each year of your contract, counted from your start date. A job you turn down goes to the nearest other company in your trade on the shared website, and that job and its fee are theirs. A 5th job turned down in the same contract year ends your place on the shared website, on the same terms as leaving.
• Time off (Pay When Paid Plan only): to take time off, block it on the calendar in your business email account, and customers can't book you during it. For longer time off, we send your service area's calls and bookings to another company on the shared website until you return. A job from that is that company's, and so is the fee on it. Your exclusive right resumes when you return.
• Minimum Google rating (Pay When Paid Plan only): a low Google rating brings down every company on the shared website, so each company keeps a rating of 4.0 or higher. A business with fewer than 5 Google reviews can join, and the minimum applies once it has 5.
• Your Google Business Profile links to the shared website (Pay When Paid Plan only): to join, you set the website link on your Google Business Profile to the shared website, and keep it there while your contract runs. Your company page shows your Google reviews. Every company's reviews build the shared website's reputation, and homeowners see real reviews from real companies.
• One rate in every postal area (Pay When Paid Plan only): the 8% rate is the same for every company on your shared website, in every postal area, downtown included. A downtown markup is part of your price for the job, set by the location adjustment you choose.

• Your leads are yours. A lead we send you goes to you alone, except a lead from your service area during your longer time off, which goes to the company covering it. We never sell it to another company.
• Our fee applies only to a lead we send you. On the Pay When Paid Plan, the fee applies to a website job, once your customer pays. See Which Jobs Carry a Fee.
• Each plan's published price covers the whole plan. Every other service we bill for is optional, and we give you its price before we start it.
• Usage each plan's price covers: all calls and texts within Canada for the crew size the plan is built for, up to 5 crews on the Own Website Plan and up to 2 crews on the Pay When Paid Plan. Normal use for a company that size stays within the price. If you add crews beyond that or make international calls, we tell you the new amount in writing before it applies.
• Launch Campaign (on either plan). When the Growth Engine goes live for you, we send your existing customers one email and text campaign, as part of your plan. On the Pay When Paid Plan, a job booked from it carries the fee, like a job from any other campaign reply. We send it only to customers who paid you in the last 2 years or agreed to hear from you, and each message names your business and has an unsubscribe link. When you give us the list, you confirm each customer on it meets that rule.
• Who pays for advertising. On either plan, your digital marketing agency runs your ads, and you pay your agency directly. We work with your agency and give it the data it needs.
• Fees are in Canadian dollars, plus HST. HST applies to every fee, including the Pay When Paid Plan percentage.
• Yearly price change: once a year, on the anniversary of your start date, we review your monthly fee on the Own Website Plan. It can rise by up to Canadian inflation, meaning the 12-month change in Statistics Canada's Consumer Price Index, plus 3%, to a maximum of 5%, rounded to the nearest $10. We tell you the new amount in writing at least 30 days before it starts. The Pay When Paid Plan rate stays at your signed rate. A founding contractor pays 5% for 24 months from its start date, then the published rate.
• Your customers pay you by Interac e-Transfer. Your customer pays by Interac e-Transfer straight into your own business account. Your revenue does not pass through an account of ours. Each Interac e-Transfer money request is limited by the banks involved, so a large job may be paid in more than one request.
• You pay our monthly bill by pre-authorized debit. When you join, you sign a pre-authorized debit agreement for your business bank account. We take each monthly bill from that account 5 business days after we send it, and you can question any line on it before then. Where our fee applies (on the Pay When Paid Plan, 8% of what your customer pays on a website job, up to $2,000 per job; see Pricing), the bill shows it at your current rate on every payment recorded that month, whether paid by Interac e-Transfer or in cash. Until invoices are available, you tell us each payment and each refund on those jobs.

• Monthly, with no fee on jobs. The Own Website Plan is $1,000 a month, plus HST, and a $500 setup fee.
• Cancel any time. You leave by telling us in writing, with no notice period and no cancellation fee.
• Your customer list is yours in full when you leave. Once your account is paid in full, you get a full copy of it at no charge.
• Your business number and domain move out with you. See Your Contract and Leaving.
• What it covers: the Growth Engine on a website your company alone uses, with search marketing in the service area you choose.

A founding contractor is the first company in its trade on that trade's shared website, on the Pay When Paid Plan. Its service runs in 3 stages.

• 1. Development, at no charge. We work with you to learn your trade, configure your website and the Growth Engine, and test each feature with you before it goes live. You pay no fees during development.
• 2. Acceptance. When you sign, we agree in writing on a launch checklist of everything the Growth Engine does for your business. We show you each checklist feature working. When you confirm in writing that it all works, the whole Growth Engine goes live.
• 3. Paid service. Your fees start on the day the whole Growth Engine goes live, at the founding price in your agreement. That day is your start date. From then on, the rest of these terms apply, including leaving at any time.
• Stopping before launch: either side can stop during development or acceptance by telling the other in writing. Nothing is owed.
• Founding exclusivity: for 3 months from your start date, we sign no other company in your trade anywhere in the Greater Toronto Area.
• Founding pricing: a founding contractor pays no setup fee, connects the Growth Engine to common trades software at no charge, and pays nothing extra for any part of the Growth Engine.
• What we build during development stays with us, including the website, its content, the estimator questions and formulas, and the service list. We may use it for another company in your trade.

These rules apply to the Pay When Paid Plan only. The Own Website Plan has no fee on jobs.

• A website job starts with a website contact. A website contact is a customer reaching you through the shared website: a call to its phone number, a form, a quote from its estimator, a booking, a reply to a campaign message the Growth Engine sends them, like a maintenance reminder or a promotion, a booking through a campaign's referral link, or a cross-trade referral from another contractor.
• Each website contact covers 12 months. Every job you and that customer agree to within 12 months of their website contact is a website job, however they get back in touch with you, including a call to your own number. Every payment on that job carries the fee, even one paid after the 12 months end.
• After 12 months, a job they arrange directly with you is repeat work. It carries no fee. A new website contact from that customer starts a new 12 months.
• Your existing customers carry no fee, outside a campaign reply. When you join, you give us your customer list. A job for a customer on that list carries no fee, even if they reach you through the shared website, unless you agree to it within 12 months of their reply to a campaign.
• Your own leads carry no fee, outside a campaign reply. A customer who first reaches you through your own referral, your own number, or your truck or sign is your own customer, the same as one on your list. Their jobs carry no fee, unless you agree to one within 12 months of their reply to a campaign.
• Your Google Business Profile brings your own leads. The website link on your Google Business Profile points to the shared website. We tag visits that arrive through that link, and a customer who first reaches you that way is your own customer, with no fee. Example: a homeowner finds your Google Business Profile, taps Website, and books a furnace repair on the shared website. That job carries no fee, and neither does a later job for that customer, unless you agree to it within 12 months of their reply to a campaign.
• A campaign reply is a website contact for every customer. Campaigns run on the shared website. They include the QR codes we make for your printed marketing, and a scan of one is a campaign reply. When a customer on your list or one of your own leads replies to or books from a campaign message, every job you agree to with them in the next 12 months carries the fee. A neighbour who books through a referral link from a campaign is a website contact too.
• The fee is on what your customer pays before HST. It applies to every payment on a website job: the deposit, each progress payment, the final payment, change orders, extra work, and insurance supplements the insurer approves and pays. If the price changes after you inspect the job, the fee follows the new price.
• The fee on one website job is capped at $2,000, before HST. Once a job's payments have carried $2,000 in fees, its later payments carry no fee.
• Half the fee is charged at the deposit. When your customer pays the deposit, the fee is half the fee on the quote price they accepted, within the $2,000 cap. The other half is spread over the later payments, in proportion to how much of the rest of the quote each one pays. When the job is finished, we work out the fee again on what your customer actually paid, and the difference goes on your next monthly bill.
• Example: your customer accepts a $10,000 quote, so the fee on the quote is $800. Their $3,000 deposit carries $400. Their $4,000 progress payment carries 4/7 of the other $400, which is $228.57, and their $3,000 final payment carries $171.43. The total is $800, 8% of what they paid. If they had cancelled after the deposit and you kept it, the fee would be worked out again on $3,000, which is $240, and $160 would come off your next bill.
• A deposit is paid when your customer signs. It holds their date on your schedule and pays for the materials you order for their job. You set the amount, and it counts toward the job price.
• A progress payment pays a progress invoice. You send a progress invoice when the job reaches a stage your contract names, such as materials delivered or rough-in passed, for the part of the job price that stage covers. Approved change orders and extra work go on the next invoice.
• The final payment pays the final balance. The final balance is the job price, plus approved change orders and extra work, minus credits and the deposit and progress payments already paid. It is due when the job is complete. A holdback your customer keeps after completion, usually 10%, is part of the final balance and carries the fee when your customer pays it.
• A discount, credit, or refund lowers the fee. A discount or credit on the quote or invoice lowers what your customer pays, so it lowers the fee with it. When you record a refund on a website job, we work out the job's fee again on what your customer paid, less the refund, and take the difference off your next monthly bill. A job cancelled before any payment carries no fee. A deposit you keep after a cancellation carries the fee.

• A referral counts once the contractor you refer pays their first bill. They must be new to us when you refer them, and they can sign up for any plan. On the Pay When Paid Plan, their service area follows the same one-company-per-trade rule as everyone else's.
• You get 20% of their bill off yours for 12 months. On any plan, 20% of each bill the contractor you refer pays us in their first 12 months, before HST, comes off your next bill as credit.
• Credit only lowers your bill. Credit never pays out as cash and never takes a bill below $0. Unused credit carries forward to your next bill.
• The reward ends when you leave. Credit still being earned or not yet used on the day you leave ends that day.
• Earlier referral rate cuts keep their terms. A referral rate cut already running keeps its original terms until it ends.
• Cross-trade referrals (any plan): when your customer needs work in another trade, you can flag it on their customer record, with their agreement, and we send it to the company in that trade on the shared website that serves the job's address. You can flag work only for a trade with a company on the shared website.
• You earn $100 in bill credit for each cross-trade referral once the customer pays that job in full. The credit follows the same rules as other referral credit. The job is a website job for the company that receives it, and carries its normal fee. See Which Jobs Carry a Fee.

• Estimator prices: we build the formulas for the estimator for each of your services and update them when you keep making the same change. On any plan, you set the prices it shows, including its adjustment for the job's location, such as a downtown markup. That adjustment is part of your price for the job, not a fee of ours. On the Pay When Paid Plan, every company in your trade provides the services the shared website describes and uses the same estimator questions, each with its own prices. You can enter your own answers beside the homeowner's, give discounts when you choose, raise or lower the price, and send your customer an updated quote.
• Who manages the branding: we design your quote and invoice templates on either plan. On the Own Website Plan, you manage your own branding, and we build your website, quotes, and invoices to match it. On the Pay When Paid Plan, we manage the shared website's branding, which is the same for every company on it and appears on the website and its quotes. Your invoices carry your company name, logo, and colours.
• You check your own content for accuracy. We write your website content and make its images, including AI-generated images where you haven't sent your own. You are the final word on your own business's facts. Check everything we publish for you before it goes live, and confirm that it is true and that you can do every service it describes.
• Launch time: on the Own Website Plan, your website launches 2 to 4 weeks after you sign. On the Pay When Paid Plan, your company page goes live within 2 days after you sign.
• Support response times: we aim to reply to a change request, question or problem report within one business day, Monday to Friday excluding Ontario statutory holidays. Tell us when a fault stops your customers calling, submitting a request or booking a visit, and we prioritize it. A reply is not a commitment to fix the problem within that time; we tell you what is wrong and when we expect it fixed. We fix each fault at its cause and add an automated test that runs before every update, to stop the same fault recurring. Strategic Mind is a one-person business and does not provide staffed 24-hour support. We tell you ahead of planned absences and explain any changes to support availability.
• We provide services to you, and you do the work. On either plan, we run the office side of your jobs, bring in leads, and send them to you. We bill you for those services. You contract directly with your own customer for the work, and we are not a party to that contract. You alone are responsible for the work, for your own and your workers' conduct, for your customer paying you, and for insuring your workers, including while they're on a customer's property.
• Keep a good working relationship with every customer we send you. Your reviews bring in your next jobs, and on the Pay When Paid Plan every company on the shared website shares its reputation.
• You provide every service on your trade's service list (Pay When Paid Plan only). Every company in your trade on the shared website shares the same service list, and joining means you agree to provide every service it describes. A homeowner who calls for a listed service you can't do costs the whole site trust, beyond your own service area. We may also reword how a service is described to match the trade's common terms and what online search expects, rather than your own in-house terms.

• Customer records are handled under Canada's PIPEDA privacy law. See Privacy.
• Ontario law governs these terms, along with the federal laws of Canada that apply in Ontario.
• Disputes go through 3 steps. Either side first raises the dispute in writing, and both sides try to settle it directly within 30 days. If that fails, either side may send it to mediation in Toronto, with the mediator's fee split equally. If mediation does not settle it within 60 days, the courts of Ontario sitting in Toronto decide it.