The Early Years
Chris Rickerson grew up in El Dorado, Kansas, in low-income housing. His mother was addicted to drugs. He remembers food stamps, government peanut butter and cheese, and breakfast spoons that had to be bent back into shape so he could eat with them.
He left school after the ninth grade. He spent his teenage years and early twenties in and out of trouble — bouncing between detention centers and boys homes, dealing drugs, fighting his own addictions. By the age of 24, he was facing serious legal consequences.
The Foundation
What changed everything was finding Christianity. The verse that did it — Matthew 7:24:
“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.”
— Matthew 7:24 (NLT)
That one verse changed everything. Up to that point, Chris had built his life on sand — every storm wiped him out. Now, he had a foundation. Faith gave him the rock. Everything that came after — the work ethic, the company, the way Elite Staffing Solutions operates today — was built on top of it.
That faith was the foundation. The other thing that built ESS was someone giving Chris a shot. With a long criminal record and no high school diploma, an employer hired him to haul bricks up a scaffolding for $8 an hour. That’s where the work ethic that built ESS started.
Starting Elite Staffing Solutions
In 2013, Chris started Elite Staffing Solutions out of his own pocket. He was a single father of three. He maxed his credit cards, sold a car, and refinanced his minivan to keep daycare paid while he built the business.
The first slogan was three words: “Putting service back into staffing.” ESS generated $1.5 million in revenue in its first year.
Inc. 5000 Recognition
By 2017, Elite Staffing Solutions had grown over 2,500%. At the opening ceremony of that year’s Inc. 5000 conference, Inc.’s editor named Chris by name in front of thousands of attendees as proof the American Dream still exists — alongside the mayor on the cover of that year’s issue.
The Mission Today
ESS hires people who are willing to work — including people other staffing companies won’t talk to. The company donates 10% of gross profit to community causes and global mission work, including projects in Honduras and Thailand.
Chris’s mother lives with him today. She’s clean and sober and a grandmother to his three sons.