List of Businesses I’d Recommend to My Mom [2025-2026]

Presnell’s Produce & More — Local Upper Crabtree farming family. Great produce, local meat (beef, pork, chicken, lamb, etc.), and an amazing bakery. Why mess with overseas beef of questionable origin when you can order a whole cow, half a cow, or just swing by and pick up what you need? The drive out there is beautiful, too.

Fresh Start Flooring — Five generations in the hardwood industry speak to Mr. Jeffrey Powell’s experience and expertise. Check them out for all kinds of wood and vinyl flooring, carpet, as well as cabinets. They sometimes run specials when they have extra stock, so keep an eye out.

Waynesville Mulch & Compost Delivery — Adam Hawkins provides mulch, compost, fill dirt, gravel, and more — and no one around here can match the quality. He can give you the story behind it, but I’ll keep it simple: I order from him every year, and the quality speaks for itself.

Sutton and Sons Antiques — From a cozy store on Main Street in Waynesville to a full antique mall now. Really worth exploring. Lots of old and loved trinkets, family heirlooms, Indian baskets, chinaware, etc. Plenty of parking space, too.

Stone Reuning Tai Chi — My partner in crime. Still offering free classes (though you can “buy him coffee”). He genuinely enjoys practicing internal arts with his students.

Stone’s been practicing internal arts for over 50 years now. 

Blue Dragon Taekwondo — My sabumnim, Marshall Hale, is a straight shooter and a good man who truly loves seeing his students excel (if he hasn’t shouted at you for doing a wrong form, you’re not excelling. I’m only kidding!)

Safekids/Blue Dragon is one of the best martial arts schools in the Waynesville and Clyde area. We spent almost ten years here with our kid. 

Many of you probably know their yearly demo: near the end of the program, Marshall breaks a stack of concrete blocks. Each year, they add one or two more to the pile. Quite something to see.

My Local Start — What is this business? Yes, it’s ours — mine and Stone’s. And in my humble opinion, My Local Start is the best local marketing firm in Waynesville, bar none.

With over 25+ years (almost close to 30 now) in search engine optimization and website development with enterprise clients, we apply what we know to small local businesses so they have some fighting chance of competing online with corporations with much deeper pockets.

Nobody around here builds and optimizes websites like we do. Local optimization to get businesses ranking in Google Maps is critical — and not many folks around here know how to rank in ChatGPT, Google, and Maps. We do. 

Yes, the best marketing company in Western North Carolina? My Local Start.

Holly Fletcher, Realtor — Holly is superb. Born and raised in Clyde, NC. She knows Waynesville, Clyde, Maggie Valley, and the surrounding areas inside and out.

Excellent to work with. She knows land values, property details, and local history (quite impressive), and gives honest recommendations so you can make the right decision. We love working with her.

She’s currently with Keller Williams in downtown Waynesville, across the street from Mast Store.

SEO Advantage — Enterprise-level SEO without the enterprise attitude. Founded by Stone Reuning (yes, the same guy who helped me start My Local Start) over 25 years ago. 

Search engine optimization has been our bread and butter, the thing we’ve done successfully for our clients for years. Our clients grow, our projects grow. We’re also expanding into social video production. With AI everywhere, human-produced content, authenticity, such as founder-led video, are what audiences want most.

Brown Bag Marketing — Atlanta-based digital marketing and ad agency. My team and I started with Brown Bag when Dan Michaels hired us to SEO his former company, Innovative Architects. Now, Dan and his wife Laurie lead a powerhouse team running B2B and B2C digital marketing services for large enterprises nationwide. These guys are the real deal: writing, social marketing, video production — professional from top to bottom.

Hold Fast Bookkeeping — Founded by Heather Russell, who once led the finance department at SEO Advantage, Inc. With over 20 years of experience in accounting work, Heather is top-notch. Smart, organized, and a QuickBooks consultant, she can set up and automate your company’s backend systems, payroll, expenses, and all that jazz, so you don’t have to pull your hair out when looking at your books. Local or remote bookkeeping, she’s the one you’d want to hire.

Benjamin Gerber – Gerber & Holder Workers’ Compensation Attorneys

Based in Atlanta, Ben trusted our marketing team at SEO Advantage to optimize his website from the ground up. He’s a hardworking attorney who stays involved in his marketing, provides materials promptly, and even insists on creating FAQ and explainer videos to help clients. My account manager at SEOA can’t stop singing his praises. A good attorney and a true professional.

Neal Davis, Criminal Defense Attorney – Houston, TX

Neal’s one of the most patient professionals I’ve worked with. Criminal defense is tough; the subject matter alone can test your stomach. It takes an iron level of patience and understanding to defend people whose lives and reputations could be destroyed if they lose in court, especially when they’re innocent or unfairly judged in the court of public opinion. Working on his site and talking through marketing with him, I can say the man is top-notch.

Mack Babcock & Stephanie Tucker – Babcock Tucker, Denver, CO

Both attorneys are fighters — tough and direct. They help injured workers across Colorado secure benefits and resolve denied claims. They’re widely regarded as one of the best work injury law firms in Colorado, bar none. Other attorneys refer cases to them because they’re that good. My partner at SEOA met them at a WILG conference in Florida this year and came back full of praise for both.