My work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit started at the age of 10, when I began mowing yards in my hometown of Sublette, Illinois. Over the next 12 years, I developed a respected lawn care business servicing 76 accounts in Sublette, Amboy and Woodhaven Lakes (the World's Largest Campground). This experience allowed me to completely pay for college and graduate Western Illinois University debt free. At the age of 22, I was hired as a Professional Firefighter/Paramedic for the City of Rockford, Illinois. This was the best job in the world (bar-none) and I was assigned to some of the busiest Engine, Ladder and Ambulance companies in the Midwest including: Rockford E-1, E-2, Ladder-2 and Charlie-27 and enjoyed 20+ run days and many multi-fire shifts.During the same period, I was given the opportunity to be part of the newly founded Illinois Fire Store and partnered in the business shortly after my 23rd Birthday. I truly enjoyed selling Fire, EMS and Rescue Equipment and we rapidly grew out of a small home office and into a one-room office in Amboy, Illinois. Over the next several years, I moved into the role as Vice-President of Sales and managed growth of our organization into one of the premiere Fire Equipment Distributors in the Midwest. In 2011, I became the CEO/Owner and began to carry out my vision of the business as Dinges Fire Company. Over the past 12 years, our organization has experienced rapid growth through 3-Acquisitions in Wisconsin (Safety First, LLC), Michigan (Time Emergency Equipment), Iowa (Fox Apparatus Repair) and had record sales in 2023 through a tremendous staff of 30-Full Time Staff and 125+ Independent Sales Professionals serving Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska.Over the past 20 years, I have also been blessed to help launch several successful international companies and product lines including: Leatherhead Fire Tools, Vanguard Safety Wear, and Leatherhead Metals.🔥 6 Startups 🔥 3 Acquisitions 🔥 160+ Team Memberswww.DingesFire.comwww.LeatherheadMetals.comwww.VanguardSafetyWear.com