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January 2021 The Contractor’s Advantage
HarrisonLawGroup.com (410) 832-0000 jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com
Setting Goals That Stick
short- and/or long-term goals, you need to make sure you’re in a position to accomplish them and have the necessary resources, mindset, or motivation. That doesn’t mean you should avoid challenging goals, but they should be realistic. You don’t want to say, “I’m going to start a new business on Jan. 1 and be a millionaire on Dec. 31” and expect that to happen. You can’t say, “I’m going to get the best new clients” and leave it at that. Without a plan, it may not be achievable, and it certainly isn’t measurable. How are you going to get those new clients? What defines “best”? How many of these clients do you want and by when? It’s also important to be agile. We can’t predict the future. Something may happen that hinders your progress, and you may need to make adjustments or reevaluate before continuing toward the outcome you desire. Or, if your goal becomes an albatross and it’s no longer going to work out or it’s simply no longer helpful, you need to allow yourself to remove it from the list. Goals should never be burdensome. Instead, they should orient you on a path toward an outcome that is beneficial or useful. One of my personal goals for 2021 is to get back on track with my physical fitness. Over the course of 2020, I let things decline a little bit, and my energy isn’t quite what it was. My intention is to build it back up. In fact, to get started, late last year, I purchased a Peloton stationary bike, and I’m excited to get rolling.
Setting goals is a big part of my life. At the beginning of every year, I think about what I want to accomplish, then I set goals with intention and spend time focusing on the specifics of each one. Throughout the month of January, we all hear about how important resolutions and goals are. You see it on TV and in articles just like this one. But don’t set goals just for the sake of it. Your goals — whether personal, professional, or both — should mean something to you, and setting goals with intention is crucial to achieving them. You want to be invested in each goal and its outcome because it will enrich your life in some way. As you start setting goals, you should always put them in writing and share them with others, like trusted peers, family, friends, or anyone who will help hold you accountable. When you tell others about your goals, you gain a greater sense of responsibility for them. You know that if anyone asks, you’re going to want to update them with good news about your progress, and that alone can be motivating. If you don’t tell anyone about your goals and instead keep them to yourself, you have zero accountability. That isn’t to say you can’t accomplish your goals, but you’ll have less incentive and motivation to do so. You’re more likely to fall short or put them on the back burner. Every year, I set all kinds of goals for myself and write them all down. They're specific, and they’re achievable and measurable. Whether you set
Going into 2021, and as I build my energy back up, I’ll be better able to tackle my other goals. This is something many people overlook. Accomplishing goals takes a lot of energy, both mental and physical. If you don’t have that energy, you may fall short simply due to feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. In some respects, achieving goals is like building a pyramid. The base of the pyramid is built by your health and physical fitness. With fitness in place, you can tackle the rest of the pyramid as you work toward the top.
Here’s to getting to the top! Happy New Year's!
-Jeremy Wyatt
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But in 2021, You Can Make It Fair 2020 Wants You to Think Life Isn’t Fair
be and what kind of business you want. You can run one filled with concern for others that goes beyond enriching just your own life. You can decide to not keep every marble from the business for yourself and instead use some of your gains to help others. You can build a culture in your company that doesn’t allow oppression. You can create an environment where there's no reason to say, "That's not fair!"
down by others. That’s just in our nature, as it always has been. We get upset with people who aren’t treating us fairly, and when we don’t get our way, we throw a fit. And then, the next time we get any power of our own, we oppress someone else, who then reacts the same way. You might think you’ve never oppressed anyone, but everyone has done it in some way or another, even if they may not realize it. However, there’s a bright side to this topic, and it’s that entrepreneurs always have an opportunity to make their world a better place. Every morning when you wake up, you can decide what kind of boss you want to
“That’s not fair” — it’s a phrase everyone hears and says far too often. And, it’s just as often followed by the retort, “Well, life’s not fair.” The concept of “fair” is very misguided, and the year 2020 took it to a whole new level. Nowadays, saying “life isn’t fair” feels like the best scapegoat for everything we’ve been through this year. But fairness is often like luck: It’s better to be fair or have a little luck on your side, but most of the time, how fair life is or how much luck you have is a product of your own creation.
Many entrepreneurs are focused on what’s in it for them, and as an
entrepreneur, you absolutely should be rewarded for your hard work and risk. But you don’t have to be rewarded while someone else gets punished. You can create an environment where there's no reason to say, "That's not fair!"
In life and especially in business, human beings get stepped on and pushed
As you head into operating your business in 2021, it’s crucial to remember two things:
1. Culture trumps strategy every day of the week.
2. Happy employees make happy customers, and happy customers make a happy bottom line. If you focus on the people in your business this year, you’ll find all your marketing efforts and business dealings to be fairer, no matter how unfair life has seemed lately. Because the reality is that life can always be as fair as we decide to make it.
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For leaders at all levels in all types of business, 2020 was a tough year. Those businesses that managed to not only survive but also thrive all have one big factor in common: good leadership. If you want to be a better leader for your team in 2021, here are the latest leadership books you should add to your reading list. Be a Better Leader 4 Leadership Books You Need to Read ‘Friday Forward: Inspiration and Motivation to End Your Week Stronger Than It Started’ by Robert Glazer Glazer is an entrepreneur and bestselling author who has taken 52 of the most impactful stories from his inspirational newsletter that goes out to more than 100,000 readers and put them in one convenient book. These stories of struggling entrepreneurs who turned things around can give you the push you need to make an impact in your own circles and end your work weeks stronger than they started. ‘Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You’ by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss Frei is one of the world’s foremost authorities on leadership. In her new book, she’s teamed up with Anne Morriss, a leader in the genomics industry. The book teaches leaders how to empower others. Great leadership takes grit, thick skin, and compassion, and “Unleashed” offers advice from top- performing organizations on how to best achieve all three.
‘Personality Isn’t Permanent: Break Free From Self-Limiting Beliefs and Rewrite Your Story’ by Benjamin Hardy Organizational psychologist Benjamin Hardy makes a fascinating argument for why your current personality isn’t the one that’s most important. His new book pushes readers to consider who they want their future self to be, and his ideas aren’t theoretical — they’re full of proven ways to change your priorities, break habits, and use your environment to make you a better version of yourself. ‘Honest to Greatness: How Today's Greatest Leaders Use Brutal Honesty to Achieve Massive Success’ by Peter Kozodoy The turmoil of 2020 has pushed brands to reconsider how they appeal to their customers. Many are walking away from deceitful promises and aiming for radical honesty and authenticity, instead. In his new book, Kozodoy examines how this revolution came to be and why it’s working. His guide teaches leaders how they can embrace these qualities to make their businesses better.
Bananas: The Fastest-Traveling Fruit
HAVE A Laugh
It was 1890 in Limón, Costa Rica, and Minor Cooper Keith was the “Banana King.” Keith traveled to Central America to build railroads, but when he planted 800,000 acres of bananas to feed his workers, he ended up in the banana business, too. In 1899, he co-founded United Fruit and set his sights on the U.S. market. Two secrets helped Keith’s bananas cross the 7,175 miles from Limón to Seattle in under seven days. The first was the railroad, which United Fruit operated. Railroad cars sped the bananas from their plantations to the Port of Limón. There, they were loaded onto the first-ever refrigerated ships. Those ships steamed north, where their precious cargo
was unloaded, stacked into yet more United Fruit railroad cars, and dispatched across the U.S. This mad scramble of plantation workers, conductors, and captains brought us the plethora of bananas we have today.
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Jeremy Wyatt jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com HarrisonLawGroup.com (410) 832-0000
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Inside This Edition
1. 2. 3.
New Goals for a New Year
Creating Fairness as an Entrepreneur
4 Books You Should Read to Lead The Great Banana Scramble of 1899
4.
Business Budgeting for 2021
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Level With Me: Coronavirus & Construction: Protect Your Rights And Your Business
Business Budgeting for 2021: You Can Still Plan Around Unpredictability
set sales goals, be aware of your margins and get flexible with the way you’re achieving them if you want to improve them. Also take into account new expenses you may have in response to 2020, like staffing changes and Paycheck Protection Program loans. Take stock of what’s new and different for your business this year and include it in your budget plan. Remember the Essentials Even though last year was a wild ride, you can’t throw all your best practices out the window. Certain budget- forward thinking will always be essential, no matter where your business has landed. If sales are strong, drive profits while you can to build your reserves. Modify your products or services to align with customer behavior. Keep your accounts receivable clean. Don’t use credit cards to finance your business. Pay close attention to your balance sheet to keep a handle on debt. Cultivate an ongoing relationship with your banker. If you find a reliable baseline, are willing to be flexible and realistic, and if you can recalibrate your plans on the go, you can budget your way to a much better year.
This is the time of year when businesses would usually be looking at their budget and planning for the coming year. But COVID-19 has made the future entirely unpredictable, which makes properly planning your budget difficult. But all is not lost — there are some basic budgeting tactics you can implement to face 2021 with confidence. Create a Forecast If you’re not entirely confident in your ability to forecast sales for 2021, you’re not alone. But you do still have options. If 2020 went great, perhaps try setting your sights up 10% from last year. If you want to play it safe, keep your forecast on par with 2020. If even that doesn’t feel reliable, then jump back to 2019 and use it as a base for creating your budget. You can ramp up 10% or 20% from there. Don’t just forecast this year blindly — use data from a point you can rely on and plan accordingly from there. Know What to Include Your budget needs to have flexible sales goals and realistic expense plans this year. Many businesses are having to change their marketing focus and invest differently, so you have to be willing to adapt your budget, too. As you
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Level With
Me By JeremyWyatt
Coronavirus & Construction: Protect Your Rights And Your Business
needed to complete a project. Add extra time provisions into your contracts. Request compensation or alleviation from your duties when there are disruptions to the supply chain. Issue change order requests. As you’re working on projects and issues related to the coronavirus crop up — whether they directly affect you or not — put in a change order request. You want to take care of this upfront so no one can say that you didn’t give notice. Document that you expect your work to be impacted and you expect to be compensated for any impact. Keep all paperwork. Even if it seems insignificant, keep it. If your supplier is telling you there will be a delay due to the coronavirus, or they want you to pay a premium to get the material delivered on time, or you need additional labor, make 2 3
As we enter the cold weather months, coronavirus cases are spiking across the country. Many industries have been affected. Going into the spring, we are likely to see more negative impacts within the construction industry. I’ve been speaking with clients who want to get ahead of this. There are several steps you can take to protect yourself as the coronavirus, once again, brings challenges to our communities. Here are four things to consider: Keep an eye on the supply chain. 1 When you’re entering into new contracts, take a look at the supply chain and anticipate how it might be affected. Many of our clients are able to start the project and begin preliminary work, but as outbreaks occur, they have a ripple effect on supply chains. You may soon find yourself unable to get the materials
Continued on Back ...
jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com
www.HarrisonLawGroup.com
(410) 832-0000
... continued from Front
available and if you can obtain this as an additional layer of protection. Questions or concerns? Need help navigating your business through COVID-19? Are you worried that your rights may have been infringed upon or you’re not getting the compensation you are due as a result of the coronavirus? Please call
sure everything is documented and you have that documentation on file. This makes it easier to update change order requests so you can get paid for any impacts related to COVID-19. Invest in Business Interruption Insurance. This one is a little trickier going into 2021, but consider asking your insurance broker about Business Interruption Insurance. These policies may be pricey right now, but it’s important to be aware of this option. This type of insurance is designed to ensure you get paid, even if your business is disrupted due to a disaster or pandemic. When I ran a survey in spring 2020, practically no one had Business Interruption insurance. They didn’t expect they would need it. It’s essentially become standard in the food industry, which has become highly volatile due to COVID-19. Many businesses rely on it because there is no telling if they’ll be out of staff due to increasing infection. Check in with an insurer to see what’s 4
( 410-842-0145 ) or email me ( JWyatt@HarrisonLawGroup. com ). I’m happy to answer your questions and determine your best next steps as we continue to navigate this pandemic.
-Jeremy Wyatt
jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com
www.HarrisonLawGroup.com
(410) 832-0000
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