1. Who we are and what this covers
Small Businesses of Brisbane ("Small BOB", "we", "us") is operated by Web and Glow Pty Ltd (ABN 53 641 999 626), based in Brisbane, Queensland.
These terms cover your use of smallbob.com.au and everything on it: browsing the directory, reading Stories, sending us something through a form, having your business listed, and buying a paid listing.
By using the site you accept these terms. If you don't accept them, please don't use the site.
Nothing here takes away rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law or any other law that can't be contracted out of. Where these terms and those laws disagree, those laws win.
2. What Small BOB is, and what it isn't
Small BOB is two things: a directory of independent Brisbane businesses, and original written Stories about the people who run them.
It is not a booking service, a review platform, a marketplace, or a transaction of any kind between you and a listed business. You can't create an account here, because there aren't any. We take no payment through this website.
A listing is a starting point, not a recommendation. Listings are provided for general information only and do not constitute advice or a recommendation. Do your own checks — licences, insurance, quotes, reviews — before you engage anyone you found here.
We aren't a party to whatever happens between you and a business you found through us, and we aren't responsible for the goods or services they provide.
3. Using the site
You're welcome to browse, read, link to us, and share anything here.
Please don't:
- scrape, harvest, or bulk-copy the directory or the Stories, by hand or by bot;
- republish our Stories or photos in full elsewhere (a short quote with a link back is fine);
- use our forms to send abuse, spam, or anything unlawful;
- submit someone else's personal information unless you're entitled to;
- misrepresent who you are, particularly on a takedown or listing request; or
- try to break, overload, or work around the site's spam checks.
We can block access if any of this happens.
4. Listings
4.1 Getting listed
A free listing is always available, and always will be. To be listed, a business needs to be independently owned and trading in Brisbane. Franchise outlets of large chains aren't what this directory is for.
Whoever submits a listing must be authorised by the business to do it, and must confirm that when submitting.
We check every submission by hand — that the business is real, Brisbane-based, and independently owned. Most listings go live within a few days. That's a description of how we work, not a deadline we're promising.
4.2 Accuracy
The business is responsible for the accuracy of what it gives us. We'll fix things we get wrong, but we can't independently verify every claim a business makes about itself.
Don't give us anything misleading, and don't make claims about your business you can't back up. That's also a requirement of the Australian Consumer Law.
4.3 Listings we create ourselves
Some listings are written by us from information a business has already made public, without contacting the business first. Those listings say so, and they don't imply any relationship between us and the business.
4.4 Corrections
Anyone can flag a mistake, whether or not it's their business, and we don't ask who you are. Point us at a source through the corrections form and we'll check it and fix it promptly.
4.5 Takedown
If it's your business and you want your listing gone, ask us through the contact form.
We'll check the request genuinely comes from the business — using an email address or phone number the business publishes — and then act within 48 hours. When it's the business itself asking, we take it down first and sort out the details afterwards. You don't owe us a reason. This applies to paid listings too; see clause 6.7 for what happens to fees.
4.6 Our right to refuse or remove
We can decline to publish, or remove, any listing, Story, event, or submission, at our discretion. We'll normally tell you why.
The usual reasons are that a business isn't independent or isn't in Brisbane, that content is unlawful, misleading, offensive, or infringes someone's rights, that it's an industry we've decided not to cover, or that we simply don't think it fits.
This is a curated directory, edited by two people. Being on it is not an entitlement.
5. Stories, Coverage, and editorial independence
5.1 Stories are ours
Stories are written by us from our own interviews. We decide who we approach, what the Story says, and when it runs.
Owners take part under a separate written release, signed before the interview. Under it, an Owner sees and approves their own Story before it's published, and can withdraw at any point before publication. After publication, takedown on request applies.
5.2 Priority consideration, not a guarantee
A Story is never for sale. No plan includes one outright, and no amount of money changes what a Story says or whether we publish it. Whether we sit down with you, and everything about a Story once we do, is decided on editorial grounds.
What Featured and Premium plans buy is priority consideration: paying businesses move higher up the queue to be approached for an interview. It's a head start, not a guarantee — being on a paid plan doesn't mean we'll reach out, and being on the Free plan doesn't rule it out.
If you'd like to be considered, tell us — the Add Listing form asks, and so does the Suggest a Business form. Telling us costs nothing on any plan; it's only the queue position that a paid plan affects. That's on top of the release every Owner signs before an interview.
What a paid plan buys is visibility for your listing: a featured position in the directory, a spotlight slot on the homepage, and us sharing your listing on social media. Those are placements, not coverage.
Paid placement doesn't reorder search results. When a reader searches or browses a category, results are ranked the same way for everyone, paid or not.
We never guarantee where your business will appear in Google or any other search engine.
5.3 We label paid placement
Wherever a paid plan puts your listing somewhere a reader might otherwise take for an editorial pick — a featured slot in the directory or a spotlight on the homepage — that placement carries a label saying so.
Stories carry no such label. A Story itself is never paid for — paid plans only affect queue priority for being considered, as explained in 5.2 — so there's no paid outcome to disclose in the piece itself.
5.4 Coverage
Some listings link out to third-party media about a business — a radio segment, a podcast, an article. We link and attribute; we don't republish or rewrite someone else's journalism. Those works belong to their publishers and are subject to their terms. A link is not an endorsement by the publisher of us, or of the business.
5.5 The other business we run
Mark and Silvia also run a digital marketing business. It's kept entirely separate from Small BOB. It has no say in who we list or who we write about, and we don't route the owners we meet to it. We say this on our About page and repeat it here as part of these terms.
6. Paid listings
6.1 The plans
| Plan | Price | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | ongoing |
| Featured | $185 + GST | per year |
| Premium | $285 + GST | per year |
Prices are in Australian dollars and exclude GST.
Every paid plan buys visibility for your listing and nothing else. Paid plans also carry the practical extras a bigger listing needs, like more photos and more links. They do not buy a Story, priority for a Story, or any influence over one.
Exactly which placements come with Featured and Premium is set out on the Add Listing page, and that page forms part of these terms.
We can change our prices at any time. A change never affects a term you've already paid for; it applies from your next renewal, and we'll tell you before it does.
6.2 How buying works
There is no checkout on this website. Choosing a paid plan on the form sends us an enquiry — it isn't a purchase and it doesn't bind either of us.
We then email you, confirm what you want, and send an invoice.
We will never ask for card details by email, and we don't store them anywhere.
6.3 What you give us
You supply the listing content through the form, and the photos by email after we get in touch — the form is text only and there's nothing to upload. By giving them to us you confirm that you own them or have permission to use them, and you give us permission to publish, resize, crop and reformat them on the site, in our newsletter, and on our social media, for as long as your listing is up. You keep ownership of everything you send.
Please don't send us photos taken by a photographer who still holds the copyright unless you've cleared it with them.
6.4 What we'll do
We'll publish your listing, give it the visibility placements your plan includes, and keep both up for the term, subject to these terms.
We're a two-person operation. We don't promise a specific publication date, an uptime figure, a level of traffic, a number of enquiries, or a search ranking. What we promise is that the placements you paid for will actually appear, and that if one doesn't, we'll fix it or refund that part.
Featured and Premium plans include priority consideration for a Story (see clause 5.2), but nothing in a paid plan depends on an interview actually happening, a Story being written, or an editorial judgement going your way — those stay ours to make.
Where no timeframe is agreed, the Australian Consumer Law requires us to supply within a reasonable time.
6.5 Renewal
Paid listings do not renew automatically. We'll email you before your term ends and invoice you only if you want to continue. If you don't renew, your listing reverts to a free listing rather than disappearing.
6.6 Cancelling and refunds
You can cancel a paid listing at any time by contacting us.
When you cancel, we'll refund the unused whole months of your term. Your listing reverts to a free listing, or comes down entirely if you'd rather.
None of this limits your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. If something we sold you isn't delivered with due care and skill, or isn't fit for the purpose we said it was, you're entitled to a remedy under those laws.
6.7 If we remove a paid listing
If we take down a paid listing because you asked us to, we remove it first and sort out the refund afterwards, on the same pro-rata basis as clause 6.6.
If we remove it for our own reasons, or we stop running the directory, we'll refund the unused part of your term.
7. Events
Submitting an event to What's On is free. We read every submission and publish the ones that fit — events run by independent Brisbane businesses. We're not obliged to publish anything.
The contact details in the first part of the event form are for our use and aren't published. The event details are.
Whoever submits an event must be authorised to, and is responsible for the details being right. We're not the organiser, we don't run the event, and details can change after we publish. Check with the organiser before you go.
9. What you send us
When you send us something through a form — a suggestion, a correction, an event, a listing, a message — you keep whatever rights you have in it. You give us permission to use it for the purpose you sent it for, which includes publishing the parts meant to be published.
You confirm that what you send is yours to send, is honest, and doesn't infringe anyone's rights.
Taking part in a Story is different, and is covered by the separate written release.
10. Our content
The Stories, the photos we take, the original blurbs, the site design, the Small BOB name and logo belong to Web and Glow Pty Ltd (ABN 53 641 999 626) or to the people we've licensed them from.
Quote us, link to us, share us — all welcome. Republishing a Story in full, using our photos elsewhere, or using our name or logo in a way that suggests we endorse you, needs our written permission first.
Business names, logos and trade marks in listings belong to those businesses.
11. Links to other sites
We link out constantly — to businesses, media coverage and event pages. We don't control those sites, we're not responsible for their content or privacy practices, and a link isn't an endorsement.
12. Privacy
How we handle information is set out in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.
13. Liability
We put the site together carefully, but we can't promise it will always be available, accurate, or up to date. Businesses close, prices change, and events get cancelled without telling us.
To the extent the law allows:
- we're not liable for any loss arising from your use of the site, from relying on anything in it, or from your dealings with a business you found here; and
- we're not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for lost profits or business opportunities.
None of the above applies to liability that can't be limited by law. Our liability for failing to meet a consumer guarantee is limited to resupplying the service or paying the cost of having it resupplied, but only so far as the Australian Consumer Law permits that limit. It doesn't apply to services of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use, and it can't be relied on where doing so wouldn't be fair or reasonable.
14. Suspension and ending things
We can suspend or end your access, or remove your content, if you breach these terms.
You can walk away at any time — stop using the site, unsubscribe, or ask us to take your listing down.
Clauses that make sense to survive — content permissions for material we've already published, liability limits, governing law — survive.
15. Changes to these terms
We can change these terms. The current version always lives at smallbob.com.au/terms-and-conditions with the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll say so on the page. For anyone with a paid listing, a change that materially reduces what you paid for won't apply until your next renewal.
16. The usual machinery
Which document wins. If a paid listing is involved and the documents disagree, the order is: the invoice or written confirmation we sent you, then these terms, then the Add Listing page.
If we stop. If we wind the directory up, we'll refund paid customers the unused part of their term. Events outside our control — outages at our hosting or email providers, illness, natural disaster — may delay us, and we're not in breach for a delay we couldn't reasonably avoid, though your refund rights are unaffected.
Notices. We'll contact you at the email address you gave us. You can reach us through our Contact page.
Disputes. Talk to us first. Most things are fixable with an email.
If part of this doesn't hold up, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce something straight away, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later.
Transfers. You can't transfer your rights under these terms without asking us. We can transfer ours if the business changes hands, and we'll tell you if that happens.
17. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia. Disputes go to the courts of Queensland, and the courts that hear appeals from them.
18. Contact
Web and Glow Pty Ltd (ABN 53 641 999 626)
Contact Small BOB