The rules for using this site, in the same plain English as everything else.

Use the site, use the calculator, send us a note. Just do not treat any of it as a promise.

No guarantee. The pages here describe what the practice does and show what past work produced. The calculator gives you an estimate built from numbers you typed in. Neither is a guarantee of a result, a quote, or professional advice about your business.

The signed agreement wins. When we do work together, a signed agreement sets out what is actually promised, and that agreement wins over anything written on this site.

If anything below is unclear, email [email protected] and ask. A real person answers.

You, and the practice that runs this site.

"We", "us", and "the practice" mean Pharos Lumen Consulting LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company trading as Pharos Lumen Consulting, a single-operator practice in Charlotte, North Carolina. "You" means anyone using this site.

By using the site you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, please do not use the site. Using it is the only thing you are agreeing to here; nothing on this page creates a consulting engagement, and nothing on it obliges either of us to enter one.

Read it, share it, quote it. Do not attack it.

You are welcome to read these pages, link to them, quote them with attribution, and send them to a colleague. What you may not do:

• Try to break into, overload, scan, or otherwise interfere with the site or the systems behind it.
• Use automated tools to harvest the content wholesale or to submit the contact form.
• Republish the material as your own, or present it in a way that implies we endorse you.
• Use the site to send anything unlawful, deceptive, or abusive.

We may block access or withdraw the site at any time, including from a specific visitor, without notice. In practice that only ever happens in response to abuse.

This site is information, not a recommendation about your business.

Everything published here is general information about how the practice works and what it has done. It is not operational, financial, legal, tax, accounting, or technology advice about your specific situation, and it is not a substitute for advice from someone who knows your business. Do not act on anything here without checking it against your own circumstances.

Reading the site, using the calculator, or sending a message does not make us your consultant and does not create any professional or fiduciary relationship. That relationship starts only when both sides sign an engagement agreement.

It does arithmetic on the numbers you enter. That is all it does.

The calculator on the home page takes the figures you set with the sliders, multiplies them out, and shows the result. It has no information about your company, your processes, your payroll, your contracts, or your market. It makes assumptions that may not hold for you.

An illustration. The figure it produces is an illustration of an order of magnitude, not a forecast, a quote, a savings guarantee, or a valuation.

Showing it to others. Nobody should present it to a board, a lender, or a budget committee as an estimate we prepared.

Our responsibility. We do not stand behind any number it produces, and we are not liable for any decision made on the strength of one.

A real number for your business comes out of an Operations Audit, where we look at how the work is actually done before putting a figure on it.

Past results are real, and they are not a prediction of yours.

Real, reported results. The outcomes described on this site happened. They are reported from the practice's own records, and client names are withheld because we are not free to publish them.

Your own results. What we cannot tell you is that the same thing will happen for you. Results depend on the business, the processes, the people, the systems in place, and how much of the change the organization actually adopts.

Where a page gives a percentage, a dollar figure, or a timeframe from past work, read it as "this is what happened once", not "this is what we promise you". If you want the substantiation behind a specific figure before a conversation, ask for it and we will walk you through where it came from.

The words, the design, and the method belong to the practice.

Rights to the content. The text, design, layout, graphics, code, and the named method described on this site are owned by the practice or used with permission.

Quoting us. You may quote a reasonable extract with attribution and a link.

Copying and our name. You may not copy the site, reproduce it as a template, or use the practice's name, wordmark, or materials as your own or to promote another business.

If you want to use something from here in a deck, a report, or an article, email and ask. The answer is usually yes.

Send us the problem, not a sales pitch or someone else's data.

The contact form is for people who want to talk about work. When you use it, please keep three things in mind:

• Do not send confidential or regulated information. The form is a first hello. It is not a secure channel for customer records, employee data, financial detail, health information, or anything under a confidentiality obligation. Save that for a signed engagement.
• Send your own information. Do not submit someone else's personal details without their say-so.
• It is not an inbox for solicitation. Unsolicited sales pitches, recruiting, and bulk messages are not welcome and are deleted.

What happens to a message once you send it is described on the privacy page. We aim to reply within one business day, and that is an intention, not a contractual commitment.

The site is provided as it is.

We put real care into keeping this site accurate and available, but we do not warrant it. To the fullest extent the law allows, the site and everything on it are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement.

We do not promise that the site will be uninterrupted, error-free, free of harmful components, or that anything on it is current. Some pages describe work and pricing that change over time.

What we are responsible for, and what we are not.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the practice is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost revenue, lost savings, lost data, or business interruption, arising out of your use of this site or your reliance on anything published on it, including any figure produced by the calculator.

Where liability cannot be excluded, our total liability arising from this site is limited to one hundred US dollars. This limit applies to the site only. The liability terms of an actual engagement are set in that engagement's own agreement and are not affected by this page.

A link is not an endorsement, and their rules are theirs.

Some pages link to other organizations, including software vendors and the providers named in the privacy policy. We do not control those sites, we are not responsible for their content or their handling of your data, and a link is not a recommendation to buy. When you follow one, that site's own terms and privacy policy apply.

This matters more here than on most sites, because the practice recommends software for a living. Any recommendation we make in an engagement is made in writing, with reasoning, and without commission from any vendor. A link on this site is not one.

North Carolina law, North Carolina courts.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute arising out of this site or these terms goes to the state or federal courts located in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and both sides consent to those courts.

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in force. If we do not enforce a term straight away, that is not a waiver of it.

When they change, the date at the top changes with them.

We may update these terms as the site changes. The version on this page is the one in force, and the effective date at the top tells you when it took effect. We do not bury changes inside the text. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated terms.

Questions about anything on this page go to [email protected].