Laurie Dolhan is fanatical about “buying local”, and she’s gearing up to take that message regional.

Dolhan is the President of ContractMe.ca, a website devoted to linking up local service providers and small businesses with potential clients, whether they’re businesses, non-profits, government or other small businesses.

Operating out of Ketch Harbour, on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore, ContractMe has gained notice for connecting service providers with jobs, and is now garnering about 7,000 page views per month.

The site allows members to post the qualifications and areas of specialty, and to search for jobs available. There is a networking function, through which people can find leads and work, and the site automatically notifies members about work that’s available in their area of expertise.

Dolhan declined to say how many members have paid $30 a month to join the service since ContractMe – which will present at DemoCamp Halifax on Sept. 23 – started in January.

Most of the connections so far have been centred in Nova Scotia, though sometimes they include a business as far away as Quebec looking for someone to do some work in Nova Scotia. Dolhan, who runs the business with her husband Trevor Dolhan, is interested in making the site a regional enterprise so it benefits small business people and freelancers in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. She doubts she would expand it beyond the region.

Dolhan says that market is big enough to make ContractMe a viable venture, given the number of people who are now freelancing or working as consultants. “Nobody has data on how many people are out there who are freelancers but the numbers would be quite something – there are thousands and thousands,” she said.

Dolhan’s To Do list in the rest of the year includes a huge marketing push to increase awareness of the site. She has advertised in Progress Magazine’s popular 101 Top Companies issue, and ContractMe is planning a huge social media campaign.