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May 2021 The Contractor’s Advantage
HarrisonLawGroup.com (410) 832-0000 jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com
Getting Back in the Groove
Last spring, our lives were disrupted in many different ways, and it recently occurred to me that I hadn’t touched my bike in over a year. For one reason or another, I never used it. As someone who loves to bike, I'm surprised at myself. Over the winter months, I did have the benefit of a Peloton bike to help keep me active, but it’s just not the same as biking on your favorite path with the wind and sun on your face. I think it’s time to get back out there. My son, who’s 6, recently learned how to ride a bike on two wheels. Now, as a family, all four of us can get out on bikes and enjoy a nice ride together. I’m looking forward to doing a lot more of that this year. Seeing my bike go unused really put into perspective all the things we haven’t been doing. Over the winter, we usually visit the art museums and other similar attractions in the area. While the pandemic limited what we could do, during the winter, it really limited what we could do. While the Peloton gave me one option to cope with the lack of activity, I came up with all kinds of projects for myself. I’ve mentioned them in a few of my recent newsletters. There was the patio and firepit, the new flooring and wall in the basement, and my current project: floor-to-ceiling cabinets and bookshelves. Of course, now that the weather has improved, my projects may slow down as I get my bike tuned up and ready for the summer. We live near a college campus that makes for very good riding. It’s hilly and relatively out of the way. I can do a couple of laps around the campus and leave with a good workout. The college campus doesn’t offer the safest ride, though. There are wooded and poorly lit areas around the campus. I like to get in early morning rides (between 5–6 a.m.), so I often beat the sunrise. Knock on wood, everything has been great thus far, but as with any bike ride, you have to be attentive to your surroundings.
Baltimore and Annapolis that actually loops around the BWI airport. It’s well-kept and makes for a great ride.
With both kids now riding bikes, we may take them to another nearby trail — the NCR Trail, officially known as the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail. It’s a rails to trail conversion and starts just north of Towson in Cockeysville and ends in York, Pennsylvania. While we’d only take the kids on a short ride, I might have to go back to do the full ride at some point.
With the summer yet ahead, there’s still a lot to do. I’m looking forward to dusting off my bike and getting back out there once again.
-Jeremy Wyatt
I have been thinking about hitting one of the major trails in the area, like the biking trail loop situated between
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Confidence Is Key
When You Want Every Decision to Be a Touchdown
If you’re a business owner, you’ve no doubt faced hard decisions. And when we say “hard decisions,” we don’t mean the ones you make on a daily basis. We’re talking about make-or-break decisions that have serious long-term consequences. Choosing the right path forward could mean years of business growth, but choosing the wrong path could be the death knell. With stakes that high, decision-making may not feel that exciting. The prospect of making difficult choices leaves many business owners understandably in a state of paralysis. You may stop and ask yourself: Am I making the right call? What if this endangers the livelihood of my business and
my employees? This paralysis is normal, but it can prevent you from making the moves your business needs to survive. Luckily, however, you can change this initial reaction. According to David Meltzer’s book, “Game- Time Decision Making: High-Scoring Business Strategies From the Biggest Names in
yourself with people who support you and trust your judgment. Just like having an all-star team that trusts your judgment in the game, having friends and colleagues who affirm your decisions goes a long way toward building your confidence. It’s also important to have a positive mindset. It’s tempting to expect the worst from any decision you make, but according to Meltzer, the most confident decision-makers are those who have a positive outlook on the future. This makes sense, considering how challenging it is to move forward with a decision when negative thoughts are clouding your judgment. After all, no one ever made a game-winning touchdown after imagining all the ways they might fail to do so! While reading books like “Game-Time Decision Making” can certainly help you become a more confident decision-maker when everything is on the line, the fact is that confident decision-making comes with time and practice. So, if you want to be ready to beat the buzzer on your next tough decision as a business owner, surround yourself with a team that supports your call. Let their confidence in your leadership inspire your abilities, and remember: Don’t let thoughts about how your decision could go wrong stop you from making any decision at all. Maintain a positive outlook, put together an all-star team, and you’ll be making confident decisions in no time.
Sports,” you can be ready to make hard decisions before the buzzer signals the end of the game. As Meltzer’s book title
suggests, decision-making in sports parallels decision-making in business. Business leaders can learn lessons from the court, field, or rink, even if they’re just sitting courtside. The biggest lesson is that confidence is key. But having confidence in your decisions — especially ones with serious consequences — is easier said than done. According to Meltzer, one way to boost your confidence is by surrounding
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HAVE A Laugh
The Bet That Spawned the Filet-O-Fish Sandwich Inside the McDonald’s History Books
If you’re one of the 68 million people who dine at McDonald's each day, you’re probably familiar with the Filet- O-Fish Sandwich. This simple dish has a contentious history. Ray Kroc, the owner of McDonald’s, hated it. But it reached his menus anyway for one reason: Kroc lost a bet.
In 1962, McDonald's franchisee Lou Groen masterminded the Filet-O-Fish to appeal to his Catholic customers. But Kroc refused to add it to the menu. He didn’t want his stores to smell like fish! So they made a bet. On Good Friday, select McDonald's put both the Filet-O-Fish and the meatless Hula Burger on the menu. The entree that sold the best stuck around. As you might have guessed, Groen blew Kroc out of the water, selling 350 Filet-O-Fish sandwiches to his six Hula Burgers. Smelly or not, the filet was there to stay!
Connecting Your Employees to Your Mission Making Your Passions Their Passions
Your business might be doing well, but if your workforce doesn’t feel any sort of personal connection to your business’s mission, that could prevent lasting success. You want to boost employee morale and make them happy about their work. To reinvigorate your employees’ passion for your business’s mission, try a few of these tips. Walk the talk. Patagonia CEO Yvon Chouinard decided to make his products out of organic cotton after he saw how industrially grown cotton was hurting the environment. It cost more to do that, but he stuck to Patagonia’s mission of creating environmentally friendly products. If you’re not willing to sacrifice for your mission, then it’s not your mission — and your employees will know it. Make it clear. Make sure everyone at your company knows exactly what your mission is. Only when employees have a clear understanding of the goal can they actually abide by it. If your mission statement can be interpreted in multiple ways, clarify it throughout all levels of your business. Speak passionately about it. While you want the mission itself to be exciting, even the most intriguing of mission statements will be DOA if your delivery doesn’t convey your excitement. Humans are emotional creatures, so connecting with your employees emotionally in regard to your mission is just as important as the mission itself.
Make it personal. While you might think tying your personal story to the company’s mission seems narcissistic, the truth is that your team wants to hear your story. People like stories, and if you can convey yours with honesty and humility, no one will think you’re an egoist. Re-work it. If your mission doesn’t seem to be inspiring passion in your workforce, then maybe it’s time to tweak it a little bit. Whether you’re just starting in business or have had the same mission statement for 10 years, a new mission lived out, made clear, and made personal by you can spark a newfound appreciation for your business among your employees.
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Jeremy Wyatt jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com HarrisonLawGroup.com (410) 832-0000
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
40 West Chesapeake Avenue, Ste. 600 Towson, MD 21204
Inside This Edition
1. 2. 3.
Getting Back Into the Groove
Make Every Decision a Touchdown
The Bet That Spawned the Filet-O-Fish Sandwich Connecting Your Employees to Your Mission
4.
Why Customer Stories Are Your Best Marketing Tool
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Level With Me: Make Yourself Heard
Stories are one of the oldest forms of communication. For as long as there has been language, people have used words to spin yarns and convey ideas. Today, when it comes to marketing your products, stories emotionally impact your customers in a way that mere facts never could. How do stories do this? According to behavioral economist and author Peter McGraw, memories are built on associations. When you form a habit, routine, or ritual, you’re essentially creating a new set of associations. Using stories, you can show how customers who use your product or service incorporate it into their rituals. If others see that your product has a benefit, they might be compelled to do the same. Before sharing testimonials of customers using your products willy-nilly, however, there are a few tips that might help you curate the stories your customers share and see. Make your customers the center of the story. Many businesses make their product or their brand the hero of the story, but this isn’t the most effective way to grab your customers’ attention through storytelling. Instead, focusing on your customers, their rituals, and the success they’ve achieved can resonate a lot more powerfully. Of course, you’ll want to make it clear how your product helped them achieve success. How You Can Use Customer Stories To Create a Killer Marketing Campaign
Meet your customers where they are. Find a way to get customer feedback on the products and services your business provides. What do they like about your product? How have those products and services helped them the most? Incorporating this information into your storytelling campaign can also ensure that those stories resonate a lot more with your customers. Ditch the jargon. Always remember to keep your stories short, to the point, and accessible. No customer is going to be interested in reading an eight-page white paper or listen to a testimonial that they can’t understand because it’s so full of industry jargon. That’s the beauty of good storytelling — it can impact anyone, transcending industries.
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Level With
Me By JeremyWyatt
Make Yourself Heard
I recently went through an intense oral arguments in the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland. In oral arguments, I have to focus on a specific point of law to the appellate court. Oral arguments require a high level of preparation. I was dealing with an alleged irregularity of the court's procedure. Let me explain: After the court enters its judgment, there are a number of options at your disposal if you wish to appeal. You can file motions or make a request at trial to change to the judgment. If there is an error in the judgment, for example, you can then file a motion, but it must be done quickly — usually within 10–30 days after the judgment. If you wait longer than 30 days, you are left with only one option: You can only file a motion if there were an instance of fraud, a mistake, or an irregularity in the judgment. In my case, my client won at trial, and the other side foolishly waited more then 30 days, then filed a motion claiming an irregularity because the court excluded
This is something I’ve been noticing more frequently: People are waiting longer to file complaints and lawsuits or to bring major issues to attention even when they are current major issues. It’s critical to bring things to light when they are still new and fresh on your mind, when the details are clearer. Recency bias plays into this as well. People tend to prefer to hear about recent events rather than those from the past — even the recent past. Filing a complaint, a lawsuit, or making a claim while the issue is “new” comes with significant benefits for the plaintiff.
One benefit: Getting to your result within a shorter or more reasonable time frame.
Another benefit : Potentially minimizing delays.
It also saves further headache later on. Here’s an example of what I mean.
Continued on Back ...
jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com
www.HarrisonLawGroup.com
(410) 832-0000
This applies to construction projects, too. If there is an issue on-site, you need to bring it up so the relevant people know and can plan accordingly. Waiting can result in, simply put, a lack of results. Your Next Step
certain testimony from evidence. An example of an irregularity could be the court entering judgment without notifying you that there was a hearing in the first place or entering a judgment before you are even notified there is a lawsuit pending. The pattern is that irregularities occur when there is a lack of notice and no opportunity for someone to make their arguments — not what happened in our case. Instances of fraud are very rare. Mistakes are more common — these can be related to typos in court documents, such as an incorrect dollar amounts. All of these belated arguments — fraud, mistake, or irregularity — are hard to prove. My point is that the other side waited too long and was unable to deal with the issue in a quick or efficient manner. Due to their own delays, they had only bad options left. My recommendation to clients (and potential clients) is to move quickly, especially if you are demanding financial compensation or remuneration or you’re seeking specific results.
If you have an issue that needs to be resolved, such as unpaid contract work, or if you have questions or concerns related to a potential issue, give me a call at 410-842-0145 or send me an email at JWyatt@ HarrisonLawGroup.com and let’s talk. Let’s find the answer.
-Jeremy Wyatt
jwyatt@harrisonlawgroup.com
www.HarrisonLawGroup.com
(410) 832-0000
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