The 30-day cancellation, explained: what it covers and what it doesn't

Every sales page promises low risk. Most don't explain what that actually means. Here's exactly how the 30-day cancellation and replacement guarantee work, what they cover, and where the limits are.

If you're evaluating a satellite office and trying to figure out the downside scenario, this post is for you.

The two guarantees

There are two separate promises. They overlap but cover different situations.

The 30-day cancellation. You can cancel the service with 30 days' notice. No penalties. No buyout fees. No complicated exit clauses. If the model isn't working for you, for any reason, you give notice and the engagement ends 30 days later.

The 30-day replacement guarantee. If a team member isn't the right fit, we replace them within 30 days at no additional cost. You don't pay a new recruitment fee. You don't start over from scratch.

These are different scenarios. Cancellation means you're leaving entirely. Replacement means the model is working but the specific person isn't.

What the cancellation covers

The cancellation is straightforward. Within the first 30 days of a team member starting, or at any point after, you can give 30 days' written notice and walk away.

During that 30-day notice period, the team member continues working. You continue paying the monthly invoice. At the end of 30 days, the engagement is over. The team member's employment, office access, equipment, and IT are handled by us. There's no loose end on your side.

No minimum contract length. You're not locked into 6 or 12 months. If you try the model for two months and decide it's not right, you give notice at the end of month two and you're done by the end of month three.

No exit fees. Some staffing providers charge an early termination fee or require a buyout if you leave before a certain date. We don't. The monthly invoice is the only cost.

No equipment recovery on your end. The laptop, monitor, and equipment stay with the satellite office. You don't need to arrange shipping, negotiate returns, or write off hardware.

What the replacement guarantee covers

Sometimes the person is wrong for the role. It happens with any hire, local or remote. Maybe the skill set isn't quite right. Maybe the communication style doesn't fit your team. Maybe the ramp is taking longer than expected.

In that case, here's what happens.

You flag the issue. We work with you to understand what's not clicking. If it's fixable (a training gap, a process issue, a communication adjustment), we help address it. If it's not fixable, we replace the person.

The replacement process works like the initial hiring process: we present a new shortlist of pre-vetted candidates, you interview and pick, and the new person starts. No additional recruitment fee. The 30-day clock resets with the new hire.

What "at no additional cost" means. You don't pay a placement fee or recruitment surcharge. You continue paying the regular monthly invoice. During the transition, there may be a brief overlap or gap depending on timing. We aim to minimize disruption, but we're honest that a replacement takes one to two weeks to fully set up.

What neither guarantee covers

Transparency matters here more than anywhere else, so let's be specific.

The guarantees don't eliminate onboarding time. A new team member, whether the original or a replacement, needs four to six weeks to ramp up. That's true for any hire. The guarantee protects you from being stuck with the wrong person. It doesn't fast-forward the learning curve.

The cancellation doesn't apply retroactively. If you decide to cancel halfway through a billing month, you pay through the current month plus the 30-day notice period. This isn't a "cancel today and stop paying today" arrangement.

The replacement guarantee covers fit, not scope changes. If you hire a mid-level designer and six months later need a senior art director, that's a new hire, not a replacement. The guarantee applies when the person isn't performing in the role they were hired for.

Intellectual property stays clean either way. Any work produced by the team member during the engagement belongs to you. This is covered in the service agreement regardless of whether you cancel or continue. But worth stating: cancellation doesn't create an IP gray area.

Why we offer it

The honest reason is that we're pre-launch. We don't have five years of case studies and a hundred logos on our website. The guarantee exists because we know you're taking a chance, and we want to make that chance as small as possible.

But there's a structural reason too. The satellite office model only works if the team member works out. A bad match costs us more than it costs you: we've spent time sourcing, vetting, onboarding, and setting up the workspace. We're incentivized to get the match right the first time.

The guarantee aligns the incentives. If we place someone who isn't right, we eat the cost of replacing them. That's how it should be.

How this compares to alternatives

For context, here's what the downside looks like with other approaches.

Hiring locally: A bad hire costs three to six months of salary, plus the time and cost to rehire. There's no guarantee. The downside is large and entirely yours.

Freelancers: No guarantee at all. If a freelancer ghosts or delivers subpar work, you absorb the cost and start over. The "guarantee" is the hourly rate, which looks cheap until you've paid it three times for three different people on the same project.

EOR-only platforms (Deel, Remote, Oyster): These handle payroll and compliance but don't recruit or manage the person. If the hire doesn't work out, you handle the replacement yourself, using the same EOR for the next person. The operational lift is yours.

Staffing agencies: Many charge a placement fee (15 to 25 percent of annual salary) plus a monthly markup. If the person leaves or doesn't work out, some offer a guarantee period (typically 60 to 90 days), but after that, you pay another placement fee.

The satellite office model, with month-to-month terms and a replacement guarantee, is structurally lower-risk than any of these.

Questions worth asking on the call

If you're talking to us (or any satellite office provider), these are the questions to bring up.

How long does a replacement take? What happens to the workload during the transition? Is there an overlap period? What's the longest a replacement has taken? Can I see the service agreement before committing?

These are fair questions. Good providers answer them directly.

SoTalented is a satellite office service for companies in the US, UK, Europe, Singapore, and Australia. No long-term contracts, 30-day cancellation, and a replacement guarantee if the first hire isn't right. If you want to see what the arrangement looks like before committing, talk to us.