Terms of Service

Who we are

Hornet Marketing builds done-for-you websites for local service businesses — trades like HVAC, plumbing, landscaping, and painting — and then hosts and maintains those sites on an ongoing monthly subscription. In short: we build your site and keep it running for you.

Entity identification: The service is operated under the name "Hornet Marketing." At launch, the contracting legal entity is Lion Enterprise, LLC, operating as (d/b/a) Hornet Marketing; the business intends to move to a dedicated entity, Hornet Marketing, LLC (a North Carolina LLC), once its federal EIN is issued.

You can reach us at Hornet Marketing, 1480 Chapel Ridge Rd, Suite 100, Apex, NC 27502 — by email at hello@hornetmarketing.com or by phone at 919-378-0155.

Definitions

• "Service" — the website build plus the ongoing hosting and maintenance we provide.
• "Build" — the one-time work of designing and producing your website.
• "Subscription" — the recurring monthly plan that keeps your site live and maintained.
• "Customer Content" — the business information and materials that belong to you, such as your name, brand, logo, photos you provide, business facts, and reviews, along with the leads collected for you through your site's quote form.
• "Hornet Property" — the website template, code, design system, and the Hornet-produced build.
• "Demo Site" — a sample website we pre-build for a business using publicly available information, before that business signs up.
• "You" / "Customer" — the business that activates and pays for the Service.

What the Service is

We provide a done-for-you website build and ongoing hosting and maintenance as a service. Your website lives on Hornet's infrastructure and stays online only while your Subscription is active. If your Subscription ends — whether you cancel or stop paying — we may take the site offline, because the hosting service is what keeps it live.

This is a service, not a sale of standalone software. You're paying for an actively hosted, maintained website for as long as you subscribe.

Who can use the Service

The Service is for businesses (it's a business-to-business service). By signing up, you confirm that you're authorized to enter into this agreement on behalf of the business you represent, and that the business will be bound by these Terms.

Demo sites and activating your site

Before you become a customer, we may pre-build a Demo Site for your business using publicly available information about it. We aim for honest, accurate content, and we'll correct errors on request. To turn a demo into your live website, you "claim" or activate it and start a paid plan — that's the point at which you become a paying customer and our billing terms apply.

You are responsible for the accuracy of the business facts you confirm or provide to us — including licenses, certifications, claims, service areas, and reviews. Please review your site and let us know about anything that needs correcting.

Plans and pricing

We offer two plans, in U.S. dollars:

• Easy Start — a $100 build fee today, then $100 per month.
• Best Value — a $300 build fee today, then $75 per month.

The one-time build fee is charged immediately at signup and is non-refundable. The monthly subscription begins after a 30-day period — your first monthly charge hits about 30 days after you activate, because the build fee effectively covers your first month.

Recurring billing — please read this part carefully. By signing up, you authorize us (through our payment processor) to charge the build fee at signup and then to automatically charge your monthly plan fee — $100 per month on Easy Start, or $75 per month on Best Value — to your payment method each month. The monthly fee recurs automatically, at the stated amount, with no further notice, until you cancel through the Stripe customer portal. There's no long-term contract, and you can cancel anytime.

Payments

Payments are processed by Stripe (using Stripe Checkout, Billing, and the Customer Portal). We do not store your full card numbers — Stripe handles that. Charges are processed by Stripe and will appear on your statement.

Cancellation and refunds

There's no long-term contract — you can cancel anytime through the Stripe customer portal. Cancelling stops future monthly charges. It does not entitle you to any proration or refund of amounts already paid, including the current month or the non-refundable build fee. When you cancel, your website goes offline, since hosting is part of the Service.

The non-refundable build fee and the fact that your website goes offline when the Service ends are important terms — by activating a plan, you acknowledge and agree to them.

Missed payments

If a monthly payment fails, your account enters a past-due grace period and we'll try to collect again. You can bring your account current during the grace period to keep your site online while your plan is still active.

If the past-due balance isn't resolved during the grace period, your website is taken offline and your Subscription may be cancelled — not paused indefinitely. At that point your license to use the Hornet-built site ends, just as it would on a voluntary cancellation, and restoring service may require signing up again on a current plan.

Your content and our property

Your business content stays yours. Your name, brand, logo, photos you provide, business facts, reviews, and the leads collected for you through your site's quote form remain your property (your "Customer Content").

The website template, code, design system, and the Hornet-produced build remain the property of Hornet Marketing. While your Subscription is active, we grant you a limited, revocable license to use the Hornet-built website for your business. That license ends automatically if you cancel or if your Subscription ends for non-payment — at which point your right to use the Hornet-built site stops and the site goes offline.

For any content you provide to us, you confirm you have the rights to use it — including logos, photos, and text — and that it doesn't infringe anyone else's rights. You grant us the permission needed to use that content to build, host, and maintain your site.

Custom domains

We'll connect your website to a custom domain — either registering a new domain on your behalf or connecting one you already own — typically within about two business days. SSL/HTTPS is provisioned automatically so your site loads securely.

Your domain is yours. If we register a new domain on your behalf, it is registered for you and you are its owner; if you bring an existing domain, you keep it. When your Subscription ends, you keep your domain and may point it elsewhere or have it transferred to a registrar account of your choosing — your domain does not go offline or get forfeited just because your Hornet site does (only the website we host stops being served). You're responsible for the ongoing ownership and renewal obligations tied to your domain, including registration renewal fees; if a domain lapses or has issues outside our control, that can affect your site.

When the Service ends

When your Subscription ends — whether you cancel, we cancel for non-payment, or the agreement otherwise terminates — your website is taken offline and your license to use the Hornet-built site ends. Your own Customer Content remains yours, including any leads collected for you through your site's quote form.

For 30 days after the Service ends, you can ask us to export a copy of your Customer Content and your collected leads, and we'll provide it. After that window, we may delete that data from our active systems in the ordinary course. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle leads and other data, including retention and deletion. We recommend keeping your own copy of anything important; the Hornet-built site, template, code, and design system are Hornet Property and are not included in any export.

Acceptable use and your responsibilities

You agree to use the Service lawfully and honestly. You may not use your site for illegal, infringing, or deceptive content, or for anything that violates someone else's rights.

• Provide accurate, truthful business information.
• Keep your account and billing details current.
• Respond to our requests when we need information or approval to make changes.
• Make sure any business facts you confirm — licenses, claims, service areas, reviews — are accurate.

Changes to the Service

We may add, change, or remove features of the Service over time, at our discretion, as we improve it.

Term and termination

These Terms apply for as long as you use the Service. You can end them anytime by cancelling through the Stripe customer portal. We may suspend or end the Service if you breach these Terms, don't pay, or use the Service for prohibited content. When the agreement ends for any reason, your website goes offline and your license to use the Hornet-built site ends; the "When the Service ends" section above explains what happens to your Customer Content and leads.

No warranties

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." We work hard to keep your site online and running well, but we don't warrant that hosting will be uninterrupted or error-free, and we make no promises about search rankings, traffic, lead volume, or any particular business results. You use the Service at your own discretion.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent allowed by law, Hornet Marketing is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, or for lost profits or lost business. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the amount you paid us in the period (for example, the prior month or billing cycle) giving rise to the claim.

Indemnification

You agree to cover and hold us harmless from claims arising out of your Customer Content, the accuracy of the business facts you confirm or provide, and your use of the Service — including claims that your content or business information infringes someone's rights or is inaccurate or misleading.

Third-party services and events outside our control

Our Service relies on third-party providers — including Stripe for payments, Cloudflare and our hosting providers for serving your site, and domain registrars. We're not responsible for outages, errors, or actions of those third parties, though we'll do our part to work through any issues that affect you.

We aren't responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control — including third-party provider outages, network or infrastructure failures, natural events, or other circumstances we can't reasonably prevent. These are not a breach of these Terms.

Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, and any dispute will be handled in Wake County, North Carolina. Before filing anything, we both agree to first try to resolve the issue informally — just reach out to us at hello@hornetmarketing.com and we'll work with you in good faith.

General terms

These Terms (together with our Privacy Policy) are the entire agreement between you and Hornet Marketing about the Service. If any part is found unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a provision right away, that's not a waiver of our right to do so later. You may not assign this agreement without our consent; we may assign it (for example, to the new Hornet Marketing entity or in connection with a business transfer).

Changes to this agreement

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we'll change the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, let you know. If you keep using the Service after an update takes effect, that means you accept the updated Terms.