Good question...I am in a 'non-market', meaning that there are very few acts wanting to record, and those that do usually shop by price...to add to the headaches, seems like everyday I hear tell of yet another guy with a Digi 002 and a couple of Samson mics setup in his parent's house...and they do it for free.
There is one really busy shop here (at least they say they are busy, I can't attest to this one way or the other)....the rest are hanging on by mere threads...I haven't turned down a gig (regardless of how lowend or preposterous it may be) in 6 months.
The irony is that the customers that have come though here say what we turn out is high end quality, and we have had nothing but praise from customers, producers, etc...just getting them in the door seems to be the hard part.
(Sorry for the mini-rant)