I remember when I first started Phenomenoodle… I was approached by a local networking organisation and asked to join – at a fee of £250, to be paid upfront for a year’s membership.

It’s not an unreasonable amount at all, but at that particular point in time, not really having earned very much yet from my own business, it may as well have been £250,000 for all that I could afford it. They didn’t offer the option to pay the membership fee monthly, unfortunately, or I probably would have jumped at that – just over £20 per month was infinitely more affordable than a lump-sum upfront payment.

In retrospect, I’m kinda glad that I didn’t scrape together the money to join the networking organisation. I’ve met many of the people who belong to it at other functions and they’re all lovely people, but the style of networking involved was too formal for me. I’ve decided to be at peace with the fact that I’m not a ‘magic minute’ kind of girl!

But I digress.

My experience with the whole heart-sinking, jaw-dropping, you-want-me-to-pay-what-upfront?! process isn’t unique amongst small businesses, especially not in the first few months of operation. Sometimes, finding a whole big chunka cash for something just isn’t feasible no matter how much you’d like it to be so. Smaller monthly payments, on the other hand? Perfect.

The weird thing is, I never thought to apply this to my own business at first – for some reason, in my head, a website was something you paid for upfront. In our case, we ask people for a 50% deposit at the start of a project, and 50% upon completion, which breaks things up somewhat, but which can also still work out to two large amounts.

I’m happy to report, however, that my brain finally came to the party and that we now offer a pay-monthly option for our web design services… the Monthly Marvin! (For some background on “Who on earth is Marvin?!” click here.)

There will still be a deposit involved, though less at 25%. And, as is usually the case with pay-monthly options, the total cost will work out a wee bit higher than if you paid upfront, though we’re not here to exploit anyone by charging exorbitant fees. What we are here to do, is get small businesses like you the heck onto the web so that you can start expressing your brilliance online and making those big dreams come true! I feel very passionately about this, and can’t stand to see small businesses settling for either no web presence or an inferior one simply as a result of a (too) high cost barrier.

Regardless of whether you choose to pay upfront or monthly, you’ll also have the option to add on our monthly maintenance package, which offers real-time backups of your site, regular WordPress and plugin updates, and free troubleshooting assistance in event of anything going wrong with your site.

You also won’t miss out on membership of our Noodle Bar if you choose to pay monthly. We’ll simply allocate your points on a monthly basis instead, and your discount rate will increase accordingly as well.

Any questions? Contact us, and we’ll be glad to answer them!