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How To Retain Extraordinary Workers in SME

Monday, October 10th, 2016

To keep your extraordinary employees happy and productive in your start-up company or small business, you must learn how to motivate them. This is particularly important when they need to help you overcome the challenges you will encounter while growing and stabilising your business. Remember that your most talented workers are most likely doing the job of two or more people and you will still want them to remain loyal to the company even in difficult times. Here are some vital tips on how to motivate your best employees:

 

Engage Them in Inclusive Goal Setting

Set corporate goals that can be broken down into quantifiable objectives for your top talent. These objectives will motivate your employees to be more productive, and when they are achieved, they will provide a strong sense of accomplishment. It is vital to let your exceptional staff see the big picture and help them understand how each task or project they do fits into it. This will motivate your talented employees to exceed your expectations.

 

Set Smart Weekly Goals

Break down your lofty corporate ambitions and targets into simple and achievable weekly goals. Then set them before your talented workers, requesting that they create action plans to achieve them. For instance, instead of telling them that you want to make a profit of $100 million dollars this year, tell them that they should focus on acquiring 100 new customers every week or make sales worth $2 million by selling products worth 20,000 to each of the 100 customers each week.

 

Give Higher Responsibilities

Talented workers love to demonstrate their work and results to others. So give them an opportunity to lead discussions at meetings. Instead of presiding at every meeting, learn to become a coordinator while your best talent share their opinions. This will help them to become partners in the business and enable them to develop an entrepreneurial spirit. Not only will they be eager to prove their worth, they will also be motivated to follow their suggestions through with action until they make their ideas a reality.

 

Provide Feedback and Rewards

Give feedback every week to each team and individual. From the onset, design a feedback system that is transparent and inspiring. Attach points to each person’s performance and let them have a dashboard that shows them how well they are performing on a weekly basis. At the end of each month, put the results together and provide a reward that will be of value to your workers. Rewards can come in diverse forms such as awards, badges, special recognition, cash, and special privileges.

 

Express Your Trust in Them

Tell your top talent that you trust them to perform above and beyond your expectations. Making statements like, “I believe in you, I know you have the talent and exceptional ability to meet and exceed this performance goals”, can arouse a strong desire for excellence in your workers. Before you realise it, they will start to work hard to fit into the image you have painted for them with your words.

 

Foster Growth and Continuous Education

Exceptional employees will want to get to the pinnacle of their career. You can use this inner desire as an avenue to motivate them by providing with opportunities to take classes and acquire prestigious industry certifications. Let them know that you are committed to help them grow professionally. In addition to formal learning, you should also provide more challenging tasks and opportunities to perform roles such as team leader and project manager, especially when they have demonstrated their commitment on simpler assignments.

 

Discover Each Employee’s Inner Passion

Focus on each individual’s personal aspirations and do your best to help them achieve what they desire. Sit down with each of your talented employees and ask them questions about their professional and personal lives. Find out the type of tasks they like and the ones they will want stop doing. Strive to match each project or task to their passion and abilities. Very soon they will begin to see more as a mentor than as a boss. When this happens, their commitment to you and your company will take a new turn.

 

Using creative techniques to motivate your extraordinary workers can drastically improve their performance and keep them in your company even when they could have opted for more lucrative jobs in larger companies. If you help your workers to see the big picture in what they do, and offer regular feedback and rewards for good performance, they will become more productive. And your workers being productive is exactly what you need in order to maintain your business successfully growing.

 

Mila Payton is an economist by profession. Besides working in profession, she enjoys writing, and is always eager to tackle interesting business, entrepreneurship and career stories. While looking for answers, she can be found on business events worldwide.

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11 AWESOME PRODUCTIVITY TIPS FOR BUSY MOMPRENEURS

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2016

Being a mom is no easy job. Once you bring a little person into this world, your life ceases being your own. Throw a marriage and business on top of that and you officially have the toughest job in the world – being a “mompreneur”.

Truth be told, being a mother, wife, and businesswoman all at the same time can be overwhelming. If you find yourself in such a position, you can probably attest that sometimes it feels like your mind is going to explode. While mompreneurs have arguably the most hectic lifestyles, the good news is you can still thrive in your business and motherhood. Not only is it possible, it’s also one of the most rewarding experiences a woman can experience.

In order to be a successful mompreneur, you have to adopt certain habits and ways of doing things that make you productive on a daily basis. So, with that in mind, here are 11 awesome productivity tips for busy mompreneurs.

11 Awesome Productivity Tips for Busy Mompreneurs

  1. Set Goals

Being productive begins with setting personal goals. Goals are an important component to achieving success in any endeavor, especially when it comes to running a business. When you are clear about what you want to achieve, this will motivate you to do more than the bare minimum. What’s more, goals prevent you from becoming distracted by unimportant matters and keep you on course even during tough times.
As a mompreneur, you need to set goals in your personal and professional life. Once you set your priorities right, it becomes easier to plan and get things done.

  1. Plan Ahead

Speaking of planning, this is one of the important skills of remaining productive. Planning ahead enables you to stay organized and work efficiently. Itemizing your priorities is a good way to avoid overwhelming yourself or putting off important things that might drag you behind.

There are many ways to plan ahead. For instance, you can make a to-do list for the next day every evening before going to bed. Alternatively, you can plan a weekly menu, stockpile groceries, then precook dinners and vacuum pack or freeze food to save time on cooking after a busy day at work. Cutting back on meal preparation can help you to spend less time cooking for the family and get more work done during the week.

  1. Do Not Try to Be Supermom

Being a mompreneur can feel overwhelming when you try to do it all. If you often feel like you don’t get enough time for family or fall behind on business targets, then ask for help. Consider hiring a sitter to watch your kids when you’re busy with the business or a house help to keep the household running smoothly. As soon as you can afford it, hire an assistant or employees who you can delegate tasks to. You can also include your kids in the business and ask them to lend out a helping hand during their free time in exchange for an incentive. Don’t hesitate to pay people to do tasks that are not in your zone of expertise as this allows you to focus your time on high revenue activities and become more productive.

  1. Define Your Boundaries (This is Crucial!)

This is an important tip for the stay at home mompreneur who has a home office. Although working from home has its many perks, there will no doubt be many distractions that can make you unproductive. It’s therefore important that you set clear boundaries for work and family time and stick to them. For example, avoid distractions such as TV, chores, and checking social media messages during work hours. The family must also know that mommy should not be interrupted during work time unless it an emergency. In return, be committed to quality family time when you’re not working.

  1. Take Frequent Breaks

When talking about getting more done in a day, taking frequent breaks may sound counterproductive. After all, most people think that increasing effort and time in something equals more work done and better results.

However, studies show that taking frequent breaks increases your capacity to do more work. Just like muscles need to relax after they tense up, you also need to relax and rejuvenate after short bursts of focused work.

Therefore, to become a productive mompreneur, remember to take frequent breaks in between tasks. Think of it this way: rather than increasing the time you work, you’ll be improving the quality of the time you work. By taking breaks, you will avoid fatigue, work more efficiently, feel energetic throughout the day and get more done.

  1. Limit Multitasking

Doing two things at the same time may seem like a great way to get more done, and sometimes it is. But science shows that productivity drops when multitasking because the brain cannot fully focus. As a mompreneur, multitasking may feel like you’re leveraging your time but the truth is you’ll be more predisposed to error and take longer to complete tasks. The lesson? Try to focus on one task at a time because you will work more efficiently this way.

  1. Keep to Your Schedule

It’s imperative to manage your time if you want to be a successful mompreneur. This means you need to establish a routine and stick with it. Being consistent with your routine will not only allow you to feel focused on what you need to be doing, it will also help you feel less overwhelmed.

  1. Exercise Regularly

Between raising kids, being a wife, and running a business, most mompreneurs rarely have time to exercise. In fact, hitting the gym or going for a jog might be the last thing on your mind when you have a pile of things to do. However, exercising regularly keeps you fresh, sharper, and energized for both your business and family. More importantly, excising often will make you less prone to falling ill, which can be a big setback for a mompreneur.

  1. Get Adequate Sleep

It’s easy to turn into a workaholic when striving for more productivity, but be wise and resist the urge. If you want to become an effective mompreneur, you also need your beauty sleep. Strive for at least 7 hours of sleep every night. Getting adequate rest will allow you to be at your best when running a business and being a mom at the same time.

  1. Let Your Motivation Drive You

One of the keys to success is staying motivated. As a mompreneur, remind yourself everyday why you’re in business. The reason could be anything from finding more time to spend with your kids, to striving for financial freedom or providing your family with a better quality of life. Be clear on why you chose to be a mompreneur and use it as rocket fuel to get moving and doing your best every day.

  1. Maintain a Positive Attitude

Being a mompreneur can be both physically and emotionally draining. You need to maintain a positive attitude at all times because that’s essential for success. Negative thoughts can keep you down and prevent progress. Therefore, you need to stop them in their tracks and instead embrace a positive attitude. One way to achieve this is to associate with like-minded women who are inspirational and provide moral support. Remember that positivity lets you keep sight of the bigger picture and pushes you to strive for success.

 

Conclusion

Becoming a successful mompreneur is no easy feat. As a mother, wife and entrepreneur, your work never ends. But if you manage your time well and follow the tips outlined above, you’ll soon learn striking a balance between your family and business’s needs are not that elusive after all.

 

Author Bio:

Uyo Headshot Closeup - 2016Uyo Okebie-Eichelberger, Serial Entrepreneur, Wife, Mom and Duke MBA, has successfully built a seven-figure empire in the maternity industry with You! Lingerie and Preggo Leggings, two leading designer brands of chic maternity/nursing intimates and apparel cleverly made for fashionista moms.

The former Kraft Brand Manager and her brands have been featured in several publications and TV shows like The New York Times, Glamour Magazine, Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post, CNBC, The Today Show, E! News, OMG!, The Daily News UK, Pregnancy & Newborn, American Baby and Fit Pregnancy.

Currently, Uyo Okebie-Eichelberger’s brands are sold online and in over 120 stores in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa. Uyo Okebie-Eichelberger recently partnered the world’s largest retailer, Walmart.com to launch an exclusive line of maternity/nursing lingerie called Love Xoxo by You! Lingerie.

She shares business tips on her blog: www.UyoOkebieEichelberger.com. Follow her social media pages on Twitter: @UyoEichelberger and Instagram: @Uyo

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5 lessons to learn from Salesforce about making business changes

Monday, August 31st, 2015

Salesforce.com is one of the biggest businesses in the world. When it comes to IT solutions, this presents one of those companies that will always be at the top of the list. The company has been around for a very long time now. However, it has not always been as successful as today. The quality of its work saw a serious development in 2006. This is when it changed dramatically to different and outcome-focused, customer-driven management practices that were more responsive. In the software development circles, it is known as Scrum or Agile. Many are the businesses that adopted these new practices as well but few had as spectacular results as Salesforce.com.

 

business

It is speculated that more than 70% of Agile or Scrum implementations fail to achieve their projected benefits. What is it that Salesforce.com did that these other businesses or failed to do that led to their failure?

Five things Salesforce.com did not do:

  1. Skimping on training and coaching

This comes in at the top of the list. Trainings and coaching sessions tend to be quite costly and therefore many businesses will skimp of them to cut costs. However, when the future of an organization relies heavily on success skimping on training will be detrimental to the growth of the business. It is also a very counterproductive form of saving on money. Salesforce.com placed a lot of emphasis on the training and coaching. It sent a large team of people primarily comprised of functional and program managers for training. It also bought training books for all staff members.

  1. Keeping management decisions a secret

Openness is important and that is what Salesforce.com has always been about. This is not something that is common to all businesses as they want to keep the decisions of the management to themselves. This is very unhealthy for the growth of the business. The company wants to make some change to the Saleforce metadata API?They will make sure that everyone in the company is aware of this change. It is important for the people working in a business always to stay up to date with goings-on in a business.

  1. Apply foreign methodologies rigidly

It is one thing to learn something and another totally different thing to ape it. When you apply rigidly methodology that has been conceived somewhere else to your business, then you will have serious problems. You need to be flexible with things that you adopt from another place. Improving on them by making a few changes will make them more suitable for the immediate needs of your business.

  1. Introducing changes like any other business process

In as much as change is always constant, every change that you make to a business should be ideal for the running of the business. This is easier said than done. Salesforce.com understood that adopting Scrum would not only involve adopting new business processes but also transform the management of work in the business. Introduction of such changes like any other business process would most probably cause some kind of shock and disorientation.

  1. Committed right from the start

Salesforce.com did not take up the traditional ‘wait and see’ method of implementing change. Most companies will do this, if the change works out they will adopt it. The leadership at Salesforce.com made it clear that they were committed to making sure that change worked out. Few companies are willing to do this.

Bio

Daniel Wellington is an IT consultant with years of experience in executive IT management. He also has experience with the Salesforce metadata API, which he writes about on his blog.

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Key Facts Signifying: Whether You Should Add a Sidebar In Your Blog

Friday, August 21st, 2015

When it comes to creating a blog, there are several aspects that we need to consider, ranging from design to content. But, what you might not understand is making the correct use of the sidebar. In fact, chances are that you might not have even given a though to adding a sidebar in your blog. Let’s have a brief overview of what a sidebar actually is.

Sidebar: An Overview

The sidebar has been with us since the time of blogging was introduced. In the blogging landscape or blogosphere (ideally when using WordPress web development), a sidebar is just an area or a space that comes next to your content, so as to help readers pick some content and/or navigate throughout your blog.

A sidebar contains most recent/popular posts, social media links, email sign-up form and much more. No doubt, this information (added in the sidebar) is important in terms of navigation, but it doesn’t add any value to each of your blog post.

Drawing Out Conclusions: Do you Need a Sidebar or Not?

Not to mention, people come to your blog to read the content posted on it. Besides this, your readers may ask questions regarding your blog, by posting comments. And, if they like your content they may even share it on social media networks. For the sharing purpose, you can place social buttons on each of your blog post.

Probably by now, you may be wondering what is the purpose of having a sidebar on your blog? You might even wonder if you actually need one? Let’s have a look at things that can be placed in the sidebar:

1. Ad banner/Promotion

Well, you can use a sidebar to run 3rd party promotions. For example, Forbes run advertisements in the sidebar displayed on the right side of its web page (as shown in the image below):

1. Ad banner-Promotion

 

 

2. Author Bio, Social Media Buttons and Email Sign-Up Form

You can even use the sidebar to highlight something – that encourages visitors to take some action. For instance, you can add your “author bio” in the sidebar to connect with more readers. This is appropriate for bloggers running longer posts. It’s pretty obvious that most of the users won’t read the complete posts if they’re long. But, by displaying the author bio at the top in the sidebar can get you instantly noticed by your readers. This will eventually help in building a loyal customer base.

Furthermore, you can place your social links in the sidebar or email sign-up. This, in turn, helps in getting repeated traffic. Well, the more people will like your content, the more they’ll share your content via social links, which means more traffic.

2. Author Bio, Social Media Buttons and Email Sign-Up Form

Are you still not convinced whether adding email or social media profiles will prove effective or not? Then, you’ll be surprised to know that Quick Sprout (a popular marketing blog run by Neil Patel) received 145,971 visitors in just 30 days, from email included in the sidebar.

3. Reviews/Testimonials

This is something that business bloggers can consider: to be added in their blog sidebar. Of course, reviews or testimonials can be posted on personal blogs as well. But, people will most likely prefer reading testimonials posted regarding any business, product and/or service.

If you want to build trust among your users in relation to your products and services, then posting your client reviews and testimonials can make a huge difference between the success and failure of: being able to convert a lead into a potential customer. And when added to a personal blog, reviews or testimonials can help in converting your reader into a subscriber.

However, make sure to position your reviews/testimonials prominently on the sidebar of your blog, as follows:

3. Reviews-Testimonials

4. Recent/Latest Posts

Chances are that the main page of your blog might contain the most visited pages – somewhere at the bottom of the blog. In fact, there’s a possibility that your blog posts are displayed in a reverse-chronological list. If that’s the case, then you may lose many readers, who particularly avoid scrolling the blog page till the end, and rather want to devour information presented at the top.

For those users, you can make your recent posts available in the sidebar on the homepage of your blog (not to mention, in the sidebar). In case, you don’t have a sidebar available in your theme, you can hire WordPress development services to have one.

Note: It would be better if you’ll include the recent posts in the sidebar section only if required.

4. Recent-Latest Posts

5. Categories

Finally, you can add categories in the sidebar. It is one of the necessary items of a blog that help group some of your best work (i.e. blog posts) separated by a topic along with an excerpt. Also, they can help in increasing user engagement rate of your blog.

It won’t make sense to show categories somewhere in the middle or at the bottom of your blog page. But then again, content is what you need to present (first) to your visitors. After all, they’re visiting your blog with the purpose to read what all you have to offer. And so, sidebar proves a viable means to display all the categories just next to your content.

So, Do You Really Need a Sidebar?

All of the above discussed key points shows that you can achieve success via your blog, even without a sidebar. However, to make that happen, it is important that you’re able to convey your message in the right manner via your blog.

What’s more?

Despite of the fact that sidebar needs to be included in your blog, it is not necessary to place it each page of your blog. Since having a sidebar on each page can distract your readers. Instead, you can keep it on the homepage and put things (as discussed above) to drive traffic and increase conversions.

Where You Should Place Your Sidebar: Left or Right?

Ok, so now, you would have probably come to know when and where adding a sidebar in your blog page can help you. But, the question that remains is: where you should place your sidebar on the left or the right?

According to the research conducted by “small SEO tools”, it has been observed that most of the bloggers prefer having a sidebar on the right, as it looks visually better. On the other hand, placing sidebar on the left is believed to boost conversion rate. Below are a few key considerations that will help you take an informed decision.

Putting Your Sidebar At Left: Enable users to emphasize on the content rather than navigation. That’s because, many usability studies show that people tend to look at websites in “F-Shaped Pattern”. According to this, in case the sidebar is kept on the left, then what your readers will view in the middle of your blog page will actually be the beginning of its headline, sub-headings, etc.

Putting Your Sidebar At Left

Moreover, Neil Patel while presenting his views on use of the sidebar in the blog also said that: placing a sidebar in Quick Sprout on the left side resulted in 9% bounce rate in terms of users’ reading the blog posts. In contrary, the blog observed an increase in the number of email opt-ins added to the sidebar by 13%.

Also, if you tend to make navigation more prominent to users, you should consider placing it in the sidebar area of your blog.

Putting Your Sidebar At Right: But, if you’re creating a blog with the purpose to educate people, you would certainly have more concern towards increasing the interest of people reading your blog. And this means, you should consider placing your sidebar on the right side of the blog.

In addition, since search engine crawlers would be able to see your content first prior to navigation, you’ll can expect better placement in search engines.

What’s the result?

It is recommended that even though placing the sidebar on the right hand side leads to fewer conversions, it would be better to choose this option. That’s because, people are landing upon your blog to obtain information and to read. And thus, your main objective should be to make your blog content easily accessible to viewers.

Note: If you still want to know how to choose whether to add a sidebar on the left or right side, then you can create two versions of your blog page: one having sidebar on the left and another with a sidebar on the right. And then, perform split tests to see the result which includes information about conversion, bounce rate and so on.

Wrapping Up

In case, you’re not having a sidebar in your blog, then you should definitely consider including one without much ado. Although, it may not add value to individual pages of your blog, but offers several other benefits as discussed in this post.

If you already have a sidebar on the blog, the next thing to consider is placing it on the right side of the blog page containing elements such as author bio and email sign-up forms. Also remember that in case you own a corporate blog, then rather than bio, it would be better to include an excerpt about your brand in the sidebar.

And if your goal is to maximize conversion rate, then you must get rid of the sidebar from all the pages of your blog.

Author Bio :

Sophia Phillips has been a professional HTML to WordPress theme conversion expert since many years from now. She has a remarkable expertise in converting the markup of simple and complex HTML websites into WordPress. If you too are thinking about switching to a new markup for your existing site, then do get in touch with Sophia via her account.

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Posted in Blogging, Guest Post, Tips & Tricks, Wordpress | 2 Comments »

8 Rules That Will Help You Create a Successful Business

Sunday, August 16th, 2015

More and more college graduates are opting to cope with the uncertainty of the job market by launching directly into business after graduation. Most people in employment are also opting for a side business to provide extra security should they lose their job or should they have to contend with a salary cut.

The threat of losing one’s job, or even becoming indigent, was bona fide by the 2008/09 financial crisis, as many people lost their homes and other property following the collapse of banks and companies from different industries.

Emerging world trends are also beginning to render most job posts irrelevant. For instance, most companies are fast becoming reliant on the internet for selling and marketing. This threatens the position of employees in sales and marketing positions. The same thing applies to software design jobs, where most companies are beginning to crowd source their ideas, thereby needing their software designers less and less.

With such trends, even those who still hold jobs find themselves in underpaid positions or find that their wages have stagnated. What’s more, the cost of living is not adjusting downwards to cater for these changes in the work environment, hence people have to work more to get more money to feed their families and maintain the standard of lives that they are used to.

Whatever your age, motivations for going into business, or the line of business you want to go into, your rate of success will be shaped by the same factors. Whether you are opening a physical store or an online business, there are some rules that apply in all lines of business and these rules create success.

Business Success

  1. Define what motivates you

Most people find motivation when they are at the lowest point in their lives. In every economic recession, there are those around you who usually seem to emerge unscathed. Most of these individuals tend to be very successful entrepreneurs, who have experienced firsthand what it feels like to be on their last dollar and have vowed to themselves never to go through the same experience again.

You too could find motivation from similar situations. If you have a family, the thought of what could happen if you are laid off could spur you into action. If you don’t have an additional source of income, it could mean that you might have to lose your home and have your family live on the street or in the basement of your parents’ house.

To prevent such a scenario, investing your time and money in creating additional income sources should become a priority for you.

  1. Go into a line you are interested in

Starting a business in a line of work that you understand is one way to guarantee success. This is simply because you understand the inner workings of your industry and are less likely to make mistakes.

Starting a business in another industry could mean having to upgrade your credentials by getting some form of education. This will cost you money and time. Not to mention, your full time job is already time consuming and draining, therefore having to switch your mind to a different line of work will require a lot of mental effort.

  1. Live within your means

If you like spending, you will have a hard time building a successful business. You will find that the less you spend, the more money you will have to inject back into your business to make it grow.

Avoid getting loans to buy things which will not make you money. Also, if you can, get rid of credit cards.  Once you succeed, you will afford any car you want and you can get credit cards.

  1. Surround yourself with the right people

You can learn a lot from the people you surround yourself with. Social media platforms serve as a meeting place for people, where plans are made and ideas are shared. If you have the right people in your network, you will find solutions to most of your problems from them.

Technology designers or application developers, for instance, help each other to develop useful applications without stealing each other’s ideas or competing with each other. Participants in such projects see this as an opportunity to learn new things.

  1. Learn to promote your brand

The only way others will know what you are up to is if you aggressively promote your brand. You have to develop a maximum of three key selling points for your products or services, then market them based on those selling points. Your marketing efforts have to be convincing enough to make people want to buy.

  1. Learn to manage your time

If you are poor at managing time, you will find it extremely challenging to juggle your full time job and a side business.

You can find a few hours a day to build your business by waking up early in the morning. If this is not possible, you can dedicate your weekends towards your business.

  1. Learn to take setbacks in stride

Any business will have set backs. You might find that your sales are not coming in as you expected or that customers are giving negative reviews to your product.

Instead of giving up, such challenges should motivate you to find solutions.

  1. It shouldn’t be all about the money

Money is good because in an economy that is driven by money, it gives you the ability to afford things. However, don’t go into business just to make money.

A sense of accomplishment and satisfaction are equally, if not more, important as money. Knowing that you created a product or are providing a service that people would pay money to use is indeed a big achievement and should not be ignored.

If you take the above into consideration when building your own business, you will not only become financially secure, but you will also build a business that is relevant to people’s lives. More so, if you are persistent in your efforts, your business could succeed to become your full time job.

About the author

Noella Tesi started a successful business after getting out of debt. Her past experiences in debt give her motivation for succeeding financially. Read on for more.

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Posted in Entrepreneur, Financial Intelligence, Guest Post, small business, Tips & Tricks | 9 Comments »

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