Yeah I tried that, but being a small shop, I just can't afford to match the salaries of the bigger companies, and after a year (of mostly training) they get poa

Yeah I tried that, but being a small shop, I just can't afford to match the salaries of the bigger companies, and after a year (of mostly training) they get poached by a company that can pay 20-30k more than my little bootstrapped startup can :(