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3 Tips for a More Successful Small Business

No matter the amount of time you’ve had your small business, it is important to do all you can to make it successful. That being the case; have you been…

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No matter the amount of time you’ve had your small business, it is important to do all you can to make it successful.

That being the case; have you been taking all the necessary steps to be successful and stay there? If not, you could be putting your business and your own financial well-being in danger.

So, is it time you had a more successful small business in your hands?

Always Know Your Money Situation

As you look at ways to make your small business more successful, keep these tips in mind:

1. Your money – Making sure your business is healthy is something you always need to focus on. That said there may be times where your business is in the red. Even if only for a short period of time, it should be of concern to you. With this in mind, do all you can to keep your finances in order. You may be at a point now where you need a little financial infusion. One way to go about this would be applying for a small business line of credit. If you gain approval for such a line of credit, it can help you in some different ways. From new equipment or expanding your office space to hiring more help, having that line of credit is a plus. Speaking of your money, are you in over your head with debt? If so, do all you can to lower it. The most common form of such debt is credit card issues. Remember, the interest fees alone when not paying off your monthly balance can hurt you. Do all you can to stay in the black with your finances and avoid prolonged visits to the red.

2. Your message – It is important that you have a clear and winning message as it pertains to your business. That said is your message resonating with enough consumers? If the answer is no, it can mean you fall further behind competitors. It makes sense to review your marketing messages on occasion. You may need to tweak it here and there. For some, it can mean a complete overhaul to a different message. As part of getting your message out there, know your targeted audience in the first place. Doing things blindly is not a smart way to go about it. By doing some surveys and getting feedback, you have a better notion of who it is you want to market to in the first place.

3. Your reach – Last, how you go about reaching out to customers are quite important too. That said are you doing enough online and offline to reel in more business? What about the business you have now? Do you do enough to keep people coming back? Always make it a priority to reach out to consumers on a regular basis. From social media to face-to-face encounters, let consumers know you care about them.

As you look for ways to make your small business more successful, many of them boil down to commonsense.

So, how successful can you be when it comes to running your small business?

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Have You Tried No Download Slots For Free?

Today, the gambling industry is changing under the influence of advanced technology. However, it is still difficult for many people to get used to online casinos. They may not like…

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Today, the gambling industry is changing under the influence of advanced technology. However, it is still difficult for many people to get used to online casinos. They may not like advertising popping out on gambling platforms, but, as we will see, free no download slots are one of the best features on the online casino market.

What Are Download Slots?

A download slot is software that you install on your computer. As a rule, the interface is no different from online slots. However, more often than not, download slots are paid versions of games.

What Are No Download Slots?

No download slots are free online versions of your favorite slot machines. They are completely authentic visualization of those games that are familiar to you from your experience in a real casino. In order to spend time playing online slots, you do not need to register or make a starting deposit.

What Are the Benefits of No Download Slots?

– Speed

With a good Internet coverage, you can get to any online casino site much faster than it takes to download heavy slot software.

– Security

When downloading any files from the Internet, your computer may become damaged by viruses. From this perspective, playing slots via a browser is much safer.

– Saving money

You do not need to pay money to enter a slot game.

– Saving space

Slots software will take up some space on your hard disk.

– Diversity

Playing online, you get the opportunity to try thousands of different free slots, while within even the most expensive software the number of slots is limited.

What Disadvantages Do No Download Slots Feature?

In fact, there is only one drawback in free no download slots. In order to enjoy games, you need uninterrupted access to the web. Unlike download slots, you cannot use them without internet connection. However, today Internet coverage is available in almost all locations.

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Typical Qualifications for Business Loan Approval

Whether you are preparing for an expansion, need new equipment, or are looking to do additional market research, taking out a business loan is always an excellent option to finance…

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Whether you are preparing for an expansion, need new equipment, or are looking to do additional market research, taking out a business loan is always an excellent option to finance important business decisions. If you are looking to take out a business loan for the first time, the process may seem intimidating. You might want to conduct some research to understand whether you will be approved. Doing your homework will save you precious time and headache when applying for your loan. Listed below are a couple of important factors that your lender will evaluate before deciding whether to extend an offer.

Age of your business

This may seem obvious, but businesses that have been around for a few years usually have their situations under control. There is less risk involved in such a business. It’s no surprise, then, that most lenders require businesses to be in operation for longer than a year before they’ll agree to lend them money. A small business loan is much easier to get the longer you’ve been in business. While this might sound unfair for startup ventures, who need funding more than anyone, it’s a practical and responsible business decision on the part of lenders to minimize risk, and few things are riskier than a newly opened business with no track record.

Credit score

This is one of the biggest factors in applying for any loan. In the case of business loans, you are actually likely to be evaluated on both your business credit and your own personal credit. Most lenders require a score of 650 for an owner’s personal credit score before issuing out a loan. If your business has been established, prepare a credit report and be prepared to show your financial records. Also, ironically, sometimes a business having too much credit can be viewed in a negative light. The lenders may view that you have run out of money and are now relying on credit to cover yourself.

Your intent for the funds

Banks want to know how you plan to spend their money. In some industries, it may be difficult or complicated to explain to a loan officer the importance of certain business expenses. Before you go in for a meeting, you can put together a small presentation to show the exact value of the business loan and how it will allow you the opportunity to pay it back quickly. This will show initiative and understanding of the financial market. Anyone who looks like they know what they are doing will have an added bonus in the eyes of the finance officer.

Your financials

Lenders will often examine all aspects of your business to be sure that they will recover their investment. They will usually have an annual revenue requirement that can range from $50,000 to several million. They will also look at your net operating income. This may vary from lender to lender, but some require a total operating income that is at least 1.25x greater than your net expenses. As previously mentioned, your debt-to-credit ratio will also be under review. Too much of a swing in either direction could be viewed negatively.

Collateral

As with any loan, the ability to offer collateral may help sway a loan officer. Collateral can include some of your equipment, your inventory, and your real estate. If you do not choose to use collateral, you may need to explore other loan options for your business.

The reasons for getting a business loan are plentiful. The qualifications for getting approved for one, however, are more limited. Fortunately for companies within the wheelhouse of business lenders, getting approved is a simple matter of putting the pieces together and sending them off.

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What To Do When You Want To Contest A Will

When a family member dies, there is a lot to deal with and when it eventually comes time to read their will, there can be a lot of problems. A…

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Contest A Will

When a family member dies, there is a lot to deal with and when it eventually comes time to read their will, there can be a lot of problems. A will is a legally binding contract that sets out the wishes of the deceased. Of course, sometimes their will can be changed or influenced by others causing problems for those who should have benefited from it.

Here, we are going to look at some of the things you should do when you want to contest a will. Keep reading to find out more.

Why You Might Contest A Will

One of the common reasons for contesting a will is in relation to business issues. For example, if you were running a business owned by your father and he died, leaving the business to your sibling who is not involved in the business, you might have something to say about this. Other reasons for contesting the will could be that a property has been left to someone outside of the family with no real reason why and other issues that don’t seem like they sit right.

What To Do

If you do find that you want to contest a will that your family member or business partner has written then you should make sure to get in contact with contentious probate solicitors. These people are experienced in dealing with estates and wills and can solve the problem in a very short period of time. Try to choose a solicitor who knows what they are talking about if you want to have the best possible results.

Remain Calm

Our final tips for handling a contentious probate is to try to remain calm throughout the process. Remember that this is a tough time for everyone involved and tensions will be high. You won’t want to upset other people in your family and you won’t want to get yourself too emotionally involved. Try to stay positive and appreciate that a grieving family might have something to say about you trying to take away their loved one’s possessions or money. This way, things will go a lot more smoothly and you can make the process go through without a hitch.

Final Verdict

If you are thinking about contesting a will of a loved one or a business partner that you feel has not been completed correctly then you should make sure to take our advice on board. Always get in touch with a solicitor who knows what they are doing and make sure that you try to remain calm throughout the process. Consider your reasons for doing this and make sure that you are being genuine. No one wants to have this process drawn out when their loved one dies and so you will want to be civil about it with your friends and family. Follow our advice and you should find that you get the best possible results in the contentious probate.

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Employee Stress: How You, as the Employer, Can Help

It’s an all too common problem: you have some employees that just don’t seem to care. Sure, you have your star employees that are there every day and do their…

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It’s an all too common problem: you have some employees that just don’t seem to care. Sure, you have your star employees that are there every day and do their jobs with a smile, too, but when they become irritable, starting missing days or being late for work, and their usual awesome performance starts feeling rushed or phoned-in, you have a problem. It’s possible that this person is feeling overwhelmed, under-appreciated, or sick of their job. Luckily, there are ways that you can relieve the stress of the workplace for all of your employees, and make some stars out of the rest of your staff, by following these simple tips.

employee stress

Identify the Cause of the Burnout

The first thing you need to do before you can do something about it is to identify the cause of the employee’s burnout. There are quite a few causes that you should be watching for. From not getting enough support from their manager to an unmanageable workload, from working too many hours to feeling that no one appreciates them or their work, these are very real reasons for burnout and need to be addressed and taken care of right away.

Implement Stress Relief Options

Whether it’s listening to music while they work, having a casual dress day on Fridays, or finding a few massage tables for sale and setting up your own massage room in the office, finding ways for your employees to relieve stress at work is key. Make sure you encourage them to use stress relief options outside of work as well.

Provide Motivation

Providing motivation is an important part of being an employer. Whether reward or recognition is what your employees desire, giving your employees incentives that will make them want to work harder and be more productive for your business is what it’s all about. Everything from monetary incentives to planning vacations for your top employees is a great way to relieve stress and show them that you know how hard they are working and that you appreciate it.

Encourage Healthy Interactions Among Employees

No employee wants to come into work in an environment where tensions are running high and one half of the staff doesn’t like the other half. While you can’t do much about how people feel about one another, you can encourage healthy interaction among the staff that works for you. You can encourage this interaction with holiday parties, picnics, and even outings where they can bring their entire families. You would be surprised how much of a difference a simple office outing can make in the long run by motivating your employees and bringing their animosity toward each other to an end.

Healthy and happy workplaces are key to ensuring that your business runs smoothly and professionally. You depend on your staff for everything to do with running your business the right way, so where would you be without them? Take care of your employees and they will, in turn, take care of you.

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Does Your Brand’s Marketing Make Its Case?

The success of any business can oftentimes hinge on how well it does spreading the word about what it has to offer. With this in mind, does your brand’s marketing…

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The success of any business can oftentimes hinge on how well it does spreading the word about what it has to offer.

With this in mind, does your brand’s marketing make its case? 

If you are failing to let consumers know about your brand, it can lead to less sales and of course lower revenue.

This being the case, is it time to jump-start your marketing efforts?

You Might Need the Pros

In getting your marketing ramped up to drive traffic your way, you may be at a point where you need the help of pros.

That said where best to find them?

Depending on the profession you are in, you may or may not know digital marketers. If you do not have a lot of access to them, going online would be a good start.

Given many digital marketers are online and have solid websites; this would be a good place to go.

In looking for the right digital marketer, the kind of business you have is where you want to begin.

For example, if you run a law firm, having digital marketers with expertise in the legal world makes sense. You are busy running your firm and tending to clients. The right marketing pros can be orchestrating a top-notch marketing program for you.

So, whether marketing agency Utah or those closer to where you are, the goal is finding marketing help.

What to Look for in Marketing Pros

In your quest to find the right marketing professionals, do some research.

You want a digital marketing company that has:

· Years of experience helping companies like yours

· Track record of proven success

· Top-notch customer service

· Thinking outside the box

When you have the right digital marketing provider in your corner, they can do a myriad of things for your brand.

Among the focuses will be:

· Website

· Content

· Social media

· Sales

· Organic search

· Paid search

In having all these needs and more covered, your marketing has the opportunity to take off.

Client Marketing

As important as a digital marketer is to your brand’s needs, what about your clients?

Have you approached any of them to do client testimonials for you?

When you stop to think about it, the only people that know your brand better than you are those you serve. As such, having some of them tout all your brand has to offer is never a bad thing.

You may opt to draw more legal clients or clients no matter what field you are in by having them do testimonials.

An example here would be having some of them do short radio or TV commercials for your practice. Having them speak to the positives of using your law firm could land you new business with others in need.

It is also wise to ask clients to use more word-of-mouth referrals to help you get more business. If one they know needs legal services that you are capable of delivering, ask them if they’d put in a good word for you.

If your brand’s marketing has not been making its case as of late, you run the risk of missing out on more business.

At the end of the day, is that a verdict you can afford?

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How to Increase Your Credit Score

Have you had your credit score checked recently and realized it was lower than you thought? Perhaps you are trying to get mortgage and you want your credit score to…

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Have you had your credit score checked recently and realized it was lower than you thought? Perhaps you are trying to get mortgage and you want your credit score to be as high as possible. Or even, you are just trying to be smart about your finances and looking to raise your credit score. Regardless of your reason, there are many different ways in which you can raise your credit score. Keep reading to learn more.

The first tip is to always stay on top of your payments. This means if you are using a credit card, make sure you can at a minimum pay the minimum amount on it each month. This is so important that you are never late. If you are trying to purchase a home, this will show the Idaho bank that you are serious and can be trusted to make monthly payments on time. It’s even better if you are able to pay off your credit card each month. This will help to increase your credit score.

The next tip is to get your credit score checked from time to time. This will allow you to ensure that you are managing your finances and that you have no outstanding debts in the world. This can also verify that no one is using your identity and not paying it off. This can end up causing a lot of issues however if you get your credit checked annually, you will be able to get them taken care of quickly.

There are a lot of score-boosting programs out there which will help you with your credit score, if you are serious about increasing it or increasing it by a particular time, you may want to look into those more.

The next is to not get your credit score checked too often. Although you want to check it, if you check it too often this will actually lower your score.

It’s important to know when to be active in trying to get your credit score higher. For example, if you have at least a year away you may want to take out a credit card so you can pay it off right away and increase your credit. If you are only a month away, you won’t want to make any large purchases or take out new credit cards because this can hurt your credit.

Our final tip is to be patient. Increasing your credit score won’t happen overnight. Depending on what yours looked like before, it can take years to increase. If you are patient and continue to do all the right things, it will start to slowly increase in a couple months. If a mortgage lender is seeing you are doing the right things and have been consistent, they will also take this into consideration.

Increasing your credit score is not always easy. In fact, it typically is something you always work on. When you know these tips and you start following them, your credit score will start to increase. For more tips on increasing your credit score, contact us today.

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Myths About Working With A Staffing Agency

Have you ever heard about someone working with a staffing agency? Perhaps you have or perhaps you simply have heard rumors and you automatically believed them. It happens. That is…

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Have you ever heard about someone working with a staffing agency? Perhaps you have or perhaps you simply have heard rumors and you automatically believed them. It happens. That is why we are here to set the record straight. Keep reading as we share myths about working with a MA staffing agency.

Staffing Agency

The first myth we want to share is that it will cost you a lot more money. This is completely false. In fact, it should not cost you any money at all. The business that is hiring you is paying to find you and you should not pay a dime. If the staffing agency is charging you at all, you should turn the other way and find another one because they are not a trustworthy company. A staffing agency actually wants to groom you into the best employee you can be. That means that they will even help you write your resume, they will assist you with interview skills, and they will even help you with career counseling in case you are unsure of what field you want to go in. These are all things that you can take advantage of and take advantage for free.

The next myth is that agencies are only offering temporary positions. Although they do work with companies that are looking for contract workers or workers with temporary positions, they also hike people for full-time positions. In fact, they hire almost 15 million people between temporary, contact, and employees every year. Of that number, 76% are employees. This is why this is such an important myth to forget about. As well, it’s important to be open minded so that if you did get a temporary job, it can end up leading into full-time work.

Next, the myth of a staffing agency is the only job seeking resource you need is also a myth. You should also be networking and job searching on your own as well as having a recruiting agency look for you. More heads is better than one.

The final myth we want to talk about is that job seekers are not as likely to work with an agency. The opposite is actually true. A staffing agency is able to find an employee that will fit for your business. Their job is to find someone in fact that will work perfectly with your employee and do a great job. So, the opposite is actually true. Although it will cost the business a little more money, they no longer have to spend their time and money in looking and interviewing candidates and instead just get candidates that have passed checks of theirs and a company out there knows they will do a great job.

As you can see, a staffing agency can be so beneficial not just to a business, but to someone that is looking for a job too. It’s important to take advantage of the resources they have and give a couple and call and learn which one will be best suited for you. Once you find a good and trustworthy agency, they will be able to set you up for success. For more information, contact us today.

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Tips on How to Promote Your Products on Social Media

Almost every business is aware of the importance of their participations on social media platforms. They all have hopes of having an established presence and getting a lot of referrals…

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Almost every business is aware of the importance of their participations on social media platforms. They all have hopes of having an established presence and getting a lot of referrals on the social media network. However, it is not an easy task to achieve considering that the people who visit these places are smart and you also face a lot of competitions. If you are a newbie, you may be at a lost on how to utilize the social media platform to promote your products. The key is to come up with strategic ideas to put forward your products on the social media.

Integrate Social Media Icons on Your Homepage

You can put the social media icons in a place where everyone can see on the homepage of your website. In this way, people who frequently visit your site can easily follow you. If you want, you can take a step further by customizing the social media icons so that people can instantly recognize your website.

Embed Social Media Handles in Your Newsletters

If you send out newsletters, you can embed the social media icons at the bottom. This will make it convenient for people to click through to visit your social media page to learn more about your product. Usually, the newsletter service has an option for embedding social icons. If not, you can just upload a photo and and link the photo to your social media account.

Give Away Freebies on Social Media

You can offer free stuff on the social media. Free stuff not only refer to free product samples but it can also be digital stuff like ebooks, infographics, and a DIY hack in one to two pages PDF. People on social media are usually hesitant to click on any link so it is best to convert the PDF to an image like jpeg. If you are wondering how to convert pdf to jpg, the task is actually easily done through a basic PDF editor like Movavi PDF Editor. After the program is launched, click the Add Files button to load the PDF. In Pages View, select all the pages and click on the Convert to JPG, PNG, BMP button on the right. In the Save as field, select Slides. By default, the image format field will be PNG. You will have to change it to JPG by clicking on the up down arrow.

Use Shoppable Tags in Your Instagram Photos

On Instagram, you can add shoppable tag to the photos you post. For example, if you post an interior design photo, you can add shoppable tags to the furniture. If someone wants to know where they can get the furniture, they simply need to click on the shoppable tag to visit the online store. It can lead to big sales considering more than half of smartphone users have a habit of doing shopping through their mobile devices.

Offers Social Only Discount

Every now and then, you can run a promotion by offering social only discounts. The easiest way to do this is to post a promo code along with instructions on how to redeem the discount. Social only discount has a start and end promotion period. If you have limited giveaways, you can launch a flash deal that last for 24 hours.

Organize a Contest

You can set up a contest and ask people to submit photo entries of how they enjoy your product. You should set a prize for everyone including those that did not win. In this way, your fans will be eager to enter the cost. If it is the first time you organize the contest, you can make it easy for the participants to enroll and win a prize. You can create a user generated contest and use a hashtag tracking tool to monitor the contest campaign.

Write Unique Posts for Each Social Network

On every social network, you should write unique posts based on the audience there. For example, the audience at LinkedIn is different than the audience on Instagram. Same product photos can be used but the content of the social media posts should be completely unique. Before start posting on a social media, you should do research on its audience. You should check if the visitors use a specific slang in their posts, the age group of the audience and etc. For example, you can focus on using memes and gifs to promote your products on Snapchat where the majority of the customers are young.

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A Better Way to Improve B2B Sales

Not long ago, B2B sales was easy: A business identified a problem and reached out to a potential vendor to inquire about a solution. However, since the internet has grown,…

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Not long ago, B2B sales was easy: A business identified a problem and reached out to a potential vendor to inquire about a solution.

However, since the internet has grown, businesses no longer immediately reach out to vendors for solutions. Instead, businesses will research their problem online, uncover a bevy of potential solutions, check with business partners, professional networks and friends for recommendations, read online reviews and complete a number of other preliminary steps before contacting a knowledgeable B2B. What this means is that B2B sales efforts have become unpredictable, with a mishmash of traditional sales and innovative marketing techniques driving leads down the funnel.

If your B2B is struggling to boost sales, you might be suffering from this new chaotic structure within the B2B market. Thus, it will benefit you to learn about the new B2B buyer and what they want from the sales experience.

Who Are B2B Buyers?

You might be tempted to answer this question with “businesses,” but you likely already know that isn’t true. An entire organization rarely does any single action; rather, there are specific employees within the organization who make buying decisions. It’s important to market to these individuals specifically to generate sales.

However, B2B buyers change frequently. The same individuals you might have contacted before have likely moved up and out of those positions, leaving room for a new generation of B2B buyers. Indeed, research shows that younger professionals between the ages of 18 and 35 make up the majority of B2B buyers, so if you don’t know how to sell to this demographic, you need to learn, fast.

What Do They Know and What Do They Want?

In general, younger professionals rely heavily on digital technologies, especially in the buying process. An astounding 94 percent of B2B buyers conduct research online before making a decision, even when the purchase is intended for organizational as opposed to personal use. Unsurprisingly, as a result, modern B2B buyers are likely to take roughly 22 percent longer to reach a decision regarding their business purchase.

This behavior is largely because modern B2B buyers are exceedingly skeptical of the sales and marketing messages they encounter. Because sales reps will always push their sales agenda rather than honestly help solve a problem for as little money, time and energy as possible, most buyers look elsewhere before they have to encounter your sales team. Even then, they much prefer sales reps who don’t apply pressure during the sale or hassle them when following up with leads.

Additionally, there are often more people involved in the business purchase process these days. While younger professionals are tasked with performing research and pulling the trigger, they must receive approval from a series of higher-ups. Thus, attracting and convincing the contact is important, but you must do the same for superiors in the company, too.

How Do You Sell to These Buyers?

In truth, there is no single procedure that will guarantee you a greater volume of B2B sales. Instead, you should be practicing account-based marketing and selling, which allows you to target members within an account and produce dedicated marketing and sales plants to win their business. Account-based strategies look different for each business and each buyer, so it helps to have experts and specialized tools to manage your efforts.

In addition, you should strive to enable your buying audience with information. They are already seeking info about potential solutions, so by offering that info — without the pressure to contact your sales team — you can pull B2B buyers to your online assets, like your website’s blog or social pages. Just by taking advantage of this information, buyers are more likely to remember your business when they prepare to contact potential vendors.

To perform account-based strategies well, you will need to align your marketing and sales teams toward the same goals: increasing brand awareness and increasing deal size, as opposed to getting as many leads as possible to convert. You might have your marketing team educate your sales team on available content, so sales reps can point buyers to these resources for additional information. In turn, your sales force can feed your marketing department data on specific pain points felt by buyers, so the marketing content can be laser-targeted.

B2B sales aren’t the walk in the park they used to be, but that doesn’t mean your business is doomed. By shifting your efforts to accommodate the preferences of the modern buyer, you can win even more accounts than ever before.

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