The Staff of Life Start your own staffing service.

Have you been eyeing the drum-tight labor market, thinking you ought to get into the staffing business? If you can match the right people with the right jobs, that might just be a smart move. It was for Tom Potenza, 33, who in 1998 launched TechLink Inc., a Ramsey, New Jersey, staffing firm that provides IT professionals to clients who develop their own software, Web sites and other systems. "I was flipping through The New York Times and saw there were tons of jobs out there. I read about how the demand for good employees is so much greater than the supply," explains Potenza. A former computer programmer, he figured he had the connections to open a company to fill the need.

Potenza's timing couldn't have been better. A robust economy and low unemployment rate are driving the demand for workers. Companies vying for the same talent need an edge to compete. Increasingly, that edge is staffing companies.

In the old days, there were two kinds of staffing firms: temp agencies and recruiters. One placed people on a short-term basis, the other permanently. Those lines have now blurred, with many temp agencies doing direct placement and many recruitment firms arranging short-term contract work. This change has had such an impact that the leading industry organization, the former National Association of Temporary and Staffing Services, recently renamed itself the American Staffing Association (ASA) to reflect the current state of affairs.