What's the competition for small business sites?

[Undead Hunter]

Hey all,

As I've mentioned before I've been out of the web biz for a while. I'm curious as to what is out there for small business websites, the Mom and Pop kind of sites, the local bakery on the corner or that sort of thing. I know there are/were a bunch of automated site builders, but from my experience on the ground the majority of the Mom and Pop's will never use those, never find them.

What if anything do you see happening at that level?

[aspdaddy]

In my experince they do use them, normally the worst ones available. One thing is for sure they dont go looking for them, they are offered free when they register a domain or use M$ small busienss services.

[PaulHudson]

Small businesses and charities are great to work with, but you have to be careful and vet your prospects. My small business clients are mostly business to business service providers or small charities. I very rarely have trouble with these clients as they require the simplest of functionality and have a very relaxed style.

I have in the past lumped myself with some extremely unprofessional and tiresome 'one man bands'. If you come across a small business owner that has no appreciation of IT and the skill/time involved in providing quality, DO NOT WORK WITH THEM.

If you are going to go after small businesses, I would look for accountants and solicitors as they can recommend you a lot of work and tend to have a professional approach.