Richard Gabel
Consulting & Marketing Support for Small Businesses

Humerlis, Inc.

Websites:

• Humerlis, Inc.
• The Humerlis Blog
• Humerlis Business Services

I established Humerlis, Inc. in 2004 to establish a means to nurture the growth of small and medium sized businesses. Humerlis created an economical way for businesses to benefit from outsourced marketing services and management consulting.

Very few entrepreneurs have a broad business background to assist them in formulating a viable business strategy and running their own business. This contributes to the dismal statistics on small business failure rates:

Only one-third will ever turn a profit

One-third will not survive the first 2 years

Less than half will survive the first 4 years

Two-thirds will not survive 10 years

Humerlis consulting will help entrepreneurs beat the odds and help their business reach its full potential.

I acquired the Meadow Creek Professional Center in Issaquah, Washington that provides a physical facility for businesses of all sizes to use as their base of operations. By collocating with a variety of other businesses, professionals and entrepreneurs, clients have the opportunity to interact and get the benefit of camaraderie and the critical thinking of respected professionals.

I have a broad educational and career experience background. I can grasp the entire picture of a business quickly. I have a very pragmatic view of markets and a business's abilty to to be successful in them. My financial background allows me to translate this picture into a model of how a business can expect to perform.

I need to be in touch with entrepreneurs and small businesses. I can help them bridge the gap between being a one-person show and running a business with several employees. A small business has to compete with larger companies and provide the same level of service in order to compete. One person can't do it all. Humerlis can help.

• Lehigh University - BS in Marketing
• Boston University - MBA in Finance, cum laude

Subsequently, I attended:

• Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia
• Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
• Lean Enterprise Design Systems Institute at the University of Tennessee
• Center for Creative Leadership

and others to expand my knowledge of executive management and strategic planning.

I started at Eaton Corporation's World Headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. I served as Financial Analyst and then headed Domestic Finance and Pension Fund Investment & Financial Analysis. I then moved into Business Development working on acquisitions, divestitures, corporate strategic planning and operational turnarounds prior to going into operations management.

With a broad background in finance, accounting, corporate development and strategic planning, I worked in business units that were strategically disadvantaged and in most cases seriously under-performing financially.

Eaton-Kenway was a $100 million automated material handling systems integrator. It was losing market share, had a faltering reputation with its customers and was losing money. As Manager of Marketing and Strategic Planning, my job was to determine how this business could make money and in running the Proposal organization, grow market share. The business had been pricing high to recover financially, but was in fact only winning work that no other company wanted. It was also pursuing a mandated niche strategy in a market that was no longer large enough to maintain critical mass by doing so. By pricing aggressively, I doubled share in 18 months and delivered margins at record levels with lower risk work and higher volume that covered the company's overhead.

Later, as Manager of Installed Systems Operations I created a service organization that leveraged the company's large installed base. This unit grew to $25 million in 3 years and was largely responsible for the return to profitability. As Manager of Standard Systems and Products, I created a $10 million unit in 2 years delivering high margins. In this role, I also managed overall marketing and R&D to help recover a once again faltering systems business.

Following that assignment, I served in Business Development roles at World Headquarters and then as Business Development Manager at a $1 bilion division headquarters, in both cases, focused on the revitalization of a major business unit that had fallen from a industry leadership position to being a marginal player in a growth environment. This assignment led to taking operational control of the $40 million drives business unit and outsourcing its manufacturing operations prior to being President of Vacon Americas, a joint venture I formed to replace the existing product and augment sales and marketing in the Americas.

Following that, I was Business Unit Manager of Sensors, a $30 million business with locations in Everett, Washington and Juarez, Mexico. This unit while profitable was losing share and the attention of the sales force and distribution channel due to its limited product line. I dramatically increased its brand labeling relationships in Brazil and China, and moved manufacturing to Mexico.