Paper directories are an expensive, old fashioned and uninspiring approach to getting work. An increasing number of business owners are choosing online listings as a means not only to advertise but also grow their business.

The bathroom is flooded, you have no hot water, the lights won't work or the roof is leaking. For many people that is just the beginning of their woes. Suddenly you have an emergency on your hands, but what next?

Increasingly people are turning to the internet to source information about local services, either where they live or in areas that they are going to visit. The internet is now proving indispensable in all aspects of life - for example finding good local tradespeople, a local hairdresser or what's on at the nearest cinema.

These days it seems everything has a carbon footprint, and that includes how we look up local business phone numbers and email addresses. So for those of us wanting to minimise our contribution to climate change what's the most energy efficient way to find a local service?

Are you a small business with money to gamble? Ready to set up on your own for the first time and throw away a few hundred pounds before getting your first job? Of course not. Yet this is the risk small business owners may be taking when they get themselves listed in offline business directories like Yellow Pages or Thompson.