Mohit Tater's Blog, page 661

Creating a Legal Protection Strategy

If you have ever been involved in a legal claim you are aware of the many hurdles one may have to face throughout the lengthy process. Whenever possible it is best to have a strategy firmly in place as soon as a potential threat is identified. Even if you have hopes of being able to resolve the issue without the need to go to court, a strategy can help make the entire process smoother.

The first step in any legal strategy is gathering the right support team. Knowing who to turn to before there is an issue is a substantial time saver. The next strategy to have in place is a way to document any and all events as they occur.

Utilizing Professional Support

If may be necessary to consult a legal professional to secure your rights. They have far greater access to authorities with a wide variety of specialties that can help locate necessary information. These may include private investigators, expert witnesses, or computer experts who offer discovery litigation services. It is important to understand the strategic value of each type of service provided.

Private investigators can operate thorough research into a person, event, or place. This can be useful if not all the facts about a situation are readily available. Expert witnesses can be used to testify about the validity of specific claims or evidence that is presented against you or on your behalf. Computer experts can do a wide variety of things, including data recovery, digital file excavation, and data breach investigation.

The Vital Role of Proper Documentation

The first system that needs to be in place is a way to document the minutiae of daily life. This includes receipts for items and services separated into personal and business categories, contracts, text messages, and emails. This can include things like taking scanning receipts and important papers as they come in and uploading them to cloud storage or an external hard drive. If you choose an external hard drive, it is important to have a backup that is stored in a different location in case of physical damage in the primary location.

Digital documentation such as email correspondence is already stored in a cloud environment. The challenge there lies in creating a storage system that makes it easy to access the desired information. A detailed filing system is imperative and should be easy for you to use daily. Text messages and most messaging services have the option to have transcripts of conversations emailed, where they can then be filed appropriately.

There should also be a plan for documenting unexpected events such as automobile accidents, thefts, or personal injury from another source. In these types of events, it is important that detailed pictures are taken of the incident. In the case of an automobile accident, the vehicles should be photographed as well as the accident site from as many angles as possible. If there is a break in, the damage should be documented as well as the area around the items which were taken.

It is important to create a lifestyle that is set up to protect you should a legal matter ever occur is a wise investment of time. When these measures become a habit they no longer require conscious effort and yet they can save an immeasurable amount of future time and energy. As the saying goes, fail to plan and you plan to fail.

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Building Your Professional Services Team

When you start a business, much of your attention goes toward building your team. Whether it’s mechanics, fabricators, nurses, or bakers, you work to surround yourself with skilled people who can help your business grow.

But sometimes, busy entrepreneurs may overlook the other team members that they need to involve, team members who aren’t on the payroll but who contribute just as much to the business’ bottom line as those who are out there selling, building, or otherwise working for you.

The team we’re talking about here is the professionals who handle important business functions for you. As a small business, you don’t necessarily have the expertise or the personnel to justify the cost of getting a qualified staff in-house to do these things, but you still need the high level of service that they provide.

Contracting with a Salt Lake City CPA Anderson & Bradshaw will be cheaper and far more effective than trying to put one on staff. Their firm handles a number of functions online, reducing the steps necessary to track the status of your returns, refunds, and so forth.

And that’s just one example of who you should look at for the peripheral services in your business. In general, they are highly-skilled people or firms that you only need occasionally or for very short periods of time, such as when you hire someone new or expand your facility. Let’s look at some examples.

IT Support

In your earliest days, you probably did most of the setup and troubleshooting yourself, or trusted it to an employee with some experience. But as you grow, you’ll have a greater quantity of secure information that needs to be protected–things like customer payment information, personal information on workers, and maybe even proprietary product ideas.

You’ll reach a point where you are too big to do it yourself but not big enough to hire someone full-time. It’s at this stage where you want to find a qualified IT company that will contract with you to do upgrades, monitor security, troubleshoot failures, carry out backups, and recover data after crashes. And even if you could justify a single IT worker, you would still be better off to contract it because an IT firm would have a much broader base of experience than any single employee you could hire.

Shipping & Logistics

The situation is similar here. When your outgoing parcels become numerous enough that they cover the front desk, it is probably time to start making arrangements with a company to handle those for you. The uncertain pickup schedule for low-volume customers won’t be adequate for you, and you’ll waste a lot of time sending office staff out to pack and ship items that could be picked up for you.

The value of this service is that you not only don’t have to tie up your staff with all that running around, but also that you can come closer to achieving your delivery goals. And when you can do that, your customers will keep coming back.

Social Media

As widely used as social media is these days, it’s no surprise that it made our list. The progression of social media demands for your company is similar to that of other functions. You start out with a modest commitment that you can manage yourself. Then the business grows, the demand for the work grows, and soon you can’t handle it well yourself.

Companies that specialize in social media representation for your business know all the best strategies. They know which platforms to use, what hashtags will get the attention of customers, and how frequently to post. That carefully-planned technique, honed through their own many years of experience, will enable you to keep a very savvy presence without a huge commitment of your own time.

Growing a business takes lots of different ingredients. Like a plant’s roots stretching to reach water, you can stretch yourself very thin trying to cover basic needs when you would do much better simply to have those duties covered for you. As your business grows, build a team of outside help and they’ll bring the water to you so that you can focus your energy where it counts.

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Workplace Safety: What To Prepare When Testing Out Employees

Nowadays, it is no longer unusual for companies to require potential employees to undergo a drug test. The requirement has been permitted by the government as it helps each employer see just how suitable a candidate is for employment in their organization. Although the requirement depends largely on the company, it is mandated in certain Federal regulations like the U.S. Department of Transportation; particularly in employees who are in safety-sensitive positions.

As an employer, it is important that you know some certain guidelines to help prepare your potential employees for marijuana testing and for other drugs. Here are some of the things you need to know about drug tests as implemented by companies throughout the country.

Who pays for the test?

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has ruled that before a drug test is conducted, it is the employer who is responsible in paying for the fee. This means that you will have to be the one to pay for the hair drug test that your potential employees undergo. In the event that you hire an individual and you wish to have him take a test, you may still have him do so providing you pay for the time he spent while taking the test.

The reason behind this is that it is covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which is already a regulation by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The time your employees spend on having the drug test taken is considered as part of the hours he has worked. Your employees are covered by this Act. If you wish to gain more information on this, you may get in touch with the DOL Wage and Hour District Office.

Do you get a copy of the drug test results?

The results from your employee’s drug test are generally considered as personal health information. However, there may be some restrictions on how readily this information can be shared to anyone else. Prior to taking the test, your employee will have to sign a release so that you can receive a copy of the results. Once the signature was placed, you may see the results of the test as you deem necessary.

If an employee tests positive, what do you do?

It is important to remember that drug testing is only a small part of a comprehensive drug-free workplace program. If you want to make sure your facility is completely free of drugs, you need to have a written policy outlining your expectations for drug use and what you expect from each employee you hire. You may also launch an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) so you can provide counseling along with some referrals to your employees who are currently dealing with problems related to drug addiction. The good news is that as an employer, you may get the assistance of the DOL to customize a drug-free workplace for your company.

Before you start implementing a drug test for potential and current employees in your company, it is best that you speak with a lawyer to get consultation on how best to go about with your employee drug testing program. This way, you can be protected by the law when any of your employees are found to test positive for drugs.

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How to Keep a Happy Workforce

A happy team is a productive team, although that can far too easily be forgotten which can lead to disinterested employees and missed targets.

Far too often businesses suffer from a breakdown from a lack of teamwork, either because there is not enough communication, an understanding of everyone’s strengths and weaknesses or because of low morale.

As a business owner, it is in your best interest to keep your employees happy and motivated at work – so, how can you achieve this?

Keep your Employees in the Loop

Openly discussing business matters with your employees, such as potential projects in the pipeline and other news will make your team feel included and more valued.

Don’t feel that this communication has to be a one-way street, ask for their opinions and any feedback they have to offer – employees that carry out day-to-day tasks that have been implemented often have the best ideas to refine processes.

Listening to your employees will not only improve team morale, but it may just improve your business for the better in ways you were unable to see beforehand.

Team Building Exercises

Businesses of all shapes and sizes use team building events all with the goal of building stronger relationships amongst the team and improving communication.

This should not be something that employees dread, it should be an event that is marked on the calendar in anticipation – it is meant to be a fun and enjoyable experience. Some of the best team building events involve members of staff working together to solve a problem and achieve the same collective goal.

A successful team building exercise will result in members of the team having a better understanding of one another’s strengths and weaknesses having broken down barriers that had previously stood. Everyone has their own particular skillset and learning how to utilise those effectively will have a positive effect on team morale and business performance.

Make use of Technology

We are in a golden age of technology where it is possible to communicate with anyone, anywhere, at any time. It is simply not enough to introduce this to the office, maximise its use to make use of its full potential.

This can be especially useful for any team members that work remotely who do not see their colleagues on a day-to-day basis. Instant messaging services and conference calls improve conversation and also help to iron out any misunderstandings quicker and easier than emails.

A popular app that businesses use is Slack, an instant messaging service that incorporates group chats, varied channels and file sharing. Skype is a similar application that can also be used across various devices.

As technology and applications such as those aforementioned can be used remotely, this open source of communication does not have to begin at 9 and end at 5. This can remain openly constantly for employees to communicate around the clock and share ideas and bounce off of each other.

Encourage Responsibility

This can be a tough one, particularly for owners of start-ups as the business in their baby. Encourage your employees to take on certain roles within the team and manage projects. This responsibility will make them feel more valued and will also be keen to prove themselves when presented with an opportunity.

Responsibility promotes ownership, which will see your employees taking more pride in their work and encourages your employees to take on tasks outside of their job description. Once they have taken on such a role once they will be keen to do so again, this time with added confidence and improved leadership skills.

Delegating responsibility shows that can you trust your employees with important tasks and projects that are vital to your business.

When in a relaxed work atmosphere with opportunities aplenty to test themselves and prove their worth to the company, both your team and business as a whole will thrive.

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How to Organise Your New Startup’s Finances

For anyone who has just set up their first business, there are a lot of things to take on board. It can be an exciting yet worrying time as you try to get everything in order, arrange business meetings, market the company and attract as many customers as possible. One of the most important elements which you need to stay on top of is the finances. This is what will determine the success of your company, helping it profit or fail. There are many ways to successfully organise your startup finances.

Streamline Communication

Good communication is vital for all businesses, and especially when keeping on top of all your incomings and outgoings. Spending needs to be efficiently tracked to ensure you are not going over budget, while incomings must be recorded to help work out profits and losses. Your team may be spread across an area, so arranging clear communication channels is vital, along with suppliers, clients and more. There are many great communication tools for small businesses to use when communicating their finances.

Organise Inventory

Keeping tight control over your inventory is essential to ensure overhead costs remain as low as possible, with no money lost through poor management. Automation is one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways of doing so, providing greater accuracy and preventing against mistakes and internal theft. Data recorded can be used to help your startup grow in the right way and avoid wasting money on products or services which aren’t selling, useful for businesses in their early stages.

Create a Smooth Cash Flow

One of the main reasons a lot of startups fail is not due to low profits but a poor cash flow situation. You need good cash flow to make sure all employees can be paid, materials can be bought and other essentials paid for to help the SME grow. A great way to organise this is through using Market Invoice for help raising the funds from invoices that will be paid late. Here you get the funds up front to smooth out your cash flow.

Seek Funding Opportunities

Starting capital needs to be plentiful so your startup can cover all the costs, from overheads to production. If you don’t have enough, there are many ways to access funds. These include the common bank loans and factoring, to government grants, crowdfunding and more. Explore all your options to ensure your startup finances are well organised and avoid any future problems.

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Planning Your Event: Why You Should Use a Temporary Building

If you’re planning an exhibition, a product launch or a sports event, finding the right space for your requirements can be a tricky first step. This is where a temporary building could help.

With a number of different structures available, the possibilities are endless for your events, regardless of the size or number you need to cater for. If your structure is only needed for 28 days or less, then planning permission isn’t required, so you can get your site up and running quickly.

Still not sure? Here are three reasons why you should consider using a temporary building for your next event:

Less Financial Risk

Financially, there is less risk involved in using a temporary structure. Without the expenses of a permanent structure, which includes the cost of labour and materials, a temporary building can be cheaper to construct and install.

Plus, they produce less waste because they are only used when they are needed. This means that there are no overheads to pay when the building isn’t in use – it will simply be taken down and used again elsewhere.

Speed

As well as being cheaper than a permanent structure, they’re also faster to build. Often, foundationsaren’t required and all the parts are usually in stock or easily manufactured, so a temporary building can be put up and dismantled incredibly quickly. As they’re usually completed in manufacturing plants, there’ll never be a delay in construction due to bad weather.

If you need a structure to meet your increased or unexpected business demands, then a temporary building could be the solution. It’s the perfect option if your business or event is seasonal as you may only need the extra space at certain times of the year.

Flexibility of Space

Temporary structures can give you the flexibility you might need, especially if you’re holding a sports event. Well-known events such as the Olympic Games, Wimbledon Tennis Championships and the Hockey World Cup have all used temporary structures from Neptunus, who have marquees, pavilions and halls available for:

Press Tents
Catering
VIP lounges
Grandstands
Hospitality

With various sizes and designs available, you can enjoy the convenience of a flexible space that’s designed to meet your specifications exactly. Its versatility means that the building is relocatable, customisable and can be used in almost any location.

If you’re planning an event and you’re looking for a building that meets your exact requirements, then a temporary building could be for you. As well as being cheaper and quicker to build, it can serve as a reliable, temporary space for your exhibitions or sporting events if they are a one-off or only required during a certain season.

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The Tech Your Business Could Use to Improve Efficiency

Getting your business ahead of the rest is something many managers strive for, but achieving this is something that takes time. You need to implement a number of different strategies across your company covering everything from your staffing to your finances; ultimately making them better and more effective.

To get you started with this process, one of the easiest ways to improve your company and make it more efficient is to invest in newer, better technologies; then you can look into the other areas. What follows in this post is a number of examples of better tech you might want to consider implementing into your operations.

A New CRM

If you deal with customers on a daily basis the chances are you’ll then have quite a substantial amount of data to handle. With a new CRM (or Customer Relationship Management) software in place you’ll be able to keep all this information in one place and make it easier to process and access if and when you need it. The best part about this is you can find lots of these available for free online.

Cloud Services

To build on this above suggestion, you could also invest in cloud services to help make storing this data much easier. By using the cloud to store such information you can also make it all easier to access and help keep it safe and secure. What’s more, you don’t need to have lots of physical storage in-house crowding your workspace.

More Efficient Machinery

For those working in manufacturing, you might want to look into upgrading or replacing your machinery with newer and better versions. Not only will these feature better designs with everything from modern circuitry and efficient power supplies they will also have longer-lasting production functions that are much more energy efficient.

Better Communications

Lastly, you should look to equip your staff with the latest smartphones and tablets – especially if they are working on the go. This is because modern devices offer a multitude of functions meaning your teams can communicate and access their work all over the world, not just in the office.

Not only can these help in making your business faster, more efficient and overall more productive, it can be great for helping your staff. Many of these technologies will make their jobs much easier to manage and as such you could also be rewarded with a workforce that is both happy to be at your company and which consistently produces quality work.

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5 Subscription Box Businesses You Can Set Up This Year

Subscription-based businesses are not exactly new. As you may know, the subscription model has been adopted by many enterprises for quite some time now, businesses that include cable, satellite, and internet television providers, mobile phone companies, software developers, and many others. The subscription box model, a type of subscription business in which customers pay for the periodic delivery of goods to their doorstep, has also been long popularized by companies like the Dollar Shave Club, Birchbox, and Barkbox. These enterprises sell grooming products, beauty products, and dog-themed products, respectively.

The prospect of starting your own subscription box business can be exciting. If you set it up right and determine the right strategies for product development, pricing, subscription billing, fulfillment, and marketing, there’s no reason for you not to be able to cash in on one of the most promising trends in e-commerce right now. Here are a few business ideas that you may want to explore this 2017.

Flowers

Flower delivery businesses have been around for ages, but a lot of them cater to people who buy on a one-off or per-transaction basis, meaning these folks buy blooms for their loved ones only on special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, Mother’s Day, and so on. However, flowers can also be delivered on a subscription basis. Think of clients like hotels, resorts, restaurants, spas, churches, and columbaries—business establishments that need a consistent supply of flowers.You can cater to their needs by setting up a flower subscription business.

Coffee

Whether your target clients are coffee connoisseurs, specialty cafés, or your day-to-day coffee lovers, a coffee subscription business will involve delivering fresh beans to customers on a periodic basis. You can experiment providing different varieties of coffee beans, from exotic, single origin variants to fair trade and sustainable products that add an element of humanitarian and environmental awareness to your brand identity.

Locavore Food

Speaking of sustainability, you’re probably now aware of the growing popularity of the local food movement, whose goal is to bridge the gap between local food producers and food consumers within the same locality. By being locavores, people contribute to their local economies, reduce their environmental impact, and create more resilient food systems in their communities. You can join this movement by establishing a locavore subscription business. You can partner up with local food producers and deliver fresh grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy, and other produce directly from the farms to your customers.

Stationery

Despite the many benefits of digitization, the appeal of paper products never really went away. These days, it is still the material of choice for crafters, journal makers, and people who just love writing notes and jotting down schedules in general. As such, a stationery subscription box business might just be your ticket to success. When it comes to stationeries, there’s a wondrous variety of items you can offer, from the usual notepads, notebooks, pens, and pencils to specialized stickers, greeting cards, page flags, and sticky notes. Throw in beautiful desktop accessory and an art print every month, and you’re good to go!

Dog and Cat Treats

Pet care is a $63 billion dollar industry in the United States. On pet food alone, Americans spent more than $24 billion in 2016. If you want to take advantage of this ever-growing and lucrative industry, setting up a subscription box service for dog and cat treats may be the answer. Aside from buying regular food for their pets, dog and cat owners also purchase treats frequently, which make them great products to sell if you want to bring in a regular stream of revenue.As an added value, consider including pet toys and accessories in every delivery.

Knowing the right products to sell for your subscription box business is key to finding success in the subscription economy. Of course, your business will have a better chance of thriving if you study your market well and develop the right strategies for selling and promoting your products. Consider the ideas above, but don’t hesitate to explore other promising growth industries as well.

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5 Ways to Manage Social Media Better Than the Competition

Using social media is a significant step toward propelling your marketing efforts to new heights, but most of your competitors are also using it. A 2016 survey by research and consulting company BIA/Kelsey reports nearly 78 percent of small-to-medium-sized businesses use social media, up more than 4 percent from the previous year. In a world where Facebook status updates, a barrage of Tweets and Instagram photos inundate your target consumers, how can you capture their attention despite the digital noise?

Like any relationship, the most successful social media efforts are forged with genuine intent and a focus on connection. Using data-gathering and analytics helps your business refine its efforts through optimization, which in turn increases customer satisfaction. Use these five tactics to shine online.

Prepare Employees with the Best Equipment

Today, any person with a smartphone can be a news maker or customer service agent, with the ability to capture on-the-fly photos and videos that contain useful content for your brand and help customers solve their problems. Equip, at the very least, your social media strategist with a reliable smartphone with long battery life that they can use whenever they need to post something quickly, respond to a customer, or shoot something interesting. A durable option that is water- and dust-resistant, like the Samsung Galaxy S7, is a valuable choice for small businesses because it lasts longer in rugged conditions.

Strategize Before Posting

Having a thoughtful strategy will help your business align its sales objectives with the content you’re spreading and the relationships you’re forming on social media. Since more than 50 percent of companies state the lack of an effective strategy as their greatest obstacle to success, taking the time to plan out a content calendar and create content pillars for engagement can instantly give you a leg up on your peers. Use factors such as these to build out a social media content calendar a few weeks in advance:

New product releases
Company culture updates, including recent hires
Upcoming promotions
Content that ties in with holidays

Allow for modification of the calendar depending on trending topics and events, but use the calendar to enable your social efforts to support company-wide marketing initiatives. There are many free social media calendar templates online you can use for guidance. (3)

Put Measurement in Place

For every piece of social media content you are posting, there should be a way to measure its effectiveness. For example, assigning a unique Google URL tracker to each link will allow you to track the journey a visitor takes from your Facebook page to your blog post to your product page. This strategy provides a view of how users interact with the content you share on social channels, and where drop-offs or conversions take place, allowing you to optimize the content you post and tweak your landing pages accordingly.

Invest in Paid Advertising

To guarantee your social messages get seen by your target audience, paid advertising is a must. Research and advisory firm Gartner says by October 2017, 80 percent of social marketers will be working with social advertising programs. B2B platforms such as LinkedIn Ads allow a business to connect with top executives and purchase decision-makers, while Facebook Ads are essential for new brands starting out who want to grow a substantial audience. Be sure to A/B all ad campaigns you launch, so you can shift copy, imagery, targeting and placement based on what is working for your brand. Gaining attention and new followers through social advertising allows your business messages to get seen more frequently in the future, and the ads can serve as powerful referrals.

Use Social as Customer Support

Stellar social media support can give your company a competitive edge, amaze customers and further develope brand loyalty. Marketing expert Jay Baer of Convince and Convert reports 42 percent of consumers who contact a brand via social expect a response within an hour, and 32 percent want a response within 30 minutes. By making sure your business is constantly monitoring and responding to feedback, you’ll make customers feel validated and cared for. Even responding immediately with something like, “Thanks for your question. We’re looking into this to get you a response soon,” is a way to let customers know you’ve heard them and are working to help them.

With a solid strategy and the right tools in place, your brand can ensure you’re continually optimizing both non-paid and paid content. By forming relationships with followers through interactions and exemplary customer support, you can shape those fans into brand advocates who will spread the positive word about your business for you.

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How to Improve Your Budgeting Skills

Are your budgeting and money management skills up to scratch? If not, this issue could lead to all kinds of financial problems later on. This is why you should look for ways to improve your budgeting skills as quickly as possible. Below are some ways you can achieve this goal, starting today.

Start a Course That Teaches You How to Budget

Every financial expert has to start somewhere. Enrolling in a course such as an online master in public administration degree program from a university like Rutgers Online that focuses on budgeting and financial management is a great starting point. An online MPA program is designed by a wide range of experts who have experience dealing with finances in different organizations and they are willing to pass on this vital information to their students.

Get the Proper Advice and Get Involved

Some entrepreneurs prefer to focus on the day-to-day running of their business instead of dealing with their finances. However, you should not distance yourself from budgeting activities altogether.

Initially, you may need to hire a financial expert or mentor who can guide you through the budgeting process. Once you understand the process, you should consider getting other members of your organization involved, because some of your employees and managers may have a greater understanding of certain aspects of your business and the financial implications of every budgeting decision you make.

Organization

If you are serious about budgeting, you need to become more organized and invest in efficient budgeting systems and technologies. You should set aside some time each week, each month and each year, to draw up new budgets, modify existing budgets and track and refine existing budgets. If you develop this habit, you will have much more control over the money coming in and going out of your business.

Use the Latest Technologies

Finance and productivity related systems have come a long way in recent years. Mobile technologies, cloud computing and a range of other internet developments make it extremely easy to create and modify a company’s budget. Many of the systems available include easy-to-use templates and multiple users can access these systems from any location, which means you have much more flexibility when you deal with the financial aspects of your organization.

Learn to Prioritize the Items in Your Budget

Some items in a budget are more important than others, so it’s vital to prioritize your payments, debts and other items when you are creating a budget. Once again, there are systems that can help you with this task. If someone helps you when you budget, make sure they are aware of the most important items in the budget and that these individuals are also able to prioritize properly.

Budgeting is one of the most important activities every entrepreneur needs to be able to master. This task can determine the fate of a business, so you need to seriously consider each of the points mentioned above. This will help you improve your budgeting skills.

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