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January 2024 The Contractor’s Advantage
HarrisonLawGroup.com (410) 832-0000 jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com
Construction Without Contracts A Risky Business Game You Can’t Afford to Play
We have a client who is providing work for a new hotel with over 20 floors and a contract worth almost $10 million. As I write this, our client is in the midst of this project. In fact, they’re working on the fourth and fifth floors. It’s also true that as I write this, they have no contract with the material supplier. They’ve only just finished the final agreement with the general contractor. In theory, if everything went smoothly, this wouldn’t matter. But there’s a reason I’m telling you this story. Of course, something went wrong. In this case, the material supplier stopped supplying materials on time. Normally, this would be fine because it’s not like they stopped supplying them completely; they were just late. But in the hotel business, every second counts as the peak holiday season approaches. During their busiest time of year, every day the hotel remains closed can result in a loss of millions of dollars. So, while it was okay to sort things out with a handshake back in the day, there is way too much money running through the construction industry nowadays for anyone to be happy with just that — especially for a project as large as this one. And, what you lose with that handshake, as opposed to a contract with the proper obligations and risk management written out, is the ability to hold people to their word.
You’ve probably heard of liquidated damages before, but if you haven’t, you’re lucky. Essentially, liquidated damages are a legal tool that allows for payment of a certain amount of money for every day past the agreed schedule. In this project’s case, that amount was $2,500 a day. The problem is that since our client officially has a written contract with the general contractor, they owe them $2,500 a day. However, they don’t have a written contract with the material supplier, who is making them late in the first place. But, since they don’t have a contract, our client can’t legally pass that obligation to the material supplier. There are many other reasons why written contracts are important for construction projects besides the financial aspects. Comprehensive and clear contracts are required for any project to successfully — and safely — reach its end. Think of construction contracts like rules to a game. They tell you who’s assigned to what role, who is responsible for fixing what problems, and who has to pay whom if those problems arise. This is why doing even a portion of a project without a written contract leaves you at great risk of being liable for everything wrong that may happen on a project. If nothing is in place to identify who is responsible when something goes wrong, what’s stopping someone from saying it’s your fault? Nothing . So, before beginning any project, I encourage you to ensure — and require — a written contract between all parties involved. If you don’t know where to start, I’d be more than happy to help you. At Harrison Law Group, we’ve drafted
and reviewed thousands of contracts for our clients, providing them the power to hold people accountable, and we can do the same for you. Call us at (410) 832-0000 to get started.
-Jeremy Wyatt
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How is the “Sexiest Man Alive” in 2010 also a genius businessman? Ryan Reynolds has appeared in countless movies and, even more recently, advertisements from his own business ventures. From gin brands to sports teams, Reynolds has made billion-dollar deals and has no plans of slowing down. If he wanted to, the actor wouldn’t need to get in front of the camera ever again! However, while his star power definitely has an impact on his marketing, it’s his strategy that gets people talking and buying. Reynolds co-founded his advertising agency, Maximum Effort, in 2018 and has been churning out some powerfully effective advertising. How? A little technique called “fastvertising.” Reynolds’ Success With Fastvertising Fastvertising involves utilizing rapid-speed news outlets and social media platforms. To be successful with this type of marketing, you need to be quick on your feet, and we mean quick. Once something goes viral and becomes part of the cultural zeitgeist, it’s time to join the conversation and swiftly create an ad that plays into this trend. Reynolds has become an expert at fastvertising and showed everyone how it’s done when he released his Aviation Gin commercial. Do you remember that disastrous Peloton holiday commercial from 2019? The commercial had everyone talking — for all the wrong reasons, as many criticized the ad as sexist. The Peloton commercial featured an already thin woman receiving a Peloton exercise bike from her husband, encouraging her to lose weight. The woman then devotes herself to daily workouts and thanks her husband. It’s a scene seemingly pulled straight out of the 1950s! Everyone was talking about the poorly made commercial all over the internet, with headlines pointing out the ridiculousness, one after the other. To ride the wave of frenzy this ad caused, Reynolds and his agency pushed out a sequel to the saga. Starring the same Peloton ad actress, Monica Ruiz, Reynolds’ commercial features the woman drinking martinis with her friends, obviously upset over her marriage. Of course, the martinis are made with Aviation Gin! How to Keep Your Marketing Relevant in Record Time BUSINESS LESSONS FROM RYAN REYNOLDS
actor’s new ad garnered over 10 million views on X (formerly Twitter) and more than 6 million views on Aviation’s YouTube channel. It’s clear that the advertisement’s success directly led to his $610 million deal selling Aviation to Diageo. But Reynolds wasn’t done just yet. He teamed up with fellow actor Rob McElhenney to purchase a fifth-tier Welsh soccer team, Wrexham AFC, for $2.5 million. The sports team seemed a complete waste of time and money, but the two knew they could revive the forgotten team. Surprisingly, they did! Reynolds used his studio to create a docuseries highlighting the team’s history and the inspiring process of resurrecting the team. As a result, the team gained a massive following, countless sponsorship deals, and increased ticket sales. The Essentials of Fastvertising Clearly, the key to succeeding at fastvertising is releasing content as quickly as possible. You need to be able to plan, produce, and release an on-topic commercial in less than three days. Any longer, and the trend loses its virality, and your ad loses its relevancy. But before you move at lightning speed, you need to actually be in the know. Follow trending hashtags, videos, news headlines, and whatever other new sensation hits the cultural scene. Once you spot something that everyone is talking about, it’s time to get started. It seems like we can all learn a few things from Ryan Reynolds!
Maximum Effort was able to conceptualize the ad’s plot, hire Ruiz, produce the video, and release it to the world in only 72 hours. As a result, the topic was still hot, and the gin commercial went viral. The “Deadpool”
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This company didn’t look into Henderson’s background and offered her the job. Unfortunately, the work would prove more difficult than Henderson anticipated. She messed up continually but was aware of her mistakes and decided to come in early and stay late to learn the job and improve. This helped her immensely, and before she knew it, she had earned an operations manager position with the same company. Over time, she learned that becoming an owner-operator would net a much higher salary, so she learned how to dispatch and started doing it on her own time. After she raised enough funds, she decided to buy a
Henderson’s fleet consists of 116 trucks and has brought in more than $100 million. Because Henderson’s business has reached new levels of success, she’s branching out to help other entrepreneurs make their mark in the trucking industry. In 2021, she launched The Truckin’ Millionaires Tour, where she offered training and coaching to educate people on self-sufficiency in the trucking industry. She even hosted a huge convention in Dallas in October 2023 called the TTG Fest, featuring over 13 guest speakers who discussed trucking, the transportation industry, and entrepreneurship.
Henderson’s story proves your past does not determine your future. Even if you dropped out of school, made mistakes, and found yourself in legal trouble, you can still turn it around, find a new passion, and reach
truck and partner with a trucking company to bring in more money. One truck became two trucks, and two trucks quickly became four. She kept adding to her fleet, obtaining exclusive government and major corporation contracts. Now,
new levels of success. Don’t let any obstacle block your progress!
HAVE A Laugh
Beauty and fashion trends come and go throughout the years, and some even make a comeback. The ancient Mayans also sought to be beautiful, but their practices were different compared to modern standards. Let’s take a look at what beauty meant to the Mayans. • Mayans shaped and filed their teeth to sharp points and drilled holes through the center of their teeth to insert gems. • Mayans carved into the skin to create 3D tattoos. • Mayan families bound the heads of their infant children between two boards while the skull was growing to achieve a long and narrow cranial structure, resembling their most prized crop, corn. • Mayans attempted to create crossed eyes because they considered them beautiful. They put a band around the heads of children with a bead suspended right in front of their eyes until the children were permanently cross-eyed. • Mayans added specially designed artificial nose bridges that were often multicolored and decorated with gems to achieve larger noses, which emulated their avian gods. Beauty is influenced by cultural values, and the Mayans invested a lot of time, energy, and creativity to achieve their vision of beauty, even if that vastly differs from today’s standards. WHAT DID MAYANS CONSIDER TO BE ‘MODEL’ LOOKS?
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Jeremy Wyatt jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com HarrisonLawGroup.com (410) 832-0000
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Inside This Edition
1. The Indispensable Power of
Written Contracts in Construction
2. Ryan Reynolds’ Secret to Viral Marketing 3. Mayan ‘Model’ Looks 4. The Remarkable Rise of Kierra Henderson, the Trucking Guru
For years, many people have wondered if education is vital to achieve business success. You might think education and experience are necessary to succeed in a particular industry, but that’s not always the case. Many entrepreneurs without formal education have left a mark on their respective industries and started businesses such as Apple, Facebook, Google, and Virgin Group. And Kierra Henderson, better known as the Trucking Guru, has recently added her name to the list of prominent successful entrepreneurs who never finished high school. Henderson was born in Dallas, Texas, the oldest of eight children. She faced adversity countless times during her youth, ultimately leading her to drop out of high school. But the odds continued to stack up against Henderson as she became a teen mom and found herself in trouble with the law, earning herself a felony. To give herself and her daughter a chance at a better future, Henderson turned her life around and started working at an AT&T location in Dallas. AT&T proved to be a good fit for Henderson, as she won several awards and regularly earned her management team’s recognition. However, the company outsourced her job overseas, leaving Henderson scrambling to find something new. A friend told her to get into the trucking industry. She knew nothing about trucking but figured it was worth a shot. She did research, found a local trucking company that was hiring, and applied to be a transportation planner. KEEP ON TRUCKING How Kierra Henderson Built Her Multimillion-Dollar Empire
This company wanted someone with experience and a bachelor’s degree, two things Henderson did not possess. So, what did she do to overcome this obstacle? She lied, claiming to have a degree and even making up a former employer to make herself more hireable.
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