Legal

Terms of Service

Last updated May 14, 2026

1. Who we are

Trades Advisory is operated by Max Maschmeier, a sole proprietor based in San Diego, California. References to "we," "us," or "Trades Advisory" in these Terms refer to that business. You can reach us at max@tradesadvisory.com.

2. What we do

Trades Advisory provides automated business health scoring, website audits, marketing consulting, website builds, and related services for contractors. Our core product is a health score that grades a contractor business across multiple categories based on publicly available data and automated checks against their website and online presence.

3. The health score is informational

The health score and all reports we generate are for informational and educational purposes only. They are not a guarantee of business performance, lead volume, conversion rate, or any specific outcome.

Scores are produced by automated checks against publicly available sources, including but not limited to your website, your Google Business Profile, third-party review platforms, and licensing databases. These sources can change, be incomplete, or contain errors outside our control.

You are responsible for the business decisions you make. Trades Advisory is not liable for any decision you take, or do not take, based on a score, finding, recommendation, or report we deliver.

4. Intellectual property and trade secrets

The scoring algorithms, methodologies, audit criteria, checks, weighting, copy, report formats, prompts, code, designs, and all other materials produced by Trades Advisory are the exclusive property of Trades Advisory and are protected by United States copyright, trademark, and trade secret law.

You may not, without our prior written consent:

  • Reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source or structure of our scoring system.
  • Scrape, crawl, automate, or otherwise programmatically extract data from this site or our reports beyond what a normal browser would request.
  • Reproduce, redistribute, resell, sublicense, or create derivative works from any report, score, or written material we deliver.
  • Remove or alter any trademark, copyright, or proprietary notice on our materials.

The names "Trades Advisory," the Trades Advisory shield logo, and related marks are trademarks of Trades Advisory. All rights reserved.

5. Intellectual Property & Proprietary Systems

1. The TradeScore™ scoring methodology, including all category scoring formulas, check definitions, weighting systems, and the Smart Search category, are proprietary to Trades Advisory.

2. The automated data aggregation, verification, and scoring processes used to generate contractor health scores are trade secrets of Trades Advisory.

3. No part of the scoring methodology, check logic, category definitions, or data aggregation systems may be reproduced, reverse-engineered, or used to create competing products without written permission.

4. The TradeScore™ name, logo, and verified badge are trademarks of Trades Advisory. Use of these marks without authorization is prohibited.

5. All contractor profile data, scores, and analysis generated by the platform remain the property of Trades Advisory.

6. Third parties may not scrape, crawl, or systematically access contractor profiles, scores, or check results for commercial purposes without a written data licensing agreement.

6. Communications

If you submit your email through any form on this site, including the health-score form, you agree that we may contact you with your report, follow-up information about your score, related Trades Advisory services, and occasional educational content for contractors. We do not sell your email address.

You can opt out of any non-transactional email at any time by replying STOP to a message or by emailing max@tradesadvisory.com.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the site, the score tool, or any service we provide in a way that:

  • Violates any applicable law or regulation.
  • Infringes on the rights of others, including intellectual property and privacy rights.
  • Interferes with the normal operation of the site or our infrastructure, including rate-limit evasion, brute force, or denial-of-service activity.
  • Submits false, misleading, or impersonating information about a business you do not own or operate.

8. Third-party services

Our score relies on data and platforms operated by third parties, including Google, Resend, Supabase, and Vercel. We are not responsible for the availability or accuracy of any third-party service. Outages, API changes, or data errors at those services can affect your score or report.

9. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Trades Advisory and Max Maschmeier are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising out of or related to your use of the site or any service we provide. Our total aggregate liability for any claim arising out of these Terms is limited to the amount you have paid us in the twelve months preceding the claim, or one hundred US dollars, whichever is greater.

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold Trades Advisory and Max Maschmeier harmless from any claim, demand, loss, or expense, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the site or any service we provide, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.

11. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising out of these Terms or your use of the site will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in San Diego County, California, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

12. Scoring and Ratings

Trades Advisory generates TradeScore ratings using a proprietary algorithm applied to publicly available data. These ratings are:

  • Generated algorithmically, not by human reviewers
  • Based on data from public sources including the California Contractors State License Board (CSLB), Better Business Bureau (BBB), Google Business Profile, and automated website analysis
  • Informational in nature and intended to help consumers research contractors
  • Not endorsements, guarantees of quality, or recommendations to hire or avoid any specific contractor
  • Subject to change as new data becomes available
  • Reflective of data at the time of scoring, which may not reflect recent changes

Trades Advisory makes reasonable efforts to ensure data accuracy but does not warrant or guarantee the completeness or accuracy of any information displayed. Public data sources may contain errors, delays, or omissions that are beyond our control.

Contractors who believe their information is inaccurate may submit a correction request at tradesadvisory.com/dispute. We review all requests within 5 business days. We do not manually adjust scores. Corrections are processed by re-pulling data from public sources and re-running our scoring algorithms.

13. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Trades Advisory and its founder, employees, and affiliates shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of business, revenue, or reputation, arising from:

  • The display of contractor ratings, scores, grades, or review analysis
  • Inaccuracies in data obtained from public sources
  • Decisions made by consumers or contractors based on information displayed on this platform
  • Algorithmic outputs including but not limited to TradeScore ratings, review intelligence analysis, price tier classifications, and match recommendations

Our total liability for any claim related to the services shall not exceed one hundred dollars ($100).

14. Dispute Resolution

If you are a contractor and believe that information displayed about your business is inaccurate or misleading, we encourage you to submit a correction request at tradesadvisory.com/dispute before taking any other action. We are committed to data accuracy and will review your request promptly.

Any disputes not resolved through our correction process shall be governed by the laws of the State of California and resolved in the courts of San Diego County, California.

15. Data Sources and Methodology

Our scoring methodology is publicly documented at tradesadvisory.com/how-we-score. We believe in transparency and encourage both consumers and contractors to review our methodology. Our data sources include:

  • California Contractors State License Board (CSLB) public records
  • Better Business Bureau (BBB) public profiles
  • Google Places API (business profiles, reviews, photos)
  • Automated website analysis (performance, security, content)
  • Social media and directory presence detection

All data is obtained from publicly available sources. We do not use private, proprietary, or confidential business information in our scoring.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The Last updated date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be summarized at the top of the page or sent by email when you have a relationship with us. Your continued use of the site after a change indicates acceptance of the updated Terms.

17. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email max@tradesadvisory.com.