However, an individual’s greatest strength also tends to be that individual’s greatest weakness at times. Maybe now that your business has some momentum built up, you’re looking to analyze where your business is at. You want to know the best way forward. You’re prepared for a more methodical approach to success.

Now that you’re on this website you’re asking yourself, “Are vanity toll free numbers an integral part of that success? Do custom toll free numbers really offer what I need at this next stage of growth for my local business?”

Excellent question. Let’s go through those qualities of 1800 numbers that might make them integral to your business’s next stage of methodical growth.

What is Your Definition of Success?

First—and this question is not as simple as it sounds—what is your definition of success? Why did you get into business in the first place? Are you looking for financial returns? Is it to sate your incurable lust for competition? Do you wish only to perform excellent work in your segment of the economy? Did you fall into business almost by accident, and are just finding your sea legs?

Why Bother with Vanity Toll Free Numbers?

Whatever your reason for being here, let’s help clear up what vanity toll free numbers do, and what they do best. Custom toll free numbers take a complex business problem and solve it simply.

What’s the problem? Your phone number. It’s seven digits of numerical, un-memorable chaos. When you put it on a business card, you hope that potential customer or client doesn’t lose it. When you pop it onto a billboard, you worry that drivers won’t have time to memorize it.

What’s the solution? Vanity toll free numbers. They take those complex digits and transform them into letters and numbers. 1-800-BOOKS-PLZ. 1-800-CAR-SHOW. 1-800-RENT-COW. 1-800-PARTY-NOW. They create simple, easy to remember points of contact.

Local, Methodical Growth

Vanity toll free numbers facilitate methodical growth, especially in the local small business metric. Yes, custom toll free numbers can be purchased in local area codes, saving you the expense of shelling out for a national phone number. These numbers increase market penetration: they make that billboard advert more memorable, that radio ad easier to digest, that business card more effective. Put simply, they make your entire marketing plan sharper.

Measurable Success

As a tried and true business tool (you’ll find out more about that below), vanity toll free numbers should offer measurable success in your marketing efforts. The best thing about custom toll free numbers is that they are simple. Simplicity is the greatest possible benefit of any tool, anywhere; if there’s a tool out there that solves a business problem in a simple manner, and you can afford it, why not go for it? The result should be, optimally, measurable success: you’ll get increased penetration due to the remarkable change in your contact information. To many potential customers, it’s like flipping on a lightswitch, making your business so much easier to connect with.

A Tradition of Business Growth

Custom toll free numbers have been around for about five decades, since the very early 1960s. They were first used as tools in the travel industry to instant and resounding success. They were later used by a little upstart called 1-800-FLOWERS to turn a simple gesture (a nice bouquet) into a national business phenomenon. Vanity toll free numbers offer a tradition of business growth that lays a sound foundation for methodical business growth today.

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Just like you, the small business owner, the farmer is always looking for new tools to make the farm more efficient, more attractive to potential customers or clients, more well known in the marketplace. If a farmer were selling a product or service in a local market, then that farmer might seriously consider vanity numbers; custom, memorable telephone numbers that shine as invaluable marketing tools.

Choosing Your Field

When the farmer wakes up in the morning, he’s well aware of the tasks he has ahead of him that day. He knows what he must do to subsist. He also knows that he must do a little bit more to succeed. The farmer knows that if he raises pretty good crops with pretty good fertilizer, then the product will be pretty good. He knows that if he sells those crops to the buyers he’s known for so long, he’ll probably make enough money to get by.

Your business might be in the same position. You’re doing pretty well. However, you know that if you’re going to succeed, you need to push your business—and yourself—to new heights. Maybe purchasing memorable telephone numbers from David Ashley, vanity numbers with custom phonewords, might help take you to the next level.

Finding Fertile Ground

The farmer knows that his crops will grow best when they’re planted in fertile ground. In Biblical times, the Israelites had to set aside a seventh of their crop land every year and not grow it. That land would be enriched for a year through weather, gathering minerals and other “plant food” from the natural changes in weather. Once that year was over, that farmer had fertile ground, and could allow another portion of that field to become more “crop friendly.”

Vanity numbers are phenomenal tools that help the small business owner find more “fertile ground.” Every business bumps into a rut: those same, dependable customers might get tired off your product or service, might want something new. Adding memorable telephone numbers to your marketing arsenal might help

Sowing the Seed

When that farmer steps out into the field, he knows that growing saleable crops doesn’t happen overnight. After he’s chosen the right field and identified fertile ground, he must sow the seeds and nurture those crops so that they’re ready for a profitable harvest.

In business, marketing is a manner with which you “sow the seeds,” developing potential customers and clients, getting your name out
there, presenting your business as invaluable. For decades, memorable telephone numbers like vanity numbers have helped businesses become more accessible, more memorable, more available. They sow the seeds for marketing success.

Preparing for the Harvest

A great farmer doesn’t just plant the seeds and wait for the rain to do the work. He prepares. He optimizes. He fertilizes the ground. He makes sure he has workers on hand who can gather those crops in once they’re ready. He goes through his field with an eagle eye, making sure those crops are free of pests, weeds, and other potentially disastrous elements. Put simply, he prepares for the harvest.

Memorable telephone numbers help your business prepare for the harvest. They present potential customers and clients with memorable telephone numbers, making your product or service and your contact information into one wonderful element.

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800 Numbers for the Small Business? Really?

When you grew up, you probably saw tons of ads for products shrieking that you should “CALL NOW! THIS DEAL WON’T BE AROUND FOREVER!” You grew up, and you grew tired of them. When you flip through the channels now, you notice that those ads are still around. Nothing ever changes, right? National businesses trying to make a buck with a Ron Popeil-type invention, a little item that gives customers something they didn’t know about before, but suddenly think they need…

But wait a minute: the local business can also utilize a vanity number to great effect, perhaps even more successfully than those large national numbers, those numbers that used to be the best toll free numbers in the nation.

Why 800 Numbers Might be Better for Small Businesses than Large Businesses

You see, your greatest business problem might also be your greatest business strength: you’re a small business, and you need to squeeze water from a rock. To the national business, a national vanity nummer might be a business necessity. To a small, local business, the best toll free numbers are focused business tools. They are extremely cunning ways to create organic growth for focused business decision makers. They help your business to stand out from the crowd, helping to make you a big fish in a small pond. Overall, they’re just a very smart decision for the small business.

Organic Growth for the Focused Decision Maker

The best kind off growth, especially while your business is small, is organic growth. As you study business, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of businesses fail because they bite off more than they can chew. They take big chances which just don’t work out. They go out on a limb financially, and the customers don’t show up to make up the difference. Small businesses are delicate. However, a great vanity number is a relatively cost effective method of facilitating organic growth, making every aspect of your business marketing more effective… because it’s easier to remember now.

Stand Out from the Crowd

When you Google your business and location, where is your business on that list? How does your business measure up in the phone book—is it near the top of the list, or is it buried somewhere amongst a list of competitors, each nearly as anonymous as your listing?

Adding a vanity number to your marketing arsenal puts an exclamation point next to your phone book or Google listing. It makes you stand out from your local competition. It makes your business loom larger, appear more successful. It gives your business firepower.

A Smart Small Business Decision

You’re squeezing water from a rock every day. Why not put down those blunt marketing instruments and make each of them sharper by utilizing the provider of the best toll free numbers in the business, David Ashley? We’ll set you up with a vanity nummer for your small business. They might work for you better than they work for the big boys. They facilitate organic growth. They make your business stand out from the crowd. They’re simply a smart small business decision that gives your business focused marketing firepower.

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For a business to “grow up,” though, the right tools must be implemented. The business owner must look for marketing implements that drive sales, in the right way and at the correct pace. For you, business toll free numbers might be the right way to grow your business. Let’s take a look at the process of turning your business into a well oiled machine through the use of business toll free numbers, and how getting your business in an 800 phone directory can help.

What is Your Business Identity?

What do you do? What is your product or service? What makes your business distinct from other product/service providers in your area? It’s important that you identify each of the million little things that makes your business stand out from the rest. When it comes to custom business toll free numbers, especially in a more flexible local market, you must be able to boil your business down to a few simple adjectives. Getting into that 800 phone directory isn’t enough; your contact information must connect with customers in a manner that is simple and memorable.

Do 1800 Vanity Numbers Support the Mission?

From here, it’s important to identify, simply, how business toll free numbers might directly or indirectly support your mission to become a well oiled business machine. Are you listing in that 800 phone directory to become more prominent, to stand out from the competition? Are you prepared for the increased amount of phone traffic you might receive? Would investing the extra cost—not just for the phone number, but for the marketing expenses required to actually get your number out there—help you along in your mission to build a more streamlined business? Are you working harder now in order to create less work for yourself later?

Best Practices for Implementation

If the only expense you wish to incur from purchasing business toll free numbers is the phone number itself, then that’s fine. However, you may not be maximizing the power of that number. An 800 phone directory listing with a custom phone number is at its best when supported with a well researched, well budgeted, well implemented marketing campaign. Are you prepared to make that investment? Is that a best practice for your business? Do you believe that it will support your business mission, or might you be biting off more than you can chew?

Finding Your Groove

Once you’ve decided that your custom 800 phone directory listing is the right thing to do; once you’ve selected an awesome customer phone number that can potentially increase sales and propel your business; once you’ve drawn up a plan for implementation that you love; then it’s time to find your groove. Business telephone numbers become an integral part of your business identity. There might be a trial and error process as you discover how best to leverage this business tool. However, once you’ve fully made these numbers a part of your life, they may become a vital part of what makes your enterprise a success. Call David Ashley today and find out more about turning your business into a well oiled machine with business toll free numbers.

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The emergence of a brand from the primordial soup of your business occurs because you work hard, you commit to excellence, you remain organized and on point, you commit to excellent service, you leverage all the marketing tools at your disposal effectively. To many small business owners, a 1800 vanity number makes a great contribution to brand building. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits you might experience when you buy vanity number products from David Ashley.

What is Your Business?

It’s important at this point to take a good, hard look at your business. This should consist of more than just a cursory look at your product or service. What is the attitude of your business? Do you present a clean cut, right-on-time image? Do you delivery expert quality at competitive prices, or do you provide premium services, focused on excellence? This will become extremely important once you make the decision to move forward and buy vanity number products from David Ashley. You’ll have seven letters or numbers in that 1800 vanity number to communicate what your business is, what it does, and its benefits.

Where Does Your Business Stand in Relation to Your Competition?

If you’re at all competitive, then you want to know how to make your business stand out from your competition. What benefits do you provide that the other guys don’t? Whether it’s a free cup of coffee and a donut or a service package that just can’t be equaled, you need to know where you stand. When a potential customer or client cracks the phone book and looks at your market segment, there must be something there to distinguish you from the crowd. What is it, and when you buy vanity number products and institute that 1800 vanity number, how will those benefits fit in?/

What Do You Want Your Business to Be?

Imagine why you got into this. Imagine where you want your business to be. Imagine where you want you to be. Now think carefully about how a 1800 vanity number will get you there. What will happen when you buy vanity number products from David Ashley? How will your business transform? Are you closer to that success you dreamed of?

Building Character

When you buy vanity number products, you’re making a commitment to a business with character. Once you start heavily marketing that contact information, you will likely get results. However, your customers and clients will depend on you to deliver. Are you ready to display the character necessary to get the message across and present your business as one that delivers? If so, that 1800 vanity number will serve you well.

Building an Image

Additionally, you’re building an image when you buy vanity number products. You’re taking a step toward establishing a brand, an entire attitude. You must be ready for your business to take shape, to have a personality, to get its sea legs, to stand up on its own. A 1800 vanity number is just a tool to express what your business really is.

Creating Success

Buy vanity number products today from David Ashley and start building an image you’ll love. Leverage a 1800 vanity number from David Ashley and learn how these invaluable business tools can help you create the brand success you desire.

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Why 1800 vanity number service, then? Why bother with the investment if it won’t help you make money with your business?  A toll free vanity number may help your business thanks to four primary benefits: simplicity, marketability, facilitation of local growth, and overall cost effectiveness.

Simplicity

Whether in business or not, you’ve been a decision maker all your life. You’ve been faced with economical decisions (an apartment or a house?), environmental decisions (paper or plastic), maintenance decisions (Subway or McDonald’s?), and relational decisions (should you call for a date or shouldn’t you?). In your life as a decision maker, you’ve no doubt learned that, to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, the simplest solution is likely the one you want to go for.

1800 vanity numbers are a simple solution to a basic business problem: how do you get potential customers to remember your phone number? It’s simple: a toll free vanity number, a simple phoneword that communicates your product or service!

Marketability

Let’s continue with the logic we borrowed from the world’s greatest detective and look at the toll free vanity number solution through the lens of marketing. In advertising and promotion, the “Keep It Simple, Stupid” rule applies just as it does in any other aspect of business.

Your 1800 vanity solution is easy to market because it is simple. Let’s put it plainly: potential customers won’t remember your number if you put it on a billboard, radio ad or television commercial unless it’s a customized toll free vanity number. Not unless the phone company serendipitously deigned some horrifically easy to remember number on your business, like 123-4567 or 111-1111.

Local Growth

One of the primary benefits of 1800 vanity number service is that it strongly facilitates local growth. Yes, you have to come up with a marketing plan for your number. The longer and louder you communicate that phoneword to potential customers and clients, the more it’s likely to connect and bring success to your business. But it’s simply a smart way to grow: you create easy to remember contact information which “greases the wheels” of your business, making your contact information stick in potential customers’ minds. What’s the result? Increased market penetration, increased sales, and pleasing ROI.

Cost Effective

Call David Ashley and get a quote, then take a look at the bottom line. Factor in a marketing push. Factor in re-branding: you may have to create new signage for your business, purchase a new Yellow Pages listing, create print ads, purchase radio time, etc. But think of the benefit your toll free vanity number may provide: it’s a fantastic opportunity to put your business in front of customers in a way you know they will remember. The 1800 vanity solution might just be the best, not to mention most profitable, marketing investment you make at this stage of your business’ growth.

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Many business owners, however, don’t understand the value of toll free numbers to the small business. This article will provide a broad overview of custom phone numbers’ benefits for businesses as a whole, with an emphasis on the small business.

Toll Free Numbers in Big Business

It started with travel. The boundary was long distance telephone rates. When businesses booked travel arrangements for executives and other traveling businessmen, just picking up the phone to purchase a plane ticket had to be factored in as a travel expense. The expense then was repeated when rental car and hotel arrangements were made. Custom phone numbers were introduced to travel companies first, instantly revolutionizing the industry. Airlines, hotels and rental car agencies offered free phone calls. In return, they got boatloads of business.

Today, most individual consumers typically communicate with cellular phones. While long distance rates no longer apply in most cases, the benefit of custom phone numbers is that the contact information becomes more memorable, a true benefit for large businesses that desire growth.

Toll Free Numbers in Small Business

However, there’s a little secret that’s often untold when it comes to assigning 1800 toll free numbers: they can be purchased for local use as well. That means that, for a rate far less than that of a national telephone number, a company may purchase a custom phone number with a 1-800 or other toll free prefix. That number then functions only within the area code of choice. Here’s a brief overview of the benefits of these numbers for the small business:

Organic Growth – Especially in small business, it’s vital not to look before you leap in relation to growth. Toll free numbers for small business help to grow organically. The limited cost of this tool allows for businesses to harness the power of a custom toll free number to focus on locally oriented growth. If your business can grow organically, than it is most poised for success.

Stand Out from the Competition – What does it take to stand out from the competition in your market segment? In some ways, competition on a local level can be more fierce than for larger corporations. Small businesses must learn to use a limited number of resources to maximize market penetration. Custom phone numbers make it easy. If your area code is 1-800 instead of whatever your local area code, then you’ve got a tremendous business advantage.

Still a Tremendous Value Proposition – The world hasn’t totally gone cellular yet. Many homes and especially businesses use land lines to communicate. The business that offers a free phone call might just be the business that earns a new customer. This all points back to that organic growth concept: toll free numbers are an invaluable business tool that offer a monstrous value proposition to picky potential customers.

Local Growth, a National Network – If you are a decision maker in a small business, then you no doubt understand how important it is to help facilitate small business growth around the nation. When you purchase a custom phone number or toll free number from David Ashley, your local number may link to another custom number in a nationwide network. When one of your happy customers moves, they might be pleasantly surprised to find another fantastic local business with the same custom phone number.

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But in doing so, it’s best to understand the context. The history of the toll free number is inexorably linked to the history of American consumerism, and how our nation has evolved from a relatively remote culture to a fast paced consumer society, a society that gratifies instantly, travels far and fast, and is linked at light speed to limitless resources of information and consumables. It’s the story of how, after World War II, America went on to capstone its place as the greatest free market in the world. Did vanity toll free numbers really have that large of an impact on the fabric of our society? Let’s take a look at where vanity numbers began, how they transformed the travel industry and then American business, how they’ve helped transition our society into one of instant communication, and why these numbers might mean more to your local business than a website.

Where, and Why, It All Started

It began with the English Postal Service. The United Kingdom’s mail service offered what was called a transfer service charge, allowing for a toll free phone call. Nearly simultaneously, across the pond in the United States,, AT & T didn’t like what it saw in its bottom line: it had too many operators on staff handling collect calls.

The UK introduced freephone. AT & T introduced 800 numbers. Stateside, vanity toll free numbers were first used in the travel industry, including hotels, rental car agencies and airlines. The service immediately “took off,” if you’ll pardon the pun, and America was introduced to toll free calling which facilitated cheaper, easier travel.

American Business Transformed

AT & T expanded its use of 800 numbers as demand increased. In the 1970s, a sort of “Mark Two” version of toll free numbers was introduced. This was the birth of vanity toll free numbers as we know them, and its invention (and related patents) are credited to Roy P. Weber. AT & T continued to control toll free with an iron first until the great Ma Bell breakup of 1984.

By that time, competition had increased the value of vanity toll free numbers. Nine years later, however, the FCC had a brilliant idea: making toll free numbers local. In short, 800 numbers no longer had to be nationwide purchases; small businesses could use 800 numbers within their own area code.

During that time, a young entrepreneur (already an extremely successful owner of over a dozen flower shops) named Jim McCann was slowly building a company called 1-800-FLOWERS. When the company bought ad space on a new cable channel called CNN in the early 90s, the business, as well as nationwide demand for vanity toll free numbers, went nuclear. The result today is a useful, portable business product that grows businesses both small and large.

Why Vanity Numbers Might Mean as Much as Your Dot Com

They’re simple. They’re easy to remember. They make your contact information memorable. They’re vanity toll free numbers. In the early 1960s, they were a necessary decision that saved money for AT & T. In the 1970s, the opportunity was there for large businesses to operate toll free on a grand scale. By the 1980s, competition made the demand for vanity toll free numbers even more fierce. In the 90s, toll free was transformed into a near essential tool for growing a storefront. Today, they remain invaluable marketing weapons for directed business growth.

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Two simple words can answer your question: absolutely not. There’s a reason that toll free vanity numbers have proven to be an enduring business tool: they solve a complex business problem, adding value to a potential business relationship. Put simply, these numbers are ideal marketing tools, especially for local business growth. With a well targeted, well implemented marketing plan, you may enjoy tremendous ROI by adding a custom phone number to your business identity.

A Complex Problem. A Simple Answer.

No great invention was intended as a gimmick. Every great invention solves a problem. In the case of 800 number service, the problem was wide reaching and complex. Fifty years ago, long distance calling was a big deal, often adding significantly to expenses, both business and personal, nationwide. But then AT & T had an idea: why not institute national and local vanity numbers, easy to rermember numbers that offered a toll free phone call to out of area callers?

The idea was implemented first in the UK, then quickly rushed into the United States. They were implemented by hotels and rental car companies first, instantly and fundamentally changing the economics of interstate travel.

A Business Tool that Stands the Test of Time

But the innovation didn’t stop there. From a business standpoint, the most legendary 800 number service is 1-800—FLOWERS. The company was floundering when it was purchased by budding entrepreneur Jim McCann in the mid 1980s. Already established in the flower shop industry (he owned over a dozen New York flower shops by that time), he transformed the company into a multimillion dollar powerhouse.

Since that time, the simple functionality of local vanity numbers has laid the foundation for success for hundreds of businesses nationwide.

It’s Not a Cheap Trick. It’s a Value Proposition.

One quality that makes local vanity numbers so enduring is that they truly offer a special value to potential customers. Think about it: when you change your business identity by implementing and integrating 800 number service into your business, you’ve created an easy remember way for potential customers or clients to get a hold of you for free. This is no cheap trick, it’s a textbook value proposition. When you combine this value proposition with the increased accessibility you lend to your business when you purchase a David Ashley 800 number, you’ve laid the foundation for success in your local business.

An Ideal Marketing Tool for Local Business Growth

While 800 number service is largely perceived as a business tool for national use, custom phone numbers may provide even greater utility for local businesses. Few business decision makers know the value of local vanity numbers to facilitate growth as invaluable marketing weapons. Think about it: on a local level, the value of face to face marketing increases a thousand fold. When you combine that with an easy to remember phone number made up of simple letters and numbers, you’ve created a potentially unstoppable engine for business growth.

When you analyze the real benefits of local vanity numbers, you can see that these incredible tools are no gimmick, no cheap trick. Call David Ashley today and find out how to fundamentally change your business identity with 800 number service. By utilizing this service on a local level, you’re applying a simple solution to a complex business problem, utilizing a business solution that has stood the test of time, providing a value proposition that engages potential customers and clients, and started utilizing an optimal tool for business growth.

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What Do 800 Numbers Do?

What is it exactly that custom 800 numbers do? When you purchase a vanity nummer, your business contact information is transformed from a complicated local phone number to a custom set of seven letters and numbers preceded with 800.

So let’s say your business resides in Baltimore, Maryland, area code 410. Your business phone number is some random collection of digits. When you purchase a toll free vanity number from David Ashley, it’ll be truly customized, say 1-800-LAW-YERS or 1-800-ADOPT-NOW. Memorable, simple and marketable, these numbers are true small business boosters.

Where Did 800 Numbers Start?

AT & T instituted the toll free phone number in the very early 1960s. They started in the UK, but were quickly adapted in the United States. The travel industry took hold of them first. Businesses around the nation immediately saw the value of a custom phone number that saved the expense of a long distance phone call when booking hotels, rental cars, airplane tickets, etc.

The use of toll free numbers remained fairly marginal until the late 70s, and suddently exploded when a young businessman named Jim McCann purchased a failing business called 1-800-FLOWERS. He purchased ads on an emerging cable channel called CNN… and the rest is business history. The use of vanity nummers soon skyrocketed.

Why Have 800 Numbers Been Around So Long?

Marketing gimmicks come and go, but toll free vanity numbers have endured for over half a century. They’re a relatively cost effective tool that provides incredible marketing value. Custom phone numbers simplify contact information, taking that incomprehensible set of digits and turning them into one or two easy to remember words. And if it’s easy to remember, it’s easy to market: based on the success of 1-800-FLOWERS, 1-800-GOT-JUNK and countless other toll free vanity success stories, the marketing power of these numbers shows no signs of slowing down.

Are 800 Numbers Still Relevant?

You may be thinking, in the back of your mind, that the emergence of cell phones as the primary audio communication tool of choice worldwide might remove a little luster from the marketing power of the vanity nummer. However, the statistics indicate otherwise: several years ago, the FCC feared that 1-800 numbers would soon run out, and instituted a second toll free prefix, 1-888. After that came 1-877, 1-866 and recently 1-855. The popularity of these telephone contact numbers has been steadily exploding for decades. They’re still easy to remember, turning a business debit (a hard to remember phone number) to a business credit (an easy to remember number optimized for marketing purposes).

A Simplicity That Endures

If you want to build a product that will stand the test of time, then make it simple and make it functional. When the vanity nummer innovation was introduced in the early 1960s, it solved a business problem in simple, functional terms. Fifty years later, they’re doing the same thing. The toll free vanity solution has been available to businesses large and small, national and local, facilitating phenomenal growth.

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