Rehydrate your dry yeast. The percentage of the yeast cells that survive the initial lag phase in a healthy condition to then begin multiplying is much higher than if you just sprinkle dry.
Here's how I do mine and it's worked well for me:
1) When you are about to start brewing, put a cup of water (not distilled) in a Pyrex cup in the microwave. Boil it a few minutes, down to about 1/2 cup.
2) Cover the cup with a piece of sanitized foil (sprayed with Star-San if you have some). Set it aside to cool to about 95-100*F.
3) Once the water has cooled, sanitize the yeast packet and cut open with sanitized scissors.
4) Sprinkle it on the water, cover and let sit 15 minutes.
5) Stir, cover, and let sit 5 more minutes.
6) Hopefully by now, you have an kettle full of wort chilled to about 65*F and ready for the yeast.
7) The yeast slurry needs to be "attemperated" before you pitch it in the wort. That means you have to add small amounts of the cooler wort into the yeast slurry, stir and let it sit a few minutes. You'll probably have to do this a few times to get it to within 10*F of the wort temperature. Once it's within 10*F, pitch away.