Building a small business website is like fly fishing. You don't expect to catch a fish the instant you cast your line. In fact, you're not in a big fat hurry for the trout to bite. They can take their sweet time skimming around just below the surface. Your lucky lure will do the trick soon enough.

The lure of your website must grab the attention of potential customers. Like the fishing fly, it needs a few feathers. However, an affordable custom website may seem as unattainable as a big fish. Many professional web designers set their fees high, a maneuver that can prevent a small business owner from bagging a custom website he or she can brag about.

One way to cast out for the big catch is to build your own website using a DIY program. However, it takes time. There's the inevitable learning curve. Meantime, you've got to run your business.

An affordable custom website is a good trick, right? Yet, it's a trick that isn't as hard to pull off as you might think. Our job is to make it easy for you. Don't let the big one get away.

How is a pizza joint like a website? More to the point, when it comes to building an affordable business website, what can a brick-and-mortar business teach a small business owner?

Downtown, next to a furniture shop with crystal chandeliers is a pizza place that's always swamped. The harried hostess can be cranky. The wait-staff bring plastic plates, and prehistoric Grateful Dead memorabilia line the walls. The pizza's good, not exceptional. Yet customers with and without dreadlocks are always milling around the entrance, anticipating an open table.

Starting as a small business four decades ago, this pizza joint remains a town favorite. And for a good reason. It knows what its customers want (pizza with organic ingredients), and it delivers (to the table). It knows that a few bricks in its walkway are loose, and that the turbo hand-dryer in the washroom could blow nail polish clean off. However, it can pile sun-dried tomato, garden-grown basil and fresh mozzarella on crisp garlic bread in the most mouth-watering combinations.

It knows what other successful small business owners know about setting a consistent tone and sticking with it. Keep this in mind when you build your business website. Merely listing your services isn't good enough. Your customers want to believe that by hiring you, they're going to get the best service available.

Your business website should communicate competence (good pizza), and satisfaction (you deliver). And bear in mind that it's okay to show some pizazz. Every small business has a personal style -- don't be afraid to show yours