Legal
Terms
Site terms, and the terms for each way of working together.
Last updated 2026-08-16
Who you are contracting with
UPWARD Insights (Laura Smith), Business ID 3213526-8, VAT FI32135268, Helsinki, Finland. Contact: contact@workupward.com.
Using this site
The questions, reflections and findings here are shared to be read, quoted and argued with. Quote freely with attribution to UPWARD by Laura Smith and a link; do not republish whole pages as your own.
The research published here is honest about its limits. It is not professional advice, and it should not be the only basis for a decision that matters.
Anything you submit — a response, a wondering, an enquiry — you confirm is yours to send. By sending it you allow it to be published anonymously, edited only for length and clarity. Nothing appears without review.
Prices and VAT
All prices shown include Finnish VAT at 25.5% unless stated otherwise. Payment is taken by Stripe; card details are never held here. A receipt is issued by email for every payment.
Sessions (Think with me)
A booked session is confirmed once payment succeeds and you receive a confirmation with a video link.
You may reschedule or cancel up to 12 hours before the start, using the link in your confirmation, and a cancellation in that window is refunded in full.
Inside 12 hours, the session is charged. If you do not attend and have not been in touch, the session is treated as delivered.
If Laura has to move a session, you choose a new time or take a full refund.
Introductory calls
A free 20-minute call is available once per organisation or email address in any 12-month period. It is a conversation about fit, not paid advisory work.
Speaking, workshops and advisory work
Bring me in and Build with me start as an enquiry. Scope, dates, fee, expenses and cancellation terms are agreed in writing before anything is booked, and those written terms take precedence over this page for that engagement.
Ongoing engagements (Grow with me)
Grow with me is a fixed-term engagement with its own detailed terms, published in full on its page and forming part of these terms by reference.
Gatherings and tickets
A ticket is confirmed when payment succeeds, or immediately for free gatherings. Paid tickets are refundable up to 48 hours before the start; after that they are transferable to another person but not refundable.
If a gathering is cancelled or moved, you get a full refund or a place at the new date, your choice.
Your right of withdrawal as a consumer
If you are buying as a consumer, you have a statutory 14-day right of withdrawal for services bought online, starting from the day the contract is made.
When you book a session, a ticket or an engagement that starts inside those 14 days, you are expressly asking for it to begin during the withdrawal period, and you acknowledge that once it has been fully delivered you lose the right of withdrawal. If you withdraw part-way, you pay a proportionate amount for what has already been provided.
To withdraw, write to contact@workupward.com before the deadline. Any refund due is paid back to your original payment method within 14 days.
Liability
Liability is limited to the amount you paid for the service in question, except where Finnish law does not allow that limit — including death, personal injury, intent or gross negligence. Nothing here limits your statutory consumer rights.
Complaints and disputes
Write to contact@workupward.com first; most things are solved that way.
If you are a consumer and we cannot agree, you can take the matter to the Finnish Consumer Disputes Board (kuluttajariita.fi) after contacting the Consumer Advisory Service (kuluttajaneuvonta.fi), or use the European Commission's online dispute resolution platform.
These terms are governed by Finnish law. A consumer keeps the protection of the mandatory law of their country of residence.
Grow with me — full terms
These apply to fixed-term Grow engagements, alongside everything above. They are also shown on the Grow with me page.
Who you're contracting with
Grow with me is provided by UPWARD (Laura Smith), based in Finland. Contact: contact@workupward.com.
What's included
A fixed-term mentoring and individual advisory engagement of 3, 6 or 12 months. Each month includes up to two private 60-minute sessions, booked through the calendar and subject to availability, plus reasonable administrative communication. You may send a short update or question between sessions; where useful it will inform your next conversation. Ongoing or on-demand advice by email or messaging is not included unless separately agreed.
Nature of the service
Grow provides mentoring, reflective conversation and individual advisory support. Laura may offer observations, questions, ideas and recommendations; decisions and actions remain yours. It is not medical, psychological, legal, financial or other regulated professional advice.
Prices and payment
All prices include Finnish VAT at 25.5%. You may pay the whole engagement upfront, in monthly instalments (5% more than the corresponding upfront price), or by invoice where agreed. Monthly instalments are a way of paying for a fixed-term engagement; they do not make it a month-to-month subscription.
Sessions and expiry
Sessions are subject to availability. A session may be rescheduled with at least 24 hours' notice; changes inside 24 hours and missed sessions normally count as that month's session. Unused sessions do not roll over and have no cash value — except where a session cannot take place because Laura needs to reschedule it, in which case it stays available.
Late or failed payments
If a payment fails or an invoice passes its due date, you'll be asked to settle it and new sessions are paused in the meantime. If payment remains outstanding for 14 days, the engagement may be suspended, and after written notice and a reasonable opportunity to resolve it, ended. A failed payment is not treated as you having ended the agreement.
Ending early
Grow is a fixed-term commitment. If you want to end it early, please give 30 days' written notice. Remaining instalments are not automatically charged as a penalty. Where early termination is accepted, the months already provided are recalculated at the shortest Grow rate (the 3-month rate) rather than the longer-term discounted rate, and any prepaid amount remaining after that adjustment is refunded. Laura may waive or reduce this adjustment, particularly in serious unexpected circumstances.
If Laura ends the engagement
Laura may end an engagement if she becomes unable to provide the service, believes she can no longer provide useful or appropriate support, or reasonably believes continuing is not in either party's interests. Where this is not caused by a serious breach on your side, future instalments stop, prepaid fees for future unused months are refunded, and your discounted rate for months already completed is not withdrawn.
Serious breach
Either of us may end the engagement immediately where continuing would be inappropriate — harassment, threatening or abusive behaviour, serious boundary violations, dishonesty, unlawful conduct connected with the engagement, or another material breach. Any financial settlement then reflects the services already provided and amounts properly due.
Fit
Grow depends on trust, candour and a productive working relationship. Either of us can raise concerns about fit or usefulness at any point, and where reasonable we'll first look at whether changing the approach, expectations or cadence would help.
Your consumer rights
If you are buying as a consumer, you have a statutory 14-day right of withdrawal for services bought online. If you ask for sessions to begin during that period, and you then withdraw, you pay a proportionate amount for what has already been provided. Nothing above limits or replaces the rights you have under Finnish and EU consumer law.