Leon Gugel has been in the pre-owned diagnostic imaging field for nearly a decade, bringing an assured level of competence and performance in locating, procuring, and delivering quality pre-owned diagnostic imaging equipment to brokers, dealers, doctors, hospitals, clinics and other end-users.

Metropolis Medical, which Gugel launched in 2005, is built on a variety of past careers, including years Gugel spent as a flight manager for air traffic going off to the Hamptons, and lengthy stints in stock brokering and marketing/sales. As in everything in his life, each job performance has been driven by Gugel's passion to meet and beat expectations.

Today, the company, located in Long Island, NY, employs a staff of four, and is looking to hire two more. It boasts warehouses in New York and New Jersey, each with 17,000 square feet of space to house the top-brand CTs, CR and MRI units he makes available to clients in Europe, Russia, Latin America, Mexico and the States. Sales for the company are up nearly 10 percent in 2007 after doubling in 2006.

Medical is only a part of Metropolis' offerings, as the parent company, Metropolis International, also deals in automotive, aviation and marine pre-owned products.

"I've always said all we have in life is our name and reputations," Gugel notes. "No matter what we do in life, whether we sell CTs or old sewing machines or cars or drapes, reputation is all we have and if people get to know us by the value of our names, they'll always come back and to do business regardless of price."

Both DOTmed Certified and a member of DOTmed's Top 100, Gugel uses the DOTmed website and magazine in various ways.

"First, DOTmed.com keeps us informed of all the new technology. Second, we use it to reach out to other brokers. And third, we move a great deal of equipment via DOTmed postings," Gugel says. "In the used medical equipment business, we're all 'mom & pop' stores no matter how big or small, and, unlike the stock business, everything is self-policing. Being DOTmed certified helps bring us a better type of client. There's a retail store here in New York that talks about 'an educated consumer is our best customer.' That's how I feel about DOTmed certification. These tire-kickers know what they want."

In the end, Gugel says he owes his success "110 percent to all the customers who've worked with me through thick and thin, the vendors who entrusted us with equipment in that same capacity, and, of course, to the good people who now work at Metropolis."