Jamie Dunnam, co-founder of iBusiness Solutions, traces the company back roughly 17 years to a split from a third business partner during the construction downturn of the mid-2000s. He and his remaining partner, David, had already spent decades together, first in an all-lines insurance agency they built for 30 years, before narrowing entirely to payroll, benefits and workers compensation. Headquartered in Sarasota's UTC area, where every paycheck is still cut, processed and shipped, iBusiness Solutions now operates in 47 states with a staff of 30, though Dunnam says a business coach once talked the partners out of opening brick-and-mortar offices in Orlando and North Carolina, steering them instead toward satellite offices in Fort Myers with Orlando and St. Petersburg to follow.
Dunnam draws a clear distinction between a PEO, where a company co-employs staff alongside a provider bundling HR, benefits and workers comp together, and iBusiness Solutions' model as an ASO, an administrative service organization offering the same three components a la carte and billed per check rather than as a percentage of total payroll. He says the pitch often comes down to showing a midsize client, roughly 50 employees, six-figure annual savings against a co-employment scenario. The company also learned its niche the hard way: early on it processed payroll for large national franchises mainly as a lead generator into insurance sales, until it realized the payroll and workers comp side, not insurance, had become its largest and most valuable segment.
An all-in-one system to eliminate duplicate data entry
Dunnam describes the company's core technology platform, isolved, which he says is not proprietary but was fully adopted after his partner David built out the firm's original systems from scratch decades ago. The platform combines payroll, HR compliance, learning management and an applicant tracking system so that hiring, onboarding and benefits elections all feed into payroll automatically, avoiding what Dunnam calls intersections, the duplicate manual entry that happens when payroll and HR software are purchased separately. New clients typically go through a roughly 60-day implementation with a dedicated three-person team, an approach he says has consistently drawn strong survey reviews from clients who compare it against several prior payroll providers.
A 30-year partnership without a single fight
Asked how he and David have sustained their partnership for three decades without a falling out, Dunnam credits shared faith, constant communication and a deliberate effort to keep either partner from carrying more weight than the other, even as the two still share an office today. He points to a people-first culture built around frequent lunch-and-learns on topics like buying a first home, negotiating a car loan and building a 401k, plus regular puppy visits from a local animal rescue, as central to keeping staff motivated in an industry, he jokes, no child grows up dreaming of joining.
Roundabouts as a sign of progress
Dunnam comes down firmly in favor of Sarasota's roundabouts, framing them less as a traffic annoyance and more as a marker of the region's growth, alongside the new diverging diamond interchange near UTC that he admits won him over after initial skepticism. Having grown up in Sarasota since age three, he says the city's shift from a retirement destination to a genuinely diverse, year-round community, with horse country, rowing, spring training and its beaches, is something he has come to embrace rather than resent, even while acknowledging the traffic and construction that come with it.
What you'll take away
- iBusiness Solutions operates as an ASO, an administrative service organization, billing per paycheck rather than as a percentage of payroll, which co-founder Jamie Dunnam says can save midsize clients six figures annually versus a PEO
- The company is headquartered in Sarasota's UTC area, processes payroll in 47 states, and employs about 30 people after 17 years in business
- Its isolved platform combines payroll, benefits, applicant tracking and learning management into one system to eliminate duplicate data entry between HR and payroll
- New clients typically complete implementation in about 60 days with a dedicated three-person account team
- Dunnam and his co-founder David have run the business together for roughly 30 years without a serious falling out, crediting shared faith and constant communication
- Dunnam favors Sarasota's roundabouts and the new UTC-area diverging diamond interchange, framing both as signs of the region's growth
“It becomes down to staffing. Being able to manage staff in a new area is probably the more difficult part.”
“You ask me now, what advice would I give to other business owners who want to bring on a partner? Don't do it.”
Places mentioned: UTC, Fort Myers, Lakewood Ranch, Manatee River