Where the Employees Are Leave the want ads in the dust by checking these nine potential hot spots for top job candidates.

The obvious first choice for recruiting employees is theclassified ad section of your local newspaper. Place your ad in theSunday or weekend edition of the largest-circulation localpapers.

But if you want to go beyond this, there are plenty of otherplaces to recruit good employees. Here are some ideas:

• Tap into your personal and professional network. Telleverything you know--friends, neighbors, professional associates,customers, vendors, colleagues from associations--that you have ajob opening. Someone might know the perfect candidate.
• Distribute fliers. Do what restaurants and dry cleanershave been doing for years. UPS has been known to do this in hopesrecruiting part-time workers. But unlike many other recruitmentmethods employed by the big guys, distributing fliers is just aseasy for small businesses.
• Contact school placement offices. List your openingswith trade and vocational schools, colleges and universities. Checkwith your local school board to see if high schools in your areahave job training and placement programs.
• Post notices at senior citizen centers. Retirees whoneed extra income or a productive way to fill their time can makeexcellent employees.
• Use an employment agency. Private andgovernment-sponsored agencies can help with locating and screeningcandidates. Often their fees are more than justified by the amountof time and money you save.
• Establish an employee referral program. Encourage yourcurrent employees to recommend your company to people they know,and offer cash bonuses for referrals that result in hiring.
• List your opening with an appropriate job bank. Manyprofessional associations have job banks for their members. Contactgroups related to your industry, even if they are outside yourlocal area, and ask them to alert their members to your staffingneeds.
• Use industry publications. Trade association newslettersor industry publications often have classified ad sections wheremembers can advertise job openings. This is a very effective way toattract skilled people in your industry.
• Go online. There are a variety of online job banks likeMonster.comthat allow employers to list openings. Potential employees from allover the country can search these databases.

Excerpted from Start Your Own Business by RievaLesonsky and the staff of Entrepreneur magazine.