Privacy Policy

Advice4Ltd

Last Updated: July 29, 2025

1. Introduction

Advice4Ltd (“we”, “us”, or “our”) is a growth consultancy business committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share your personal data, and outlines your rights in relation to that data, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Our Registered Address: Advice 4 Ltd, Unit 2A, Swordfish Business Park, Lancashire, Burscough, Lancashire, L40 8JW, United Kingdom.

2. What Personal Data Do We Collect?

We may collect and process various types of personal data, depending on your interaction with us. This may include:

• Contact Information: Name, email address, phone number, company name, job title, and postal address.
• Communication Data: Information you provide when you communicate with us via email, phone, or online forms, including inquiries, feedback, and support requests.
• Service Data: Information related to the consultancy services you engage us for, which may include business goals, financial data (if relevant to the consultancy and provided by you), operational details, and other information necessary for us to deliver our services.
• Website Usage Data: Information about how you use our website, such as IP address, browser type, operating system, referral sources, pages viewed, and time spent on pages. This data is collected through cookies and similar technologies, as detailed in our Cookie Policy below.
• Marketing Preferences: Your preferences in receiving marketing communications from us.

3. How Do We Collect Your Personal Data?

We collect personal data through various channels:

• Directly from you: When you contact us, enquire about our services, sign up for our newsletter, or engage us for consultancy.
• From your employer or organisation: If your employer or organisation engages our services, they may provide us with your contact details as a designated point of contact.
• Through our website: When you visit and interact with our website (e.g., through contact forms, and via cookies as described in the Cookie Policy).
• From publicly available sources: In some limited cases, we may collect business-related contact information from public sources (e.g., company websites, LinkedIn) to identify potential clients.

4. How and Why Do We Use Your Personal Data? (Lawful Basis for Processing)

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• To provide our consultancy services:
  • Lawful Basis: Performance of a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
  • Purpose: To understand your business needs, develop and deliver our growth strategies, manage our client relationships, and provide ongoing support.
• To respond to your enquiries and communicate with you:
  • Lawful Basis: Legitimate interests (to respond to queries and provide information about our services) or performance of a contract (if the enquiry is pre-contractual).
  • Purpose: To answer your questions, provide information about our services, and maintain communication.
• For marketing purposes (with your consent where required):
  • Lawful Basis: Consent (for direct marketing emails to individuals, where required) or Legitimate Interests (for B2B marketing to corporate subscribers where appropriate and not overridden by your rights and freedoms).
  • Purpose: To send you updates, newsletters, information about our services, or promotional materials that may be of interest to you. You have the right to withdraw consent at any time.
• To improve our website and services:
  • Lawful Basis: Legitimate interests (to understand how our website is used and to improve our offerings).
  • Purpose: To analyse website usage, identify areas for improvement, and enhance the user experience. This includes the use of cookies as detailed below.
• To comply with legal obligations:
  • Lawful Basis: Legal obligation.
  • Purpose: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes (e.g., tax reporting).

5. Cookie Policy

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience and provide us with insights into how our website is used. This section explains what cookies are, how we use them, and your choices regarding their use.

5.1 What are Cookies? Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. Cookies can be “session cookies” (which are deleted when you close your browser) or “persistent cookies” (which remain on your device for a set period or until you delete them).

5.2 How We Use Cookies We use cookies for the following purposes:

• Strictly Necessary Cookies: These cookies are essential for the operation of our website. They enable core functionality such as navigating the site and accessing secure areas. Our website cannot function properly without these cookies. Consent is not required for these cookies under GDPR.
  • Example: A cookie that remembers your logged-in status.
• Analytical/Performance Cookies: These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and reporting information anonymously. This helps us improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring users are finding what they are looking for easily.
  • Example: Google Analytics cookies, which collect information about page visits, referral sources, and time spent on pages.
• Functionality Cookies: These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name, and remember your preferences (e.g., your language or region choice).
  • Example: A cookie that remembers your preferences for display settings.
• Targeting/Advertising Cookies: These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited, and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
  • Example: Cookies used by advertising networks to serve targeted ads.

5.3 Third-Party Cookies In addition to our own cookies (first-party cookies), we may also use various third-party cookies for analytics and marketing purposes. These are cookies set by a domain different from our website. For example, we use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the site. You can find more information about how Google uses your personal information here: [Link to Google’s Privacy Policy, e.g., https://policies.google.com/privacy].

5.4 Your Cookie Choices and Consent When you first visit our website, you will be presented with a cookie banner that allows you to:

• Accept All Cookies: Consent to all categories of cookies.
• Reject All Non-Essential Cookies: Only allow strictly necessary cookies to be set.
• Manage Preferences/Customise Settings: Choose which categories of cookies (e.g., analytical, functionality, targeting) you consent to.

You have the right to withdraw your cookie consent at any time. You can typically do this by:

• Revisiting your Cookie Preferences: We will provide a readily accessible link on our website (e.g., in the footer or through a dedicated cookie settings button) that allows you to change your consent choices.
• Browser Settings: Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can usually configure your browser to accept or reject all cookies, or to notify you when a cookie is being sent. Be aware that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit.

6. Who Do We Share Your Personal Data With?

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties. We may share your personal data with:

• Service Providers: Third-party service providers who perform services on our behalf, such as IT support, CRM systems, email marketing platforms, and professional advisors (e.g., accountants, lawyers). These providers are contractually obligated to protect your data and only process it according to our instructions.
• Analytics Providers: As detailed in our Cookie Policy, we use analytics services (e.g., Google Analytics) to understand website usage.
• Legal and Regulatory Authorities: If required by law, court order, or governmental regulation, or to protect our rights, property, or safety, or the rights, property, or safety of others.
• Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your personal data may be transferred to the acquiring entity.

7. International Data Transfers

Our primary operations are within the United Kingdom. We do not generally transfer your personal data outside the UK or European Economic Area (EEA).

If, for any reason, it becomes necessary to transfer your personal data to a country outside the UK or EEA, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as:

• Transferring to countries deemed to provide an an adequate level of protection for personal data by the UK government or European Commission.
• Using standard contractual clauses approved by the UK government or European Commission that provide equivalent protection.
• Obtaining your explicit consent where appropriate.

8. Data Security

We have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from accidental loss, unauthorised access, use, alteration, or disclosure. These measures include:

• Data encryption (where appropriate).
• Access controls and authentication procedures.
• Regular security assessments and updates.
• Staff training on data protection.

Despite these measures, no data transmission over the internet or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

9. Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Generally, we will retain client data for the duration of the engagement plus a period of [e.g., 7 years] for legal and accounting purposes. Marketing consent will be retained until you withdraw it.

10. Your Rights

Under GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• The right to be informed: About how your personal data is collected and used (as per this Privacy Policy).
• The right of access: To request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• The right to rectification: To request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.
• The right to erasure (“the right to be forgotten”): To request that we delete your personal data in certain circumstances.
• The right to restrict processing: To request that we limit the way we use your personal data in certain circumstances.
• The right to data portability: To request that we transfer your personal data to you or another organisation in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
• The right to object: To our processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, particularly for direct marketing.
• Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling: To not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you. (Note: Advice4Ltd does not currently engage in automated decision-making or profiling that would have significant effects on individuals).

11. How to Exercise Your Rights

To exercise any of your rights, please contact us at:

Email: info@advice4businesslco.uk]

Postal Address: Advice 4 Ltd, Unit 2A, Swordfish Business Park, Lancashire, Burscough, Lancashire, L40 8JW, United Kingdom.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

12. Complaints

If you have concerns about how we are handling your personal data, please contact us in the first instance. We will do our best to resolve your concerns.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Website: www.ico.org.uk Address: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF Helpline: 0303 123 1113

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any significant changes by posting the updated policy on our website with a new “Last Updated” date.