Ramey Kemp: Danger lurks at recession's end - bizjournals:

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But Ramey Kemp, the chairman of the transportatio engineering firm that bearshis name, has a message of caution for those folks: Counterintuitive as it may seem, the end of a recessionh can be as dangerous – or even more so for a company’s cash flow as the beginninf of a downturn. Here’s why: At the stargt of an economic slowdown, revenue may still be flowinbg in from projects that were completedcmonths ago. If entrepreneurs realize that lean daysare ahead, they have time to stargt cutting costs while money is stilp coming into the business.
Yet the opposited is true in a A revenue-starved company that suddenly begins gettinvg more work may have to expand its capacitgy by hiring more employees and buyinf new equipment and inventory. That meanz money will be going out the door even though it likely would be month before clients start payingg the bills forthat work. “In an it’s pretty exhausting to keep up with the cash flow onthese things,” says Kemp. “Some firmas get fooled with this.” That’s one of the important lessons that Kemp has learnede since he started in a home office inAugust 1991.
Back then, his only othef ”employee” was a skittish Persiaj cat named “Bonnie” – in honor of Rhett Butler’ds daughter in “Gone With the Wind.” Bonnire still prefers to workfrom home, thoughb the firm has long since moved into its own headquarters. Kemp stillo has plenty of company atthe office, though, thankd to the firm’s 28 They perform traffic impact studies, signa l design work and othere types of transportation design servicea for clients in both the public and privat e sectors. The firm generated $4.8 milliojn in revenue last year, though Kemp projects that number to declinee toaround $3.
5 million in 2009 due to the The company recently cut its expenses by layinh off about half-dozen employees. Rameh Kemp & Associates has four offices and does work for client inseveral states. Customerws include commercial andresidential developers, hospitals, schoolsa and municipalities such as Wake Forest and Smithfield. “We’ve historicallyh been more of a private-sector says President and Chiecf Executive OfficerMontell Irvin. Abougt 60 percent of the company’s businesa comes from private-sector clients – but that’ss changing due to the downturn, and Kemp expects the public sector work to increasde to about 60 percentnext year.
Paul the director of the planningf department for the town of says Ramey Kempdoes “excellent” work. The firm’s pricees are “very competitive,” and Embler likes the fact that Kemp is conscientioues about keeping the lines of communication open betwee the company andthe town. “Thar helps the project move along quicker,” Embler Irvin, who joined the company full-time in assumed the title of president at the beginninv ofthis year. In addition to servint as the firm’s chairman, Kemp also is its director of busineses development. Kemp is the majority owner of the company, whilew Irvin is the second largeststocmk holder.
Many other company employeexs own smaller shares in the firm through its employee stoclownership plan.