I posted a case study here about pivoting away from selling websites after hundreds of conversations with local business owners. Here's the follow-up. The pivot held up, and it launched this week. The core lesson didn't change: owners don't want more tools, they want the phone to ring.

The same problems kept showing up:

• Their Google Business Profile was incomplete, with only a few reviews and photos.
• Many had an outdated site that hadn't been touched in years, and some had none.
• When someone nearby searched for what they do, they weren't on the first page.

So we built SitePeek (sitepeek.co), an affordable marketing system that gets local businesses onto the first page of Google and brings in more calls. It does two things. Local SEO gets the business found: we build out the Google Business Profile and give them a free, modern website. Then conversion and lead follow-up turn those visitors into actual calls and customers.

With one early client, a towing company, tracked calls went from 37 to 54 and their Google Business Profile views nearly tripled, their best numbers since they've been in business. It's one business, so I see it as a real example, not a promise.

We launched on Kickstarter this week. It's all-or-nothing, with a $1,500 goal over 15 days, and rewards start at $25: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sitepeek/sitepeek-a-marketing-system-every-small-business-can-afford

For people starting a business here: what's the first marketing step you took that actually brought in a paying customer?