In reply to private.

Thanks for the detailed comment - there are too many valid points here which is somewhat sad, but could be interpret as food for thought and a lesson for all of us.

The difference with small businesses is that you often don't need to push the limits of a platform, and it will likely not be cost effective to hire a top notch consultant for a platform that is to be utilized at 3% of its feature set. I believe that there is a market for service providers for small businesses that are just starting and can't afford a fully-functional platform. That said, the caveat here is that the majority of the providers talk big game and don't outline the pros and cons between what they provide and what would be the difference with a complete custom platform.

I.e. you can buy an iPhone replica for $40 online that looks like iPhone, but is a poor Chinese duplicate with a custom cheap OS and limited hardware resources. But it's easier to make a difference with a product, which isn't the case with custom solutions.