Fortune_Hunter - 9:53 pm on Nov 20, 2008 (gmt 0)

In my business I have always avoided buying and using templates to create sites for my clients. My feeling was that people were hiring me to create a solution that is unique to them and their business and brand and not a template that may be used by another business.

However I have seen some of my competitors go and buy a handful of templates for a particular industry and then go out and market really hard to land every business possible in this industry on a local level. Because they are using templates in many cases they can afford to under bid me on a job and produce sites faster because it is a template.

In an economy like this one I am wondering if I should perhaps switch my thinking and start doing what my competitors are doing by using templates to clean up on specific industries and keep shekels flowing into the coffers as opposed to always selling the customized solution. I mean do others see the template hustlers out there doing better than the customized solutions?

I would like others opinions on this, should I do this as a pragmatic decision or stick to my principles and provide what I feel is a better product even if it means I will lose business to people who under cut me and dominate an entire industries locally?