A client hired one of my favorite developers late last year. This put i5labs into a bit of a tailspin, and me, into conniptions.

Poaching needs to be extremely unfavorable for a client. I found some nice contractual clauses which make this happen, and that addresses one, immediate, issue.

The most daunting problems for any small company are growth and employee turnover. Generally, i5labs employees stay 2-3 years, which is pretty good for the technology industry. The smaller the company, the greater the proportion of institutional knowledge stored in each employee. Documentation and being on great terms with your employees help, as they both transition future employees.

As a service company, revenues tie directly with the ability to handle workload. In the past, I'd start with contractors, and hire them into full time employees. That doesn't help with the burden of constantly searching, and searching in a tight labor market.

I took an unconventional approach to address growth. On January 31st, I acquired Baldwin, Forrester & Company, a technical recruiting firm. With some smart cost-cutting, and infrastructure investment (say, a website that doesn't suck), the numbers should be excellent, as it's a heady year for growth in the Bay Area.

There are so many benefits for i5labs. There's a constant stream of developers, resumes, and candidate profiles flowing into the company - I can grow for any project, and I have the manpower to start any company for which I have the time. I've never had this kind of flexibility before, and it feels good.