Front Door Directory — Home Business Discovery Platform

The Challenge

Front Door Directory had a clear vision: give home-based business owners the same visibility and support that storefronts take for granted. But the platform they needed wasn’t simple — it had to serve two distinct audiences simultaneously. Business owners needed a way to get listed, post jobs, and access affordable tech services. Community members needed a way to discover local home-based businesses and find flexible work opportunities.

The platform required:

• A geolocation-aware business directory that detects the visitor’s city and surfaces relevant local listings
• A free job board where home-based businesses can post part-time, project, and freelance roles at zero cost
• Three tiered service packages ($99–$400/month) with clear differentiation and self-service signup
• User authentication for both business owners and job seekers
• A blog with SEO-optimized content to drive organic discovery
• A StoryBrand-aligned messaging framework that positions the business owner as the hero

Our Approach

We chose Next.js with the App Router for its server-side rendering capabilities and dynamic routing — critical for a platform with location-based directory pages that need to be both SEO-friendly and fast. Tailwind CSS kept the UI consistent across the deep navy gradient theme.

Key decisions and deliverables:

• Geolocation-based directory system — automatic city detection on arrival, with dedicated location pages that render dynamically for each supported market
• Free job board with zero-friction posting — no credit card, no signup fees, designed specifically for home-based business hiring patterns (VAs, bookkeepers, social media managers)
• 3-tier service architecture — Essential ($99/mo), Growth ($199/mo), and Premium ($400/mo) fractional CTO packages with clear “Your outcome” statements per tier
• Schema markup implementation — Organization, WebPage, and FAQPage structured data for search engine and AI assistant visibility
• StoryBrand messaging framework — pain-point-first copywriting (“Growing a Home-Based Business Can Feel Invisible”) with the business owner positioned as the hero throughout
• Cloudflare deployment — edge-cached delivery with analytics integration for performance monitoring

The platform launched in four weeks and was immediately ready to accept business listings and job postings.