If you're a small business owner, I recommend you check out this new website designed to "connect you with customers in your area." I first read about MerchantCircle in a post on John Jantsch's Duct Tape Marketing Blog. There's also a CNET brief as well.
The biggest item that caught my eye from their website, in addition to the service, is the major horses this start-up has behind it:
MerchantCircle is led by an experienced team and funded by investors who share our vision and believe in the power of local businesses. Our backers include Rustic Canyon Partners, Bank of America Ventures and Disney's Steamboat Ventures, who each bring their specialized expertise to help us develop and improve your MerchantCircle experience.
You can sign-up for free - it takes 5 to 10 minutes. There are other services for $.

Rob
I appreciate the comments. We are pretty excited about the early traction but there is alot of work left to do. I am really surprised by the efforts by local businesses on things like blogs
Posted by: Ben | June 14, 2006 at 02:03 PM