Employee Benefits And The Small Business Owner

August 13, 2015 by

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For a company to acquire top talent and compete with another company for those employees, they have to provide benefits that are more than those required by law.  Social security and workers compensation are required by the federal government to be provided for employees, health insurance and retirement benefits are not required, and therefore only a small percentage of small business or medium size businesses offer those benefits to their employees.  The question becomes then how are businesses acquiring top talent if they cannot compete with other companies that provide those extra benefits?  Follow the links below to read more about this and other topics.

5 ways to start the small business benefits conversation

For business owners, attracting and retaining quality employees is always a challenge — especially as unemployment rates decline across the country. As fewer people look for jobs, employers need to find ways to entice candidates to accept their offers and, perhaps even more crucial, to keep good talent from potentially leaving for better offers.

Providing a competitive benefit package is one proven way for employers to attract and retain the best of the best.

But does this resonate with small-business owners? Not so much. In fact, most aren’t offering benefits at all, according to the 2015 Principal Financial Group® Business Owner Survey, conducted by Harris Interactive. Somewhat shocking details from the survey — which measured the responses of business owners with two to 500 employees — found that only slightly more than one-third, just 37 percent, offer group coverage or employee benefits.

JOSH MABUS — Hand in hand, small business and industry

There seems to be a debate in many cities, in our own state and across the country. Do we invest in small businesses, which employ lots of people as a group but are individually volatile and have lower economic impacts? Or do we invest in attracting corporations, which can be demanding and hard to come by?

We often talk about small business and large-scale employers as if they are mutually exclusive. It’s a debate as old as time. Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

Our nation is home to somewhere around 26 million small businesses, which make up 60 to 80 percent of all U.S. job creation, according to Entrepreneur Magazine.

Small business accounts for the most job creation because of the shear number of small businesses. Their sizes allow them to be more agile and make incremental hires. Those hires, when multiplied 26 million times, have a huge national impact.

Democrats, GOP Reps Demand IRS Return Money to Small Businesses

​A bipartisan group of Congressmen on the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew demanding the government return money to small businesses that the IRS had wrongfully seized under federal asset forfeiture laws.

“As the Treasury Secretary, you have the opportunity to right the wrong done to these small business owners,” the Congressional letter writers said, adding, “You have the discretion to return the seized funds to their rightful owners.”

It’s a rare move made by the Congressmen to circumvent the IRS, which they say has been devastating small businesses with its “abusive” seizures of bank accounts the agency thinks are being used for, say, drug transactions or money laundering.

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As a Small Business Owner, Are You Ready to Retire?

August 5, 2015 by

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As the economy was recovering, there was talk about small business owners gaining confidence in the economy and possibly hiring for their business. Nationally the confidence small business owners felt is declining or slipping away completely.  It is not surprising then the hiring has taken a back seat for the moment, and businesses are more concerned with meeting their current payroll instead of adding to it. And what about retirement? According to recent surveys,  more than half of the small business owners in the United States do not have enough to retire comfortably or at all.

To read more about this and other news, follow the links below.

Survey: Small Business Owners Unprepared for Retirement

Almost half of small business owners surveyed are unsure what will happen to their business when they retire.

A survey conducted recently by TD Bank demonstrated 26% of small business owners are not confident they will save enough money to retire comfortably. The survey of more than 660 small business owners nationwide questioned respondents about their management experience, confidence in business tasks and areas in which they need help.

Nearly half of survey respondents (47%) said they do not have plans in place for retirement, whereas about a quarter of respondents (24%) indicated their business would close, and 15% of business owners said they would transfer ownership of their business to a family member or coworker.

External factors affect retirement planning

“Building a small business is hard work, and it can be easy to get caught up in daily tasks such as paying invoices or increasing sales, but smart business operations need to consider the future, including the retirement of the owner,”Jay DesMarteu, head of Small Business Banking for TD Bank, said in a press release. “Just as those in the workforce should invest in themselves through retirement savings, small business owners need to have conversations about retirement and prepare for the future to ease the transition, whether that be closing or selling the business or passing it on to a family member.”

Small business optimism slips two percent in July

THOMASVILLE — Small businesses in Cairo and Thomasville reflect the findings of a recent survey that showssmall businesses in Georgia were increasingly worried about economic conditions in July.

Thumbtack.com’s Small Business Sentiment Survey is a monthly survey of independent local service businesses in the U.S. As part of its survey, the company included 523 responses from Georgia.

The key findings for the state showed that Georgia small business owners’ feelings about their current finances declined by 2 percent while expectations for the economy as a whole dropped by 4 percent.

Concerns over tightening access to credit were particularly pronounced as expectations for the availability of credit declined by 5 percent. Nevertheless, Georgia’s independent local service professionals remain more optimistic about future economic conditions than the rest of the South and the nation as a whole.

Small businesses in Georgia reported that their biggest concern was acquiring new customers. In regards to hiring, Georgia’s small business owners reported a 3 percent decline in plans to add employees to their ranks.

Jay Evans, owner of Babcock & More Home Furniture in Thomasville, Cairo and Camilla, said in an interview with the Times-Enterprise (TTE) that he hasn’t had to cut employees, but he hasn’t hired any, either.

Why Is It So Hard To Serve Small Business? Blame The 90% Challenge

There’s a convenient narrative about small business that we’ve all heard a million times.  Small business represents a huge, underserved, and highly lucrative market for finance-oriented entrepreneurs and large organizations alike. The prevailing wisdom is that these businesses run on Intuit’s QuickBooks, which enables them to have organized, accurate, and timely financial information at their fingertips. By all accounts, the small business market should be an easy one to serve. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Organizations big and small have struggled to serve the small business market in an efficient and effective matter, and it’s all due to what we call the 90% challenge.

The 90% challenge

My company BodeTree started out as one of those optimistic startups that thought serving the small business segment would be easy. We quickly realized, however that the commonly held wisdom was wrong. Of the 30 million small businesses in the U.S., the vast majority operate in a state of utter chaos, even if they use an accounting system of some kind.  The reality is that for most small businesses, the traditional process of organizing and managing their finances is too complex, too difficult, and too time consuming.

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You’re the Face of Your Business – Don’t Sabotage It

August 4, 2015 by

business (10)It’s completely baffling why many small business owners are such poor representatives of their own companies, often to its detriment.  Conventional wisdom says the owner is the best spokesman for the business; no one cares about it and its success as much as he does.  After all, he’s put the money, sweat equity and time into making it a success.  Right?

Wrong, he commonly hasn’t learned the lesson — you’re the face of the business, be a good one.  “Learned the lesson” is the important take away, because the ability to effectively promote your business is an acquired skill.  We aren’t born with the skills needed to successfully market ourselves and our businesses.  Stop being your own worst advertisement; you can learn to do better and here are 3 good places to start.

Learn to listen

Very few people have the natural talent to be a good listener, and your probably not one of them.  Good listeners are rare and people who have this skill are perceived as capable, well-informed, smart and trustworthy.  If you’re seen this way then, via the halo effect, your business’s culture will be too.

Learn to ask good questions

This is the companion to learning to listen.  One of the fastest ways to develop rapport with someone is to ask them questions, not talk to or at them.  The ability to ask good, open ended questions conveys interest in the other person’s opinions, needs and wants — everything you want people to associate with your business. 

Learn to give a great elevator speech

Delivering a great elevator speech is a difficult talent to master.  You want to communicate who you (and your business) are, what you do and why it’s important in a very short time.  Commonly, people who are uncomfortable with elevator speeches appear too overbearing and “salesmanish” or apologetic and meek.  They also can be confusing and uninteresting.  None of these impressions are ones you want associated with your company.

Becoming the positive, accomplished face of your business takes the willingness to learn and practice.  Yes, you have to get out of your comfort zone, but the alternative — sabotaging your own hard work — is ridiculous.  A final bonus (incentive) is that these skills are applicable anytime, anywhere.  Once you’ve become good at them, they’ll also improve your personal relationships.

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Small Business Tax Cuts and Other News

July 31, 2015 by
64002400When the Ohio government talks about tax cuts, it is a good indication for the small business owner that things might improve a bit.  Although some of the tax cuts in the past have been negligent, and hardly make a difference, one hopes that there will be one that will truly benefit the small business owner across Ohio.  By giving small business owners tax breaks, the economy can improve and benefit the whole economy as a whole.  For more about this and other topics follow the links below.

New small-business tax break in Ohio will make a difference: Rion Safier and Steve Millard (Opinion)
The Ohio General Assembly and Gov. John Kasich recently approved a biennium budget bill that allows small business owners a 75 percent tax deduction for the first $250,000 in small business income for 2015 and a 100 percent deduction beginning in 2016.If you are a small business owner, work for one, or frequent their services, this is good news. Because most small businesses are pass-through entities, the owners pay taxes on their business income on their individual income return, at their individual income tax rate. And, a small business owner’s tax burden impacts the prices consumers pay and the benefits their employees enjoy.In April, the editorial board of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and The Plain Dealer wrote in opposition to giving “owners of small businesses a huge and unmerited tax break.”

Small business improving in Ohio

Ohio’s small businesses reported a slight improvement in July, bucking a national downward trend, according to the Thumbtack.com Small Business Sentiment Survey, a monthly survey of independent local service businesses in the U.S., including 360 responses in Ohio.

Designed with Bloomberg, the survey is housed and integrated into the economic functions of the Bloomberg Professional service.

In that report, Portsmouth is listed as having multiple small business services available. Among those are business plan consulting, catering, commercial cleaning, DJs, event photographers, karaoke rental, magicians, makeup artists, photo restoration, photographers, tree trimming, videographers, wedding officiants, wedding photographers and wedding videography.

Opening doors for small business in Ohio

​From the barbershop around the corner to the entrepreneur working solo to launch a business venture, small businesses form the cornerstone of Ohio’s economy. Small business owners comprise 98 percent of all employers in Ohio and employ half of the state’s private sector labor force. Large corporations may attract a sea of job applicants every year, but small businesses create every three out of four jobs in the state.

Clearly, there is nothing small about small business in Ohio.

The stakes are high for entrepreneurs and small business owners who face formidable start-up fees, a sizable tax burden and burdensome regulations in many states around the country. In traditional industries like manufacturing, Ohio has historically struggled to find the right balance of incentives to attract and retain employers.

Fortunately, times are changing.

This General Assembly, the Ohio Senate has taken several major steps toward creating a more favorable business climate for small businesses and attracting new investment to the state. We recognize the tremendous value of the innovation and hard work that small business owners bring to Ohio, and we can’t afford to give them anything less than our measure of support.

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Small Business Planning and Finances

July 21, 2015 by

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The cost of hiring a new employee does not stop at the salary a business owner pays them.  The cost of recruiting and training can be expensive costs to the small business owner, and one of the many reasons the can hesitate about hiring if they are short in cash.  Keeping a talented workforce is another matter.  The salary and benefits small business owners provide to their employees can be instrumental in keeping individuals with talent in their businesses. To read more about this and other topics, follow the links below.

How Banks Lost Their Groove In Small Business Finance… And Why They May Never Get It Back

Prior to the Great Recession, easy credit conditions prevailed for small businesses. Cash was free flowing, and relaxed lending practices made it relatively easy to secure financing.

After the Lehman Brothers crash and during the ensuing “credit crunch,” volume fell roughly 19% from 2008 until 2012. This general slowdown in lending coincided with stricter requirements placed on borrowers. Financing simply became less available — even for “creditworthy” companies. For the first time in U.S. business history, small business owners frequently were unable to secure credit even from their own banks.

Many banks suffered losses when the housing bubble burst, and they became risk averse. In order to make loans, they often sought three years worth of financial data. Naturally, revenues declined during the recession, and startups were particularly challenged because they had no financial track record to highlight. Historical data from my company’s Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index shows that big bank lending hit rock bottom four years ago in June 2011, when only 8.9% of small business loan applications were granted.

IKE TROTTER — Planning is vital for small businesses

Here in Mississippi and, in particular, the Delta, small businesses are the backbone to our economy. And, equally as important, small businesses can be the glue that brings children back home to run and eventually succeed in the ownership of a business. But, as many know, running a small business today involves a great deal of risk.

Needless to say, a small business normally comprises the largest part of one’s estate.  Unfortunately, most business owners fail to address the need for succession planning because it is human nature to put off decisions concerning death, disability or retirement. But here’s a typical scenario: upon the departure of a business owner, there are three choices for remaining family members; sell the business, liquidate the business or try to continue operating. Because of this, succession planning is critical in carrying forth both an orderly transition of power to new owners as well as providing continuity for employees and existing customers.

A properly drafted buy-sell arrangement that is adequately funded can provide financial protection for both family and business. Designed effectively, the plan can allow surviving family members and owners to enjoy ongoing economic support for succeeding generations.

Small business advice: How to attract and retain loyal millennials

It’s no secret that building and maintaining stable employee relationships saves money in the short term and increases company performance in the long term. But what does appear to be a mystery is how to build those relationships.

Many small business owners haven’t found a way to take advantage of this insight because they struggle to build attractive benefits packages and cultures that appeal not only to the best employees, but also to the most dedicated employees.

Fortunately, there’s new information available that points to a surprising solution to this problem: Small businesses need to hire more underrated (and underrepresented) long-haul millennials.

“Dedicated” and “loyal” might not be terms that you usually associate with millennials, but new research indicates that you might want to reconsider your outlook. Although you wouldn’t want to focus your entire hiring strategy on one demographic, there are two facts about millennials that you need to consider before dismissing this approach.

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Succession Planning – Protect Your Future Now

July 16, 2015 by

59948705It is a given, among professionals who work with them, that small business owners are bad at succession planning.  It’s also a given that being bad at it is entirely normal.  The owner who follows a well thought out and executed plan culminating in a successful retirement is the exception rather than the rule.

Many people are uncomfortable with, and resistant to, planning for their retirement.   But, this is especially true of the independent entrepreneur who’s the heart, soul and brains of his organization.  He finds it difficult, often impossible, to give up control of all he’s built over years.  His mantra is “there’s time, it’ll all work out”. 

Unfortunately, it usually doesn’t work out and this belief sets the organization up for failure.  The number 1 reason companies don’t survive into the next generation is the lack of a properly implemented succession plan.  According to a 2013 Small Business Administration (SBA) study only about 30% of businesses survive a transfer of management into the 2nd generation. 

This number is alarming when you consider that family businesses comprise 90% of all  small business in the country and 88% of owners want to pass it on rather than sell it (SBA, 2013).  The only succession plan most of them have is to be an absentee owner, while the successor — a family member or key employee — runs a profitable concern which will support him in his retirement. 

Therefore, most successors aren’t successful and the company doesn’t survive the transfer of power.  Not only does this leave him with no retirement it often leaves him with debts and a tarnished reputation, because there was no proactive plan.  Too often when the average owner is ready to relinquish control and retire he’s already run out of time for a successful changeover. 

There’s no one size fits all plan so it’s important to seek outside help for organizational, management, financial and legal issues which will arise.  Effective succession planning is a challenging task, but worth the reward.  It’s good stewardship of your company’s, employee’s, customer’s and family’s future. 

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Learning to “Do the Math” May Save Your Business

July 6, 2015 by

business (5)Remember when you were in high school and complaining about math class?  What was it you said, “I’ll never need this stuff in the real world?”  Well, now that you’re the owner of a small business, depending on your product or service, when it comes to geometry you still might be right.  But, when it comes to other types of math, and the need for them, you were mistaken.

Being able to “do the math” matters.  So much so, that it can be the difference between having a successful or unsuccessful company.  The stories of seemly successful businesses — ones with good products or services, clients and a well known brand — closing because of bad financial management are legion.

One of the biggest mistakes 90% of owners make is not knowing or understanding the importance of their numbers.  They don’t know if or which of their customers generate a profit, nor do they know how much a profit it is.  They don’t understand a fundamental concept — if you don’t have a profit margin, you can’t sustain a business.

The margin is simply how much out of every dollar a business earns it actually gets to keep.  For example: $1.00 (earned) minus $.90 (expenses) equals $.10 (profit).  The profit margin is 10%.  Many owners keep investing money, not understanding this straightforward tenet, hoping to “get the company on its feet”.  However, there’s no reasonable, mathematical way for that to happen if there’s no profit (margins can be either positive or negative). 

Owners should always know their margins, if they’re positive or negative at the very least, because the volume of a business doesn’t give an accurate picture of its financial health.  A company with $5 million in revenue can actually be losing money if it has a negative margin.  Let’s do the math for the fictional ABC Company.

In 2012 ABC had a net income (money they got to keep) of $500,000 from sales of $5 million, which gave it a profit margin of 10% ($500,000 divided by $5 million).  In 2013 they got a new customer, which increased costs.  But, because they ball parked the bid instead of doing the math, they made $500,000 again, only it was on sales of $5.5 million, resulting in a 9% margin. 

In 2014 the client offered ABC more business, which they took once more without running the numbers.  Again, expenses increased resulting in the same net income of $500,000 on $6 million, about an 8% profit.  So while the company increased its volume by a million dollars over 2 years, it actually reduced its returns.  Some businesses become so upside down they can’t get out of the hole they’ve dug, because selling more puts them further in the red.

Unfortunately, thousands of businesses have closed due to this phenomenon — even though they had customers and money coming in their margins weren’t good enough to sustain them.  The math is irrefutable, your product or service can’t cost more to produce than what you’re charging for it, and the only way to know that is to figure it out.

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Thinking About Starting Your Own Business? Read Ahead

June 25, 2015 by

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Individuals as well as businesses of any size deal with financial woes, but if you want to start your own business or want to get into the franchise world, being financially aware of what to expect can help you avoid the many pitfalls that a lot of small business owners and individual deal with in a daily basis.  Meeting payroll and paying for expenses for the business can be financially draining if you do not budget your money well.

For more about this and other topics follow the links below.

Pop Quiz: Do You Know the 5 Basics of Financial Literacy?

Financial literacy, financial capability, financial understanding.

Whatever the name, the core idea is the same: being equipped with the knowledge, skills and tools to manage your money and secure your future.

That’s no easy task, but here are five key money topics you’ll need to understand and put into action to make financial literacy a reality:

    • Budgeting. Financial security starts with prudently managing your money on a day-to-day basis. That means spending less than you earn and saving consistently. Try to save at least 15% of your gross pay for short-term goals, long-term goals and unexpected expenses. Do it first and not with what’s left of your paycheck. Track all your expenses and set reasonable spending guidelines. Finally, don’t get caught up in how others are spending and undermine your own budget.

Plan Ahead to Be Your Own Boss

When Lisa Hennessy’s pet collie was diagnosed with a degenerative disease, she prepared a special, home-made diet for him, and discovered all her dogs loved it. So when she lost her job as a manager for an automotive parts distributor a few years later, she saw an opportunity to launch Your Pet Chef, a company that makes personalised dog food.

“We now make food for over 125 dogs and help them eat healthier every day,” said Hennessy, 52, who lives in Chicago in the US.

While Hennessy enjoys her new venture, which launched in 2012, she also faces a common problem among new business-owners: dwindling funds. Three years in, the business is self-sustaining but still doesn’t pay her a salary. “Now I’m trying to find investors so I can keep doing it and not drive for Uber [to supplement income],” she said.

It takes determination, experience, research, timing and hard work to start a business. And, many fail. But that doesn’t stop people from trying. In the US, 476,000 new businesses launched each month in 2013, according to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity. That same year, more than half a million new businesses were started in the UK, according to StartUp Britain. In Australia, about 300,000 new small businesses launch each year, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia.

10 Questions to Ask When Franchising Your Business

Your business is booming, easy to duplicate and ripe for growth. You’ve always dreamed of expanding to multiple locations. You decide the time is right — you’re making the leap to franchising.

Like tying the knot, becoming a franchisor isn’t an endeavor you rush into. With so many opportunities for failure, it’s critical that you do your due diligence when researching how to properly franchise your brand.

From budgeting for up-front costs, filing the right legal paperwork, vetting trustworthy franchisees, to scheduling royalty payments, there’s no shortage of challenging tasks ahead. But, if you play your cards right, your brand could one day be the next Supercuts or Subway.

Here are 10 essential questions to ask when franchising your business:

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Small Business Job Creation, Lending, and Taxes

June 18, 2015 by

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The statistics for the small business community  are looking good for 2015. Small business owners believe and are confident that this year will be more profitable than last year, they intent to hire more employees, and feel confident they will invest more in technology.  Taxes, new regulations, and other costs associated with the running of the business are not pleasant nor foreseeable, but those are some of the limitations that they can, and are used to dealing with in a daily basis.

Read more about this by following the links below.

Small Business, Job Creation, And Why We Should Lend To Young Companies

Any honest conversation about creating jobs in the United States must include the role played by small business. Collectively, these businesses create the lion’s share of new jobs. The current SBA Administrator Maria Contreras Sweet regularly argues that two out of every three new jobs are created there. So when Experian approached me with a new study that explored the impact of small businesses (particularly startups), on our economy and what we could do to encourage more job creation, they had my attention.

As one of the three biggest business and personal credit reporting bureaus, I consider Experian’s advice and perspective very relevant to this conversation. I recently spoke with Peter Bolin, Experian Director of Consulting and Analytics, to talk about the research. When they dived into the data they found that small businesses and startups really do have a direct impact on job creation in the United States. They focused on the 2010 class of startups and looked at the resilience of the overall US economic recovery and how these businesses have performed in the four years since they opened their doors.

New chip credit cards putting squeeze on small businesses

NEW YORK — New credit and debit cards with computer chips are putting the squeeze on small businesses.

The cards being rolled out by banks and credit card companies are aimed at reducing fraud from counterfeit cards. As chip cards are phased in, magnetic stripe cards, which are easier for thieves to copy, will be phased out. Businesses of all sizes face an Oct. 1 deadline to get new card readers and software that can handle chips. Most estimates of transition costs for small companies vary from the low hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars due to the wide range of equipment used.

If businesses don’t meet the deadline set by companies including MasterCard, Visa and American Express, they can be held liable for transactions made with phony chip cards.

Small Business Owners Want a Fair Share of Their Taxes Back

New Jersey’s Small Business Development Centers are pushing again for an increase in their state funding — which would in turn make the centers eligible to have federal funding increased to the program in a state with one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates.

The network, formally called America’s SBDC New Jersey, says it had its state support slashed in former Gov. Jon Corzine’s term from $1 million down to $250,000 — and then survived an attempted cut to zero in Gov. Chris Christie’s administration. The state Legislature restored that $250,000, but the funding has been frozen at the same level since Christie’s first year in office, 2010.

Officials with the group argue that’s too little — especially because restoring the $1 million state matching funds would bring back almost that much in federal support for the small-business centers.

By its own figures, SBDCNJ helped 534 clients start new businesses last year, and “helped its clients create and save 15,089 jobs.”

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Small Business Jobs and Updates

June 11, 2015 by

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Analysts and policymakers are confident the state of the economy is getting better.  The reports about job openings are encouraging, and job openings have reached the highest percentage this past April since the year 2000.  One of the concerns now is the ability of these business to fill such mention openings.  The skill necessary businesses are looking for in candidates to fulfill their demands is not there, therefore businesses are still looking.

Follow the links below for more information about this topic.

U.S. job openings hit record high; small businesses upbeat

U.S. job openings surged to a record high in April and small business confidence perked up in May, suggesting the economy was regaining speed after stumbling at the start of the year.

The economy’s stronger tone was reinforced by other data on Tuesday showing a solid rise in wholesale inventories in April, in part as oil prices stabilized.

“This is more confirmation that the economy is indeed emerging from that soft patch in the first quarter and can still pick up even faster in the next few months,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York.

American small businesses just gave us some more incredibly bullish news about the job market

The labor market is rolling. 

On Tuesday, the National Federation of Independent Business, a conservative lobby group, released its latest small business report, which showed that its small business optimism index rose to 98.3 in May.

But the really positive part of the report isn’t the headline reading — though this did rise to a 5-month high — but the incredibly bullish commentary on the labor market.

The Importance Of Relationships In Scaling A Small Business

​In my Forbes series The Insiders, I share the highs and lows associated with launching and scaling a small business, all through the chronological lens of our own experiences building VerbalizeIt.

In my most recent post, I discussed our fears of not being able to accelerate quickly enough during our time in the Techstars business accelerator program. The focus was on ensuring we had technically-inclined teammates to facilitate our growth.

Another critical component to our earliest successes was the non-teammate relationships we developed, most notably with our mentors, advisors, and advocates. These individuals contributed more to our early growth than we could have ever achieved on our own, resulting from their extensive experiences and network of relationships.

How do entrepreneurs find and convince the right advisors to take part in their journey?


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