Terms of service

1. Who you are contracting with

All work is carried out by Hugo van de Haar, a sole trader registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce. Registered details are in section 12. These terms apply to every quotation, engagement and delivery unless we have signed something that says otherwise in writing, in which case that wins.

Your own purchase conditions do not apply unless I have accepted them in writing. If your organisation requires its own contract, send it and I will read it.

2. What is on offer

• Demand-Side Teardown. An assessment of one buyer segment and one commercial decision: a five-page memo, a separately marked-up homepage and a 90-minute call. One week from the agreed start, once the materials and start payment are in place.
• Positioning Sprint. Three weeks to develop the positioning, write the agreed commercial copy and provide an editable handover.
• Fractional Narrative Lead. A monthly arrangement after a sprint; either side can end it with 30 days notice.
• Demand-Side Diligence. A commercial read of one company, or of a segment, for a party assessing it. Two to three weeks for one company; a segment study is scoped in writing before it starts.

Prices are published on the work page and confirmed in the proposal. The proposal is what governs: it names the deliverables, the dates and the price. If it is not in the proposal, it is not in scope, and anything that arrives later becomes a new proposal.

3. Prices, VAT and invoicing

All prices are excluding VAT. Dutch VAT at the prevailing rate is added for clients in the Netherlands. For business clients elsewhere in the European Union with a valid VAT identification number, VAT is reverse-charged. For clients outside the EU, VAT is not charged.

Sprints: €2,500 before week one; the balance before week two, only if you choose to continue. The balance is €7,000 for one buyer segment or €12,000 from two segments. Teardowns and other fixed projects are invoiced 50 per cent on acceptance and 50 per cent on delivery; retainers monthly in advance. Invoices are payable within 14 days. One sprint runs at a time, so a date is held only once the first invoice is settled.

On late payment the statutory commercial interest applies and work may pause until the account is clear. I would rather send a reminder than an interest calculation, and usually do.

4. The week-one clause

For a sprint, week one is invoiced separately at €2,500. If the positioning that comes out of week one does not convince you, say so at the end of it and the engagement stops there. You keep what week one produced once that week is paid, no further invoice follows, and no reason is required. Weeks two and three start only after your written confirmation and payment of the balance.

A fully paid teardown is credited against a sprint booked within 30 days of the teardown delivery. Its €2,500 fee covers sprint week one; there is no second charge for that week. If you continue, the balance is €7,000 or €12,000. If you stop, no further invoice follows and the teardown fee is not refunded. A teardown is not required before a sprint.

5. What I need from you

For a sprint, the work depends on access: two internal interviews with whoever actually decides the positioning, a handover call, and answers to questions in between. About four hours across three weeks. External customer interviews and website development are not included. The proposal lists the copy to be delivered and the revision rounds. If that access does not materialise, dates move, and I will say so as soon as I know.

You confirm that material you give me is yours to give, and that publishing it will not infringe anyone else's rights.

6. Who owns what

On full payment, all intellectual property in the deliverables made for you transfers to you: copy, messaging, documents, templates, the lot. Use it, change it, hand it to an agency, publish it under your own name. No licence fee, no attribution, no expiry.

Two things stay with me, and neither touches your material. The methods and frameworks I brought with me remain mine, including the Demand Transition Framework and the research instruments; you get the output of them, not ownership of them. And I keep the right to state that we worked together and to describe the engagement in general terms. Naming you in a case study, or quoting you, needs your written consent, and you can withdraw it.

7. Confidentiality

Anything you tell me that is not already public is confidential and stays that way, indefinitely, whether or not we sign a separate agreement. That includes your figures, your pipeline, your product plans and the fact of specific conversations.

I will sign your NDA if you want one. Send it before the first call.

8. Independence, and the conflict rule

The research and the client work are kept apart on purpose, because the research is only worth anything if it is not for sale.

• Being a client does not buy coverage. It does not get you into The Demand Side, and it does not keep you out.
• I do not advise a company while reporting on that company to its investors. If an engagement would create that position, I will decline one of the two and tell you which.
• Published research is never based on anything a client told me in confidence. Public sources only, with the method published.
• Where I would have a conflict of interest, I say so before the work starts.

9. Changes, delays and stopping

Either of us can end an engagement in writing. If you stop partway, work delivered and work in progress up to that point is invoiced; nothing beyond it is. Rescheduling a sprint is fine with reasonable notice, though later dates may already be taken.

If illness or something equally unavoidable delays me, you hear about it the same day and we agree a new date, or you take a refund of anything paid for work not delivered.

10. What I am responsible for

I deliver the work with the care you would expect of a professional, and I will fix genuine faults in a deliverable at my own cost if you raise them within 30 days.

What I cannot promise is a commercial result. Positioning changes how legible you are to a buyer. It does not control whether they buy, what a procurement committee decides, or what a market does next.

Liability is limited to the amount invoiced for the engagement in question, and excludes indirect or consequential loss, lost profits and lost opportunity. Nothing here limits liability for intent or deliberate recklessness, which cannot be limited under Dutch law.

11. Complaints, law and jurisdiction

If something is wrong, write to hugo@vandehaar.com within 30 days of delivery, describing what and why. I will answer within ten working days.

Dutch law applies. Disputes we cannot settle between us go to the competent court in , the Netherlands.

12. Registered details

These are the details a finance or procurement department will ask for. They belong on the invoice too.

Name

Hugo van de Haar

Trading as

Hugo van de Haar

Legal form

Sole trader (eenmanszaak)

Chamber of Commerce (KvK)

VAT identification (btw-id)

Address

Email

hugo@vandehaar.com

Terms last updated

6 September 2026

Written in English because the work is. A Dutch version is available on request. Where a translation and this text differ, the Dutch text of Dutch law governs.