Leveraging LinkedIn

For small businesses who can't afford headhunters, there's a more affordable option to find top talent, according to serial entrepreneur Terry Hedden. Paying for a headhunter typically costs 15-20% of the annual salary of the person you hire. Instead, Hedden's go-to is LinkedIn.

Posting jobs to LinkedIn and Craigslist is an easy way to collect resumes, Hedden says. But, although there's plenty of entry-level talent available in IT, it's the more specialized roles that can be difficult to find.

That's why Hedden pays to get advanced search capabilities on LinkedIn before he goes “fishing.” This is a term that Hedden uses for proactive searches to find people with specialized backgrounds. In software and development, there are very few people looking for jobs because the expertise is in such high demand.