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"I saw the job on Craigslist, sent my resume and sample Web sites, and I guess it was impressive enough," said Christopher Pendergraft, who works full time at the firm while finishing studies at East Carolina University.

Small businesses in other fields are also investing in Web development to get their message to a greater audience.

"The Internet has made marketing and dentistry a new thing," said Bobbi Stanley of Stanley Dentistry in Cary. About 90 percent of her advertising budget now goes online, up from nothing four years ago, she said.

That rise in IT spending is a boon to consultants who help small companies upgrade their Web presence and develop better systems to manage data. But they, too, are finding it difficult to find and retain qualified workers.

"It's getting to be much more of a candidates' market," said Greg Schmid, a manager for the Ettain Group, a Charlotte IT consulting and staffing firm with offices in Raleigh. Contract workers now routinely fail to provide notice when leaving for a better offer, Schmid said. "They're playing two sides of the court."

To hang on to talent without giving away the bank, some firms are trying to create enjoyable, nurturing environments where creative types can blow off steam.

Employees at Coalmarch Productions wear jeans and T-shirts, fire Nerf guns and rock out on the musical video game "Guitar Hero" between work projects or following a tough 50-hour week. The fun and games are part of the company's recruitment and retention efforts, said Jake St. Peter, president of the Cary IT staffing and consulting company. Coalmarch does work for small firms that can't or choose not to do it on their own.

"We go to lengths to create group enthusiasm because the availability of these people is down from three years ago," St. Peter said. "The extremely talented are very creative, so an environment where they have no control suffocates them. They'll go find a job that pays $6,000 more."

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