Terms and Conditions

Blue Donut Studios Ltd Last updated: \[insert date\]

These Terms and Conditions explain how our website and services work. They apply when you use our website, book a call, request a proposal, buy a service, or work with Blue Donut Studios Ltd.

We have written these terms in clear language so they are easy to understand. They are still legally important. Please read them before using our services.

1. Who we are

Blue Donut Studios Ltd is a private limited company registered in England and Wales.

Company name: Blue Donut Studios Limited Company number: 09592070 Registered office: 8 Spur Road, Cosham, Portsmouth, England, PO6 3EB Website: https://www.bluedonutstudios.com Contact: Please use the contact form on https://www.bluedonutstudios.com, or write to us using our company name and postal address above. To reduce spam and automated scraping, we do not publish a plain-text email address on this page.

In these terms, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Blue Donut Studios Ltd. “You” and “your” mean the person, business, organisation, or representative using our website or services.

2. What we do

Blue Donut Studios Ltd provides professional consulting, creative technology, digital strategy, website, software, security, AI-readiness, innovation, startup, growth, and related business support services.

Our services may include, but are not limited to:

• business and startup support;

• growth planning and commercial advice;

• digital, website, and technology consulting;

• software, systems, and workflow advice;

• information security and practical cyber-awareness support;

• AI-readiness and responsible technology advice;

• creative technology, games, VR, immersive media, and innovation support;

• workshops, audits, discovery sessions, reports, prototypes, and project planning;

• introductions, mentoring, or support connected to funding, grants, tenders, or commercial opportunities.

The exact services we provide to you will be set out in a written proposal, quotation, booking confirmation, statement of work, email confirmation, or separate agreement.

3. Using our website

You may use our website for lawful purposes only.

You must not:

• misuse the website;

• try to gain unauthorised access to our systems;

• copy, scrape, harvest, or republish website content without permission;

• upload or send malicious code;

• use the website to send spam or harmful material;

• pretend to be someone else;

• use our content, branding, or materials in a misleading way.

We may update, suspend, or withdraw any part of the website at any time.

4. Website content is general information

The information on our website is provided for general business information only. It is not legal, financial, tax, medical, investment, or regulated professional advice.

We aim to keep the website accurate and up to date, but we do not promise that every page will always be complete, current, or free from mistakes.

You should take appropriate professional advice before making major business, financial, legal, technical, or operational decisions.

5. Booking calls, meetings, and consultations

Our website may allow you to book calls, discovery sessions, consultations, workshops, or meetings.

When you make a booking, you agree to:

• give accurate contact and business information;

• choose a suitable time and attend on time;

• tell us in advance if you need to cancel or rearrange;

• use the booking for a genuine business enquiry;

• not use the booking system for spam, sales pitches, abuse, or unrelated approaches.

A booking is not a guarantee that we will accept a project, provide services, or enter into a contract with you. We may decline work if it is not suitable, if we do not have capacity, if there is a conflict of interest, or if we believe the request is unlawful, unsafe, unethical, or outside our expertise.

6. Free discovery calls

If we offer a free discovery call, it is intended to help both sides understand whether there is a good fit.

A free discovery call does not include detailed consultancy, technical work, written advice, legal review, strategy development, design work, troubleshooting, or deliverables unless we specifically agree otherwise in writing.

We may end or refuse free calls if they are misused.

7. Paid consultations and workshops

If you book a paid consultation, review, workshop, audit, or session, the scope, price, date, time, and expected output will be confirmed before the session takes place.

Unless we agree otherwise in writing:

• payment is due before the session;

• the session is for the time stated in the booking;

• any extra work after the session will be quoted separately;

• advice is based on the information you provide;

• we are not responsible for problems caused by incomplete, inaccurate, or late information from you.

8. Cancellations and rearranging bookings

We understand that plans change. Please give as much notice as possible if you need to cancel or rearrange a booking.

For paid bookings, our usual cancellation terms are:

• More than 48 hours before the session: you may rearrange once or cancel for a refund, unless we have already carried out preparation work that you asked us to do.

• 24 to 48 hours before the session: we may charge a reasonable cancellation fee to cover time reserved and preparation work already carried out.

• Less than 24 hours before the session or non-attendance: we may charge the full fee, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

We will always aim to act fairly. We will not keep more than is reasonable to cover our actual losses, preparation time, reserved time, payment processing costs, and any work already done.

If we need to cancel or rearrange a booking, we will give you as much notice as reasonably possible. If we cancel a paid session and cannot offer a suitable alternative, we will refund the amount you paid for that session.

9. Consumer cooling-off rights

If you are a consumer and you book a paid service online, by phone, or away from our business premises, you may have a legal right to cancel within 14 days.

If you ask us to start work during the 14-day cancellation period, you agree that we may charge you a reasonable amount for work carried out before you cancel.

If the service has been fully performed within the cancellation period with your agreement, you may lose the right to cancel once the work is complete.

These rights do not usually apply in the same way to business-to-business contracts, but we will still aim to be fair and clear in all cancellation situations.

10. Proposals and quotations

A proposal or quotation is valid for the period stated in it. If no period is stated, it is valid for 30 days from the date of issue.

A contract starts when:

• you accept our proposal or quotation in writing;

• you pay the required deposit or fee; or

• we both otherwise agree in writing that work should begin.

A proposal or quotation may include assumptions. If those assumptions change, we may need to change the price, timetable, scope, or deliverables.

11. Project scope and changes

We will define the project scope in writing before significant work begins.

The scope may include:

• objectives;

• deliverables;

• timescales;

• responsibilities;

• fees and payment stages;

• assumptions and dependencies;

• review points;

• exclusions.

If you ask for extra work, changes, new features, additional meetings, or further revisions outside the agreed scope, we may charge extra. We will aim to confirm any extra cost before carrying out the additional work.

12. Your responsibilities

You agree to:

• give us accurate, complete, and timely information;

• provide access to relevant systems, documents, staff, suppliers, or accounts where needed;

• make decisions within agreed timescales;

• review work and give feedback promptly;

• check that deliverables meet your needs before using them publicly or commercially;

• make sure you have the right to share any materials, data, images, text, code, trade marks, or confidential information you give us;

• comply with all laws and regulations that apply to your business.

We are not responsible for delays, extra costs, or reduced results caused by missing information, late feedback, unavailable systems, third-party delays, or decisions outside our control.

13. Our responsibilities

We agree to:

• provide services with reasonable care and skill;

• communicate professionally and clearly;

• treat your information responsibly;

• tell you about important risks or dependencies we become aware of;

• deliver the agreed work as described in the relevant proposal, booking, statement of work, or written agreement.

We do not guarantee specific commercial results unless we expressly agree this in writing. For example, we cannot guarantee funding success, grant approval, sales growth, search engine rankings, investment, press coverage, software adoption, platform approval, or third-party decisions.

14. Fees and payment

Fees will be set out in the relevant quotation, invoice, booking confirmation, proposal, or agreement.

Unless we agree otherwise in writing:

• prices are in pounds sterling;

• invoices are payable within 14 days of the invoice date;

• deposits and staged payments are payable before the relevant work stage begins;

• expenses and third-party costs are charged separately where agreed;

• late payment may pause work and affect delivery dates.

If an invoice is overdue, we may:

• pause work;

• withhold deliverables;

• charge statutory interest and recovery costs where permitted by law;

• require payment upfront for future work.

15. Expenses and third-party costs

Some projects may involve third-party tools, hosting, software licences, stock images, fonts, plugins, subscriptions, advertising, travel, venue hire, specialist contractors, or other external costs.

We will tell you where third-party costs are likely to apply. You are responsible for paying approved third-party costs, either directly to the supplier or through us if agreed.

We are not responsible for the performance, pricing, availability, security, or policy changes of third-party services.

16. Delivery dates

We will aim to meet agreed delivery dates. Any dates we give are estimates unless we expressly state in writing that a date is fixed and essential.

Delivery may be affected by:

• late information or feedback;

• changes to scope;

• illness or emergencies;

• third-party delays;

• technical problems;

• payment delays;

• events outside our reasonable control.

If there is a delay, we will communicate with you and take reasonable steps to reduce the impact.

17. Reviews, revisions, and approval

Where a project includes review stages or revisions, these will be set out in the proposal or statement of work.

Unless we agree otherwise:

• revisions must relate to the agreed scope;

• consolidated feedback should be provided in one clear response;

• new ideas, changed direction, or additional requirements may be treated as extra work;

• once you approve work, further changes may be charged separately.

You are responsible for final checks before using, publishing, submitting, or relying on our work.

18. Intellectual property

Unless we agree otherwise in writing:

• we retain ownership of our pre-existing intellectual property, know-how, tools, methods, templates, code libraries, processes, designs, frameworks, and internal materials;

• you retain ownership of the materials you provide to us;

• once you have paid all fees due for a project, you receive the agreed rights to use the final deliverables for the purpose set out in the project agreement.

Drafts, rejected concepts, unused ideas, internal notes, working files, and development materials are not included unless we agree otherwise in writing.

We may reuse general knowledge, skills, experience, ideas, methods, and know-how gained during a project, provided we do not disclose your confidential information.

19. Portfolio use

Unless you tell us otherwise in writing, we may refer to your business name and a brief description of the work in our portfolio, proposals, case studies, or marketing materials.

We will not publish confidential information, sensitive data, private commercial details, or unfinished work without permission.

If a project is commercially sensitive, tell us before work begins.

20. Confidentiality

Both sides agree to keep confidential information private and to use it only for the purpose of the project or business relationship.

Confidential information includes non-public business plans, financial information, technical information, trade secrets, client data, strategy, passwords, security information, designs, documents, and other information that a reasonable person would treat as confidential.

Confidentiality does not apply to information that:

• is already public;

• was known lawfully before it was shared;

• is received lawfully from another source;

• must be disclosed by law, court order, regulator, or professional duty.

21. Security and access

If you give us access to systems, websites, hosting, software, data, repositories, files, or accounts, you must make sure you have authority to do so.

You should use secure access methods where possible, such as individual user accounts, limited permissions, two-factor authentication, temporary access, and password managers.

Please do not send passwords or sensitive credentials by ordinary email unless there is no reasonable alternative.

We will take reasonable care when handling access details, but you remain responsible for your own systems, backups, security policies, user permissions, and recovery plans.

22. Technology, AI, and security advice

Our technology, security, and AI-readiness services are practical business support services. They are not a substitute for specialist legal, regulated cyber-security, insurance, financial, or compliance advice.

We may help identify risks, options, and practical improvements. We do not guarantee that any system, website, software, AI tool, or process will be completely secure, error-free, compliant, profitable, or future-proof.

You remain responsible for deciding whether to adopt our recommendations and for checking that they are suitable for your organisation, sector, risk level, and legal duties.

23. Grants, funding, and growth support

Where we support funding, grant, tender, pitch, innovation, or growth activity, we may help with strategy, positioning, documents, planning, and preparation.

We cannot guarantee that you will receive funding, win a grant, secure investment, obtain a contract, or achieve a particular commercial outcome. Decisions by funders, investors, buyers, platforms, publishers, public bodies, or other third parties are outside our control.

24. Client materials and permissions

You confirm that you have the right to give us any materials you provide, including text, images, video, audio, data, software, documents, logos, brand assets, and third-party content.

You agree to protect us from claims, losses, or costs that arise because materials you provided were unlawful, inaccurate, infringing, misleading, or supplied without permission.

25. Data protection and privacy

We respect your information. We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

We collect and use personal data only where we have a lawful reason to do so. This may include responding to enquiries, managing bookings, providing services, issuing invoices, keeping business records, meeting legal duties, and improving our website and services.

We may share information with trusted service providers where necessary to operate our business. This may include email, booking, payment, accounting, website hosting, cloud storage, analytics, security, or professional advisory services. We only share what is necessary and expect those providers to handle information responsibly.

We may also share information if required by law, court order, regulator, tax authority, or to protect our legal rights.

More detail about how we handle personal data should be set out in our Privacy Policy.

26. Marketing communications

We will not add you to marketing emails without a lawful basis.

If you receive marketing from us, you can unsubscribe or ask us to stop at any time.

We do not sell mailing lists or customer contact details.

27. Cookies and analytics

Our website may use cookies or similar technologies to help it work, understand website use, improve performance, or support security.

Where required, we will ask for your consent before using non-essential cookies.

More information should be provided in our Cookie Policy or Privacy Policy.

28. Testimonials and feedback

If you provide a testimonial, review, quote, or feedback, we may use it in our marketing unless you ask us not to.

We may edit testimonials for length or clarity, but we will not knowingly change their meaning.

29. Accessibility and plain English

We aim to make our communications clear, professional, and easy to understand.

If you need information in a different format, or if something on our website is difficult to use, please contact us and we will try to help where reasonably possible.

30. Our liability

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, or any rights that cannot legally be excluded.

Subject to that, we are not liable for:

• indirect or consequential loss;

• loss of profit, revenue, business, opportunity, goodwill, or reputation;

• loss caused by your failure to follow advice or instructions;

• loss caused by third-party platforms, services, suppliers, or tools;

• loss caused by inaccurate, incomplete, or late information from you;

• loss caused by events outside our reasonable control.

For business clients, our total liability for a project is limited to the fees paid by you for the specific service giving rise to the claim, unless a different limit is agreed in writing.

31. Professional standards and conduct

We work professionally and expect the same from clients, suppliers, and website users.

We may suspend or end a booking, project, or communication if there is abusive behaviour, harassment, discrimination, threats, unlawful requests, non-payment, repeated missed meetings, misuse of our work, or a serious breakdown in trust.

If we end work for these reasons, you must pay for work carried out and costs reasonably incurred up to the end date.

32. Ending a project

Either side may end a project by giving written notice if:

• the other side seriously breaches the agreement and does not fix the breach within a reasonable time;

• payment is overdue and remains unpaid after a reminder;

• continuing the work would be unlawful, unsafe, unethical, or impractical;

• there is a serious breakdown in the working relationship.

If a project ends early, you must pay for all work completed, committed costs, approved expenses, and any reasonable cancellation costs up to the termination date.

33. Force majeure

We are not responsible for failure or delay caused by events outside our reasonable control. This may include illness, accidents, fire, flood, extreme weather, war, terrorism, strikes, supplier failure, internet outages, power failure, cyber incidents, government action, or other events we could not reasonably prevent.

34. Third-party links

Our website may link to third-party websites, platforms, tools, or resources. These links are provided for convenience only.

We are not responsible for third-party websites, content, services, policies, security, accuracy, or availability.

35. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The latest version will be posted on our website with the updated date.

If we are already working with you under a separate signed agreement, that agreement will usually take priority over website terms for that specific project.

36. If part of these terms is invalid

If any part of these terms is found to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, the rest of the terms will still apply.

37. No waiver

If we do not enforce a right immediately, that does not mean we give up that right.

38. Governing law and courts

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

The courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction, except where consumer law gives you the right to bring a claim somewhere else.

39. Contact us

If you have any questions about these terms, please contact us:

Blue Donut Studios Ltd Company number: 09592070 Registered office: 8 Spur Road, Cosham, Portsmouth, England, PO6 3EB Contact: Please use the contact form on https://www.bluedonutstudios.com, or write to us using our company name and postal address above. To reduce spam and automated scraping, we do not publish a plain-text email address on this page. Website: https://www.bluedonutstudios.com