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January 2022 The Contractor’s Advantage
HarrisonLawGroup.com (410) 832-0000 jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com
All Thanks to Ben Franklin
The 2 Innovations I’m Most Inspired By
Benjamin Franklin is one of our nation’s most well-known figures. His accomplishments include helping establish our nation, improving how we use and understand electricity, upgrading home heating systems, creating a large-scale printing business, and contributing to the modern-day application of many public services, including libraries and fire departments — just to name a few accolades. It’s timely that we remember him this month, too, as this great figure was born in January. As you may remember, I’m fascinated by biographies, and Franklin’s biography by Walter Isaacson is one such book that I really enjoyed. His book is titled “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.” One of the most interesting facts I learned from Isaacson’s book — which is very well written, by the way — was that before Franklin invented the lightning rod, many homes would catch fire from lightning strikes and burn down. This was purely seen as dumb luck and unpreventable. Franklin saw that obstacle and found an opportunity. Because of his invention, house fires became easier to prevent. In the spirit of the great inventor, I want to take this opportunity to celebrate two innovations I believe have changed the world. These are products we use every day, and many of us likely take them for granted. But access to both is critical for our progress and survival. The first is the advent of modern medicine. The way we prevent and fight diseases has been put on stark display for the past two years, and it’s truly amazing to wonder where we would be without the tools and technologies created by modern medicine. We’ve all suffered tremendous losses during this pandemic, but it’s fair to say the past two years could have been much worse without the medical tools and understanding we have today. The other innovation is the internet, which has allowed us to connect with others and use educational tools unlike any way we have before. In doing so, we are democratizing accessibility to knowledge. Today, you can learn practically anything you want with a simple Google search. Videos and social media are changing the way we view and understand the world around us, and something as basic as education, which was once reserved for the wealthy and those with resources, is now available to nearly everyone.
It goes without saying that the internet and modern medicine each have their own growing pains, but the improvements these innovations made to humankind is unparalleled. For instance, many would agree that humans are good at their core, but as we grant more power and control, it’s human nature to abuse that power. It’s a psychological phenomenon that happens frequently. However, communal access to information — like the access the internet provides — is the surest way to avoid that kind of abuse of power. It keeps those in control more susceptible to trouble if they are caught within the wide reach of the internet.
The world has changed quite a bit in the centuries since Franklin was alive, but we can see his influence in many of the
institutions and processes we have today. As we celebrate the start of another new year, I hope you take a few moments to reflect and appreciate the progress we have made together and the privileges those innovations give us. If you think of any other modern marvels worth appreciating, please reach out.
-Jeremy Wyatt
jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com | HarrisonLawGroup.com | 1
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6 Ways to Rethink Your Retention Marketing Stop Losing Clients Today!
R etention is crucial to your business. According to Investopedia, acquiring a new client can cost five times as much as retaining an existing one. And if that doesn’t convince you, research from Bain & Company and the Harvard Business School both show that a 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by as much as 95%.
Make personalization possible. In order to retain customers, you must build quality relationships with them. This starts with knowing who they are, what they need, and how they interact with your company and your marketing. To figure out those key points, you should gather and interpret a lot of data, both online and off. You can do some of this data-gathering and calculating yourself (for example, you might consider calculating the lifetime value or LTV of each client), but hiring a third-party data analytics company will help you take your retention marketing to the next level. SAS, Alteryx, Kissmetrics, and InsightSquared are great options for small-business owners. Hire (or create) a retention expert . If you truly want to maximize your retention, you need to make it an integral part of your team’s marketing approach. Investing in specialized training for your team is one way to do this. But you can also hire a retention expert or shift one of your existing team members’ roles to focus exclusively on managing and retaining clients. Yes, hiring is expensive, but remember — increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by as much as 95%. That new team member will pay for themselves in no time! Retention marketing mindset shifts will be game-changers for your company. You can start with one of these tips or dive into all of them. Whatever feels right for you, if you try these ideas, it won’t be long before you’ll see the difference in your bottom line.
If you don’t have appropriate retention strategies in place, 2022 is the perfect time to make a change! Here are six ways to completely rethink your retention marketing that will save your team time and money. Reallocate your resources . Don’t just talk the retention talk — walk the walk! In order to truly change your company’s ways, you need to invest in retention and reallocate your resources. Provide your team with additional training on customer service. Important points to emphasize for retention (per Forbes magazine) include frequent and friendly customer communication, transparency, active listening, and the value of relationship-building. Create a fund for customer perks and gifts. Celebrating your clients allows you to give them attention when they might appreciate it most. If you know a customer who recently had a baby or is going through a difficult time, consider sending a gift or a card to show you're thinking about them. These gifts cost resources, but as Newswire reports, multiple studies show that customer gifts increase retention. Invest in retention tools. Staying in touch with your customers is the best way to keep them happy and remind them that you care. You can stay on top of this by doing the hard work of reaching out personally each month, but it’s easier and more efficient to invest in recurring communications like automated weekly emails and regularly printed newsletters.
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HAVE A Laugh
January is a busy month for sports, which includes football playoffs and the NBA and NHL seasons. Stars from each of these leagues have cultivated a global fan base and become celebrities, but this is nothing new. Thousands of years ago, many gladiators reached untold levels of fame, too. For the most part, gladiators were not born into nor did they receive much wealth. In most cases, they were originally slaves who became so indebted they had to sell their bodies. Many slaves were chosen and sent to gladiatorial schools, where they trained to become the best, too. For their fights, the Colosseum in Rome was built almost 2,000 years ago and could seat up to 75,000 people. For comparison, the largest U.S. stadiums hold a little over 100,000 people. Back then, there were no Jumbotrons or screens to see from far away. Tens of thousands of people would happily watch gladiator fights with nothing but eyes. Gladiators: The Original Celebrity Athletes?
The story of gladiators prove athletes are and always have been influential.
Go Brandless!
It’s Back and Better Than Ever
Brandless is thriving again, nevertheless. When Brandless shut down, they cited their struggle with fierce competition and business model inviability in the direct-to-consumer market. Part of the problem was that Brandless simply wasn’t sustainable in the way Sharkey and Leffler originally hoped.
Companies like Warby Parker have built a powerful customer following for creating direct-to-consumer products that slash prices by cutting out the middleman. Now, Brandless is doing the same thing for small, everyday purchases.
When you buy peanut butter, you’re not just buying the product — you’re also buying the brand attached to it, along with its costs of distributing and warehousing, plus retail space. By eliminating what co-founder and CEO Tina Sharkey calls a “brand tax,” she realized Brandless could significantly cut down the costs for small products that people bought every day.
That’s when Utah-based digital marketing exec Ryan Treft entered the picture. He’s the new CEO, and his vision has, thus far, helped make the consumer’s “quality to price valued product” daydream a reality. "It's not about racing other brands to the
bottom of being the cheapest, because that's where people compromise on the quality, the ingredients," Treft said. His new leadership promises to uphold Brandless’ previous commitments to keep all its products free from 400 potentially harmful ingredients, including parabens, sulfates, and synthetic dyes. For a new “brand” that attracted a lot of attention back when it was in its early stages, Brandless is certainly back to the top with its newer product lines in personal care. They’ve received great reviews and attention across platforms. Congrats for fighting your way back, Brandless!
When Sharkey and veteran entrepreneur Ido Leffler came up with the concept of Brandless, it immediately caught fire. They raised over $16 million in November 2016, and at launch, received over $50 million in venture capital from New Enterprise Associates, Google Ventures, and others. However, their business model didn’t sustain itself forever — Sharkey stepped down as CEO in May 2019 after friction between her and lead investor SoftBank Vision Fund. By February 2020, Brandless had shut down and laid off 90% of its workforce, leaving only a few to manage open orders.
jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com | HarrisonLawGroup.com | 3
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Jeremy Wyatt jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com HarrisonLawGroup.com (410) 832-0000
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40 West Chesapeake Avenue, Ste. 600 Towson, MD 21204 Inside This Edition
1. 2. 3.
2 Inventions That Have Changed the World
6 Retention Strategies That Actually Work
The Original ‘Celebrity’ Athletes
Go Brandless —Their Unique Comeback Story
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Make Neuroplasticity Your Secret to Success
Is Neuroplasticity the Secret to Success? 6 Scientifically Proven Ways to Boost Your Brain Power
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change and adapt throughout your life, forming new connections that can have a direct impact on your energy, productivity, focus, creativity, motivation, and much more. Your brain can expand and grow even after an injury. That’s why many entrepreneurs are saying the same thing: One of the smartest ways to invest in your business is to devote resources to your most important asset — your brain. But how do you keep your brain active, healthy, and functioning at a high level? Param Dedhia, MD, says six key areas are involved: sleep, exercise, joy, nutrition, internal medicine, and inflammation. All of these factors work independently, but together, they can promote neuroplasticity, which is why they all require equal attention. Everyone wants to stay engaged with the world around them, but you can’t do that without sleep. In fact, research published by the journal PLOS One discovered that getting six or fewer hours of sleep was associated with memory and executive function problems, i.e. problem-solving, planning, and execution. So, make sure you get enough sleep before tackling your day.
Exercise is crucial because, according to brain plasticity researchers at IOS Press, exercise “alters the synaptic structure and function in various brain regions,” promoting brain growth and even delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s
disease. Promoting growth can also be as simple (or as difficult) as focusing our attention on thoughts that bring us joy. Gratitude promotes very different brain activity than negativity, anger, or bitterness, and studies on gratitude show that the positive effects can be lifelong. Nutrition can’t be understated either, since it can assist your body in maintaining health and fighting inflammation. The brain uses about 20% of the body’s calories, and eating plenty of omega-3 fatty acids can strengthen brain cells, while antioxidants reduce cellular stress and inflammation, which are linked to brain aging and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. With the right habits, you can keep your brain healthy for many decades to come. You might even grow in entirely new and unexpected ways.
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