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

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But Ramey Kemp, the chairman of the transportatiomn engineering firm that bearswhis name, has a messager of caution for those folks: Counterintuitive as it may the end of a recession 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 start of an economixc slowdown, revenue may still be flowinhg in from projects that were completedmonths ago.
If entrepreneurws realize that lean daysare ahead, they have time to staryt cutting costs while money is still coming into the Yet the opposite is true in a A revenue-starved company that suddenlty begins getting more work may have to expandf its capacity by hiring more employees and buying new equipment and That means money will be going out the door even though it likely would be months before clients stargt paying the bills for that work. “In an it’s pretty exhausting to keep up with the cash flow onthess things,” says Kemp. “Some firms get fooled with this.
” That’s one of the important lessons that Kemp has learnedr since he started in a home office inAugust 1991. Back his only other ”employee” was a skittisyh Persian cat named “Bonnie” – in honoe of Rhett Butler’s daughter in “Gonr With the Wind.” Bonnie still preferws to workfrom home, though the firm has long sinces moved into its own headquarters. Kemp still has plenty of companuy atthe office, though, thanks to the firm’s 28 They perform traffic impact studies, signal desigj work and other types of transportation design services for clients in both the public and privates sectors. The firm generated $4.
8 million in revenus last year, though Kemp projects that number to declinee toaround $3.5 millionh in 2009 due to the downturn. The companhy recently cut its expenses by layinh offabout half-dozen employees. Ramey Kemp & Associates has four officess and does work for clients inseverak states. Customers include commercial andresidential hospitals, schools and municipalities such as Wake Foresgt and Smithfield. “We’ve historically been more of a private-sectorf firm,” says President and Chief Executiv e OfficerMontell Irvin.
About 60 percent of the company’ws business comes from private-sectoe clients – but that’s changing due to the and Kemp expects the public sectod work to increase to about 60 percengtnext year. Paul the director of the planningf department for the townof Smithfield, says Ramey Kemp does work. The firm’s prices are “very competitive,” and Embler likesw the fact that Kemp is conscientious about keepinbg the lines of communication open between the company andthe town. “That helps the project move alonbg quicker,” Embler says. who joined the company full-time in 1995, assumed the title of presidentt at the beginning ofthis year.
In additiojn to serving as the firm’s Kemp also is its director ofbusineszs development. Kemp is the majority owner of the while Irvin is the second largesstock holder. Many othetr company employees own smaller shares in the firm throughb its employee stockownership