In late 2012, a friend approached Matt Sheets, Crucial Link founder, with a proposition to start a staffing agency. His friend had the experience – he had managed a successful and profitable staffing company in the late nineties.

When Matt’s research revealed that staffing was a 160-BILLION-dollar industry, he jumped into a business he knew little about, and in 2013, Day Star Staffing was born. The early days were tough. Matt’s ping pong table became his desk. Often in the office from 5 AM to 9 PM, using the ping pong table for its intended purpose became a welcome relief to break up the day.

The very first office Day Star Staffing 26753 Royalton Road Columbia Station, Ohio

Five months later, Matt was running out of money, and knowing he needed another source of income, he decided to sell insurance for a local company. On the third day of his training, the phone rang – a large industrial company Matt had been courting for months was finally responding. Matt received an order for eighteen workers in Cleveland and six in Medina.

That order was the turning point, and Day Star staffing never looked back. Matt went from almost losing his house to a six-figure salary less than 5 months later. Sales rose so fast that only 11 months into Day Star Staffing, Matt decided to buy out his partner so he could own 100% of the company. The last week before the buyout was official, Day Star Staffing did $48,000 in sales, and this was just the tip of the sales iceberg.

As sales continued to grow, Matt began assessing all areas of the company and how he could continue to improve and grow Day Star. He began adopting better technology and systems, but Matt also looked at himself and his team and what they could do individually to develop. In January 2015, Matt hired John Kolencik of Matrix Impact to help with his people and their sales/marketing efforts, spending time individually and with the team.

The Matt-John combo was magic! Together they helped Day Star to land all types of accounts. Two of the three professional sports teams in Cleveland became customers. Fortune 500 companies, well-known national and regional brands, and small mom-and-pop businesses were all Day Star customers. Three years later, Day Star would hit its first $500,000 week as a company.

From 2013-2018, Day Star Staffing employed over 10,000 people. A fact that still makes us swell with pride and opened the eyes of other staffing companies.

Day Star Staffing’s business and sales were humming, but Matt was looking over the horizon again. John had sales and marketing moving, but Matt’s observation and research saw a pattern of problems that befell the entire staffing market:

People are a company’s most valuable resource, but they are not an infinite resource. The competition was overselling the Ohio metro markets by overpromising and under-delivering on employees. Matt took the contrarian approach. He ensured Day Star educated their customers, helping them understand the root causes of their employment issues instead of simply “throwing the promise of employees” at them. This led to more satisfied long-term customers and laid the foundation for Crucial Link.

After receiving several calls from competitors wanting to buy Day Star, Matt was presented with an offer he could not turn down. A group of investors from Indiana came to Cleveland and stayed until they had a deal in place. They convinced Matt to stay on and maintain partial ownership of the company. Believing it would provide more capital to expand on the ideas and systems at the core of Crucial Link, Matt accepted. However, after only a year, he chose to step down and turn in his remaining ownership in Day Star Staffing so he could truly do it the Crucial Link way.

By stepping away early, a three-year non-competition clause kicked in prohibiting Matt and John from the staffing business in Ohio. They continued to develop the C.L.O.S. and initially planned to launch outside of Ohio, but just as they were ramping up, the COVID-19 pandemic entered the scene. It was the final factor in the duo’s decision to wait until the non-competition clause expired and begin Crucial Link in Ohio.

Now, time, technology, and the C.L.O.S. have come together. Matt and John’s vision is reality, and they are ready to make the first wave of Crucial Link Staffing Millionaires.