Terms of Service

These terms are the agreement between your business and HG Media Co. The full terms below control, but here is what matters most:

• Every engagement has a 6-month minimum term. After six months it continues month to month until either side gives 30 days’ written notice.
• Fees are billed monthly in advance. A deposit reserves your start date and is credited to your first month. After six months your plan renews month to month, and you authorize recurring monthly charges.
• Deposits and fees are non-refundable. Instead of refunds, we make a delivery commitment: if we fail to deliver what your plan includes and do not fix it within 30 days of your written notice, you can leave without owing the rest of the minimum term.
• We do not guarantee specific results such as rankings, views, calls or revenue, because search engines, platforms and your market are outside anyone’s control.
• You own the finished work we make for you once it is paid for, and you keep ownership of your accounts, domain and listings.
• Tennessee law applies, and disputes are handled in Davidson County, Tennessee.

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a binding agreement between HG Media Co., a Tennessee limited liability company (“HG Media Co.,” “we,” “us” or “our”), and the business or person that uses our website or buys our services (“you” or “Client”).

You accept these Terms for our services when you check a box or click a button agreeing to them, pay a deposit or fee, or sign a proposal, order form or service agreement that refers to them. By browsing our website you agree to the website provisions in Sections 15, 16 and 19. If you accept on behalf of a business, you confirm you have authority to bind it.

If you and we sign a written proposal, order form or service agreement (an “Order”), the Order and these Terms together make up our agreement. If they conflict, the Order controls for that engagement.

We provide marketing and media services, including our Authority SEO & AEO and Authority Video packages, web design and development with ongoing hosting and care, video production, content, distribution, advertising management, call tracking and reporting.

Your Order or the plan you select describes what is included, the monthly deliverables and the price. Work outside that scope is quoted separately and starts only after you approve it in writing. Email counts as writing.

Unused monthly deliverables do not roll over to later months unless we agree in writing.

Real marketing results take time to build, so every engagement starts with an initial term of six (6) months (the “Minimum Term”). The Minimum Term begins on the start date stated in your Order or plan, such as January 1, 2027 for Founding Clients, or, if none is stated, the date we begin work.

Once your Minimum Term begins, you commit to pay the monthly fees for all six months. If you cancel before the Minimum Term ends for any reason other than our uncured failure to deliver under Section 6 or our uncured breach under Section 18, the fees for the rest of the Minimum Term become due immediately. Because we reserve team capacity and production time for you for the full term, both parties agree this amount is a reasonable estimate of our losses from early cancellation and not a penalty.

If you cancel after paying a deposit but before your start date, you forfeit the deposit and owe nothing more. If we are unable to start your engagement, we will refund your deposit in full.

After the Minimum Term, your engagement renews automatically month to month at the then-current rate. Either party can end it after the Minimum Term with at least 30 days’ written notice. We will give you at least 30 days’ notice before any price change.

• Monthly fees. Fees are billed in advance on the same day each month and charged automatically to the card or bank account on file. You authorize these recurring charges for the length of your engagement.
• Deposits. A deposit (for example, the $500 Founding Client deposit) reserves your spot and start date and is credited toward your first month’s fee.
• Advertising spend and third-party costs. Ad spend is not included in our fees. It is paid by you directly to the advertising platform. Other third-party costs, such as stock media, music licensing, special equipment or travel outside the Nashville area, are billed only with your prior approval.
• Taxes. Fees do not include sales or similar taxes. We add any tax we are required to collect.
• Late payment. Amounts more than 10 days past due may accrue a late charge of 1.5% per month or the highest rate allowed by law, whichever is lower. We may pause work, publishing and ad management until your account is current. Paused time does not extend or reduce the Minimum Term. In any action to collect amounts owed or enforce these Terms, the prevailing party may recover its reasonable attorneys’ fees and collection costs.
• Payment disputes. If you believe a charge is wrong, contact us first at contact@hgmediaco.com and we will work it out promptly. If you dispute a charge with your bank that is valid under these Terms, you remain responsible for it plus any dispute fees we are charged, and we may pause services until it is resolved.

All deposits and fees are non-refundable, including for partial months, unused deliverables and early cancellation, except where the law requires otherwise or as described in Section 6. We price our work this way so we can commit our team, schedule and production capacity to your business from day one.

We stand behind the work. We will deliver the services and deliverables described in your Order or plan with professional skill and care.

If we materially fail to deliver what your plan includes, tell us in writing what is missing. If we do not fix it within 30 days of your notice, you may end the engagement immediately by written notice and you will not owe any fees for the remaining Minimum Term. Fees for work already delivered are still owed. This is your exclusive remedy for a failure to deliver, and it replaces any refund.

Delays caused by missing approvals, access, content, shoot availability or payment on your side are not a failure to deliver.

Search engines, AI assistants, social networks and ad platforms control their own algorithms and policies, and your results also depend on your market, competition, pricing, reviews and how you handle the leads you receive. For that reason we do not guarantee any specific ranking, placement in AI answers, traffic, views, followers, calls, leads, sales or revenue. Examples, case studies and projections on our website or in proposals show what is possible, not a promise of what you will get.

• Give us timely access to the accounts, listings, sites, information and people we need to do the work.
• Review and approve work promptly. To keep your publishing schedule on track, routine organic content (such as social posts, blog articles and short-form videos) that you have not responded to within 5 business days of our request and a follow-up reminder may be treated as approved. Ad spend, prices, offers, new website pages and content featuring identifiable people always require your express approval.
• Get any permissions or releases needed from your employees, customers and others who appear in photos or videos you ask us to capture or publish, and tell us about anyone who should not appear.
• Make sure everything you give us (logos, photos, footage, music, testimonials, claims and other materials) is accurate, lawful and something you have the right to use, and that you hold any licenses your trade requires.
• Make sure the offers, prices and claims in your marketing are true and that you honor them.
• Name one main contact who can make decisions for your business.

You own and remain responsible for your website domain, Google Business Profile, social media, advertising and analytics accounts, even when we manage them for you. Where possible we work through manager or partner access instead of your passwords. Accounts we create for you are set up in your name or transferred to you on request once your account is paid in full.

Your use of third-party platforms is also subject to their terms. We are not responsible for platform outages, policy changes, account suspensions, ad disapprovals or changes in how platforms rank or show content, but we will help you respond to them as part of your services.

• Your materials. You keep ownership of everything you provide to us. You give us permission to use it to perform the services.
• Finished deliverables. Once you have paid all fees due, you own the final, approved deliverables we create specifically for you, such as published videos, ads, written content and website design and content.
• Our tools and know-how. We keep ownership of our pre-existing materials, templates, code, processes, methods, software and know-how, and of raw footage, project files and unused drafts unless your Order says otherwise. Where any of these are built into your deliverables, you receive a non-exclusive, perpetual license to use them as part of those deliverables.
• Third-party assets. Stock media, music, fonts, plugins and themes are licensed under their owners’ terms, which you agree to follow.
• Website files. When we hand over a copy of your website under Section 11, any of our code or templates inside it are covered by the license above. Premium themes, page builders or plugins may require you to buy your own licenses after a transfer.
• Portfolio. We may show the work we create for you, and your name and logo as a client, in our portfolio and marketing unless you ask us in writing not to.

Web design and development is delivered as one build under our ongoing care, with hosting, maintenance and optimization billed monthly. If your care plan ends, we will keep your site online for 30 days after the last paid period and, once your account is paid in full, give you a complete copy of your site files and content or help transfer the site to a host you choose. After that 30-day window we may take down sites hosted on our accounts.

Each party will keep the other’s non-public business information confidential, use it only for this engagement and protect it with reasonable care. This does not apply to information that is public, already known to the receiving party, independently developed or required to be disclosed by law. This obligation continues for two years after the engagement ends, and indefinitely for login credentials and trade secrets.

During your engagement and for 12 months afterward, you agree not to directly hire or contract with any HG Media Co. employee or contractor who worked on your account, unless we agree in writing.

By giving us your contact details, you agree that we may contact you about your inquiry, plan and services by email and phone, including through automated scheduling and reminder tools. You can opt out of marketing emails at any time with the unsubscribe link. We will still send emails needed to run your account.

Text messages. We send text messages only to people who have separately agreed to receive them. Consent to texts is never a condition of buying our services. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to stop all texts, or HELP for help, or contact contact@hgmediaco.com. Mobile carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

Except for the commitments stated in these Terms, our website and services are provided “as is” and “as available.” To the extent the law allows, we disclaim all other warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Content on our website and blog is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.

To the extent the law allows, neither party is liable to the other for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue or data, even if advised of the possibility. Our total liability arising out of or relating to our services or these Terms is limited to the fees you paid us in the three months before the event giving rise to the claim. These limits do not apply to your payment obligations, to either party’s indemnity obligations, or to fraud, gross negligence or willful misconduct.

You will defend and indemnify HG Media Co. against third-party claims arising from materials you provide, the products, services, offers and claims of your business, or your breach of these Terms. We will defend and indemnify you against third-party claims that original material we created for you, as delivered, infringes someone else’s intellectual property, up to the total fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim. The party seeking protection must notify the other promptly and cooperate reasonably.

Either party may end the engagement by written notice if the other materially breaches these Terms and does not cure the breach within 30 days of written notice. We may suspend or end services immediately if your account is more than 30 days past due, if you ask us to do something unlawful or misleading, or if you or your team are abusive toward our staff. If we end the engagement because of your breach, fees for the rest of the Minimum Term remain due.

When an engagement ends, you pay all fees owed through the end date, and each party returns or deletes the other’s confidential information on request. Sections that by their nature should continue, including payment, ownership, confidentiality, non-solicitation, liability, indemnity and disputes, survive.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Tennessee, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Before filing any claim, both parties agree to try in good faith to resolve the dispute by talking for at least 30 days after written notice. If that does not work, the state and federal courts located in Davidson County, Tennessee have exclusive jurisdiction, and both parties consent to them. Either party may bring an eligible claim in small claims court.

Neither party is responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond its reasonable control, such as natural disasters, severe weather, illness, internet or platform outages, or government action. This does not excuse payment of fees for services already delivered.

• We are an independent contractor, and nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, employment or agency relationship.
• You may not assign your agreement without our written consent. We may assign it as part of a merger, sale or reorganization.
• These Terms and any Order are the entire agreement on this subject and replace earlier discussions. If any part is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Not enforcing a right is not a waiver of it.
• Notices may be sent by email to the address on file for you and to contact@hgmediaco.com for us.
• We may update these Terms by posting a new version on this page. We will email active clients at least 30 days before changes take effect. Changes apply to new engagements and to existing engagements at their next renewal after the Minimum Term. The version in effect when you start an engagement governs it until then.

Questions about these Terms? Contact us:

HG Media Co.
Nashville, Tennessee
Email: contact@hgmediaco.com
Phone: (615) 236-6513