Down in the trenches.

• Author: Bailey, David
• Position: RUNNER-UP - Mercer design group pc - Company overview

MERCER DESIGN GROUP PC

Headquarters: Weaverville

Principal: Marvin Mercer

Employees: 10

Founded: 2003

Projected 2011 revenue: $650,000

Business: Civil and structural engineering

In 2008 and 2009, Marvin Mercer scrapped for clients, calling on everyone he knew. Once, he heard two strangers talking about engineering in a restaurant, so he just walked up to the table and laid down his card. Nothing seemed to make a difference. Money was so tight that he and his wife, Wendy, who together own Mercer Design Group PC, were scrimping on paper and ink, and he had taken to nagging employees about turning out the lights. They even considered filing for bankruptcy. "We were probably within a week or two weeks of closing the doors," he says.

Then, in January 2010, came the call they hoped would save their company. Jim Smith of United Developers Inc. wanted him to come to Fayetteville to talk about a project. But a snowstorm was bearing down on the state, with more than a foot forecast for the mountains and 6 inches in the Piedmont. Mercer was determined to make his appointment. What's normally a five-hour drive took him three days.

He credits his grit to the military and growing up on a tobacco farm in Robeson County, tending brightleaf under a hot summer sun. He enlisted after finishing high school, and the Army taught him bridge building and demolition. After his discharge, he worked full time for an engineering firm while earning his bachelor's at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. Married in college, he and his wife, who's from Fayetteville, wanted to live in the mountains. Graduating in 2000, he got a job as a project engineer with the city of Asheville, then parlayed it into one with a local engineering company. In 2003, he struck out on his own, and within four years, Mercer Design had 18 employees and more than $1 million of revenue. "We had people literally working in the hallway," he says.

Needing more space, the Mercers decided to buy rather than rent it, which turned out to be a big mistake. They moved into their new office in February 2007, just months after housing prices peaked. Work stopped coming in, but the mortgage didn't go away. He hit the road to drum up business, even reaching out to potential international clients. "He was not...