Home Business Startup Checklist

    Who is your target market?
     What products or services will you be offering?
     Who is your main competition?
     What is your value proposition?
     How will you deliver your products or services?
     What will you name your business?
    Administration
     Where will you work? Determine where your office space will be.
     Purchase or set up your office equipment and supplies (eg, desk and good chair, computer, printer, phone line, software, basic supplies, etc.)
     Set up a separate business address for correspondence.
     Set up a separate business email address.
     What kind of legal entity will you create? Complete the legal requirements and registration. Identify a lawyer or accountant to help you.
     Obtain an Employee Identification Number (EIN). If you are a sole proprietor, this may be your social security number.
     Register your name and buy the matching domain name.
     Purchase web hosting, if you are going to have a website.
     Order business cards.

    Home Business Start-Up Checklist (continued)
    Finances
     Set up a separate banking account for your business. Obtain a separate business credit card.
     Determine how you will pay and get paid. Set up the systems you will use (eg, Paypal and/or credit cards).
     Set up a system for tracking your finances.
     Prepare an initial budget and financial forecast.
     Set your initial business and financial goals.
    Support
     Identify relevant industry websites and forums. Start networking.
     Identify and join a mastermind group.
     Decide which training you will use, if needed. Get started.
     Find people who can perform the tasks you will not be doing yourself. (e.g., website design and development, accounting).
    Promotion
     Create your marketing plan and calendar.
     Create an action plan with deadlines.

    Take a deep breath and get started!!
    Come and get resources, support and action moving forward in your home business at http://boahb.com/

    Categories: Run a Home Business, Start a Home Business

    An Entrepreneur Never Hesitates

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    Never hesitate.

    Always taking action is how you should frame it in your mind because that’s a positive instead of a negative.

    You should eliminate hesitation from your mindset.

    This is the most important thing I can tell you about this. It’s easier to correct a wrong decision than indecision, because a wrong decision will tell you at least, “This way doesn’t work. You should probably look at these other alternatives instead.”

    Indecision doesn’t tell you anything. You have absolutely no idea. So it’s easier to correct a wrong decision than it is to correct indecision. It’s actually easier to make a wrong decision right than to get the right decision right off the bat, because you’re usually never right right away. You’re usually close, and then you correct the rest of it to get right on the money.

    And speaking of money, money is very attracted to speed.

    Money loves speed.

    It’s so seductive.

    Speed seduces money and says, “Hey baby, want to go out on a date with me?” Money goes to those who act quickly, and so knowing that’s a money magnet you should say, “If money loves to be around people who are quick to act, maybe I should be quick to act. And if I can’t, I have to create a strategy that will then allow me to.”

    I like to ask people, “Has there been a time in your life where you absolutely acted immediately and you never hesitated?” And they’re like, “Absolutely.” And I’m like, “OK, so you can do that. Now we just gotta figure out your strategy that gets you in that state of mind so you can take action,” and then we do that.

    Do you want to be a waiter? Or do you want to be a receiver? Getting it done and getting some stuff from it.

    So don’t hesitate, because you just won’t get anything from it.

    The biggest difference between successful people and the norm is their speed of implementation like we were talking about earlier. There’s only a handful of differences that separate the winners from the losers. There’s only those two or three or four daily tasks and their approaches to those, and one of those tasks is winners are very quick to take an idea and turn it into something tangible.

    Work harder on yourself than you do on your business; meaning that if these are problems for you, you should be setting aside some time every single day where you’re doing this stuff to

    become better at taking action;

    to be better at learning how to handle criticism;

    to be better at creating undeniable and insatiable desire.

    If these are problems for you, you have to handle them. You have to set aside time every single day where you become better as a person with your qualities. So work harder on yourself than you do on your business until you get those qualities that you want. Then you can do anything you want in any business.

    The Entrepreneurial Mindset is one of the topics in The Business of At Home Business Membership 

    Categories: Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , ,

    What Is The Biggest Obstacle You Face When Starting A Home Business?

    So you want to start a home business?

    When you look at starting a home business as a new entrepreneur, you look at all the things you need to do to get started.

    Website

    Sales Pages

    Traffic

    Product creation

    Design graphics

    Social media

    Funnels – what are funnels?!

    All the other requirements like taxes, books, government regulations and so on ..

    All you want to do is find the customers who need your solution to their problem or what they desire…..

    All the equipment or technology you need to create a functioning business can seem like the biggest obstacle to starting a home business but it is not the biggest obstacle.

    The biggest obstacle to starting a home business is YOU!

    Paralysis

    Your brain will get overwhelmed by all the “things” you have to do in your business.

    Your Mind is powerful and it is great at collecting knowledge from here, there and everywhere.

    But that can be overwhelming and cause “Paralysis Analysis.”  You will become overwhelmed by all the information and get STUCK. What should I do next?!

    Well… take a deep breath ..and make a step by step checklist of what you need to do and cross it off as you do it.

    Perfectionism

    Don’t try to be Perfect.

    Perfectionism can also cause paralysis in terms of “waiting” till I get this done and it takes longer than you thought and suddenly, it has been three months of you trying to perfect a sales page.

    Imperfect Action is better than no Action.

    Perfect is unattainable so don’t even try for Perfect. Just Perfect Enough to get moving!

    The Next Best Thing

    There is no quick way to make money with a home business. It is about building a business that has systems in it to keep the cash flowing. So always following the newest idea on how to make the cash flow will get you into chasing the quick money instead of a business. It is called the “Bright Shiny Object” syndrome and the promise of the “NEW” has always moved people to buy but you don’t want to move “off your path” chasing rainbows, you want to be focused on a path to your business such that you can see how it works.

    The Business of At Home Business Membership

    As an entrepreneur working in home business, I have (and still know) known the challenges of being in home business so I have developed a Membership to help others get their home business started quicker and easier.

    Check it out at  The Business of At Home Business here.

    Categories: Be Your Own Boss, Knowledge, Mindset, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , , , ,

    5 Steps to An Online Business

     

     

     

     

    Today we’re going to be talking about systems again because you need systems in your business in order to save time and save you money and ,  of course,  give you the time to go out and get more money!

    So,  we’re going to talk today about the five steps to have an online business and we’re going to be talking about one step at a time.

     

     

    So, today we’re going to be talking about your Web site. Basically,  there are five basic steps to getting an online business on the Internet.

    1. The first step is to get a hub on the Internet. So,  to get your web site to have a place for your visitors to come and have a place for your clients to come and have a place for people to contact you.
    2. Then the second step is to get video and audio storage and product storage which is separate from your Web site. This will be the place that you will connect to process any sales. Obviously this is where you keep your product or and where you keep your messaging.
    3. Then you have the collection system which will collect your leads which will then become clients as long as you continue to contact them on a regular basis.
    4. The fourth step is to get a sales system set up in your business. This sale system will be connected to your Web site.
    5. Then the fifth step is to get a marketing system to send your prospects to your Web site.

     

    So those are the five basic steps for getting a system that will collect yearly to  engage your visitors and keep a place for you to have your product and store your videos and ideas you might need for your website and keep it separate from your web site so that if your Web site goes down or your video and audio product isn’t lost now.

    Four Things you Need to Have for a Website

    You will need to invest in some software tools to make the system work on its own of course. However,  there are some free software and tools that you can use as well.

    You can get a hub on the  Internet which is your Web site. For that,  you, of course,  you need a domain name which we’ll talk about in a minute. You need hosting for your web site and then you need a WordPress Web site is my preference as it is easy to use. Then you need an SSL secure certificate which I think it says will talk about this in a minute.

    But first of all, lets  talk about your dream team now.

    Your domain name is basically a name that is registered on the Internet which is the identifier for your Internet address. So, on the Internet you have internet hosting and Internet domain providers who give you what is called an IP address of say 1 9 2 1 6 8 45 23 but then it becomes identified to a domain which makes it much easier for people to connect with you.

    So, you need to get domain name.

    Of course,  I have a small story on that  as when I went to pick the name The business of home business,  Google was ranking according to keywords and at home business was a lower ranking key word than Home Based Business or entrepreneur et cetera. So,  it was available. The business at home business but you know obviously home business is a very competitive domain name. So,  there wasn’t any other choice. So I picked that because it was sort of like the others that were more popular like home business or home biz or home based business. But in the end, when I picked the business home business,  it was perfect. It was awkward and of course it’s a very long address but the business of our home business is my brand because I want to assist others with the foundations and business of their business while they deal with involving their vision and brand for their business.  So, my brand is who I am even though I would have been another brand.

    So what about you?

    I mean does your business name speak about who you are in your business and see if it’s available so you can reserve a domain name.  There’s various places on the Internet where you can get your name reserved. Obviously,  I’m not going to say any domain name provider is better than the other but I have a few listed here.

     

    Most of all the hosting providers will also register your domain name or get registered and then you need to get hosting as I mentioned before because you need a place in your house. This is going to have your Web site hosted on a host business. So,  for example go daddy and hostgator and  blue host,  they are all hosting providers and they put your information into a website location.

    They give you a location on their servers on the Internet and then you point your domain name to that location on their server and that becomes your Web site.

    So you need hosting.

    Then, of course , as I mentioned you need to get a WordPress Web site because I know there’s other platforms but WordPress software is free. It’s easy to learn and is very flexible in how you use it. I mean even a newbie person can work with WordPress once they learn the basics so you need as a solopreneur,  you need to be in control of your own assets.

    Now  some web design,  you can make quick and simple edits to your Web site and you don’t have to wait for your web designer. So that is why I recommend WordPress because I know it sounds intimidating but it actually is very easy to use.

    Then the last thing which has become so important because it’s actually required by almost all Web sites now and is in fact you can get free certificates. It’s called an SSL secure certificate,  a secure socket layer certificate which proves to Google search that your web site is safe and also to your visitors will feel more comfortable about entering their credit card number on your Web site.

    So, if you don’t have an SSL certificate then sometimes Google will put a big red mark through your domain name when someone is searching for it to say I’m not sure this is secure and you want to really get go there and of course you want your visitors to come anytime.

    So if it’s so easy to get a free SSL certificate I would certainly recommend it.

     

    So those are the four things that you need to get for your Web site set up.

     

    So,  in your business you need to have systems.

    You can have five systems in your business.

     

    1. You have a Web site system.
    2. You have your sale system you have your payment system.
    3. You have your storage system.
    4. You have a collection system to collect leads and customers.
    5. Your marketing system to send your prospects onto your Web site.

    We’ll talk about the other systems in a later post but for now, join The Business of At Home Business to get your online business up quick with systems to make a lifestyle business!

     

     

    Categories: Be Your Own Boss Tags: Tags: , , ,

    Social Media can be #1 Time Waster when starting a Home Business

     

     

     

    “Get on Facebook.” “Find your fans on Twitter.” “Do a livestream on Instagram Stories”

    You need to get out onto the Internet to connect with your potential customers. But when starting a home business online there are so many systems to have in place and time spent that you need to be strategic with your time.  There are only 24 hours in a day and you need to sleep for some of that time.

    Social media marketing is the #1 time waster when you are starting a home business. It is easy to spend hours checking out cat pictures or entering discussions on what is your favourite 1980’s song.

    Your #1 priority when starting your home business is “What get’s you closer to your money.”

    What can you do in the next half hour that attracts a potential customer to your product or service or creates the newest sales page?
     

     

     

     

     

     

    The more focused you are on getting the sale every minute of the day, the less likely you will go down that time wasting vortex that is social media.

    How to do social media in your business

    Connecting and posting on social media can attract your ideal customers but do it strategically.  Create a Marketing Plan  just for social media so you can take an hour or two on one day to create your messages and set them up to broadcast when your potential audience is on their favourite social media channel and monitor so you can interact and comment if needed with audience.

     

    To learn more about how to create a marketing plan and set up systems in your new business, join The Business of At Home Business membership where you can be productive with your time getting skills and  strategy of being online to save you time and money when setting up your home business.

    Categories: Be Your Own Boss Tags: Tags: , , ,

    7 ways to get the time to start a home business?

    Are you stuck in overwhelm wondering how to start your own home business?

    Do you find that your days are filled with your job, commuting and family chores that you don’t know how you can find the time to think about starting a home business let alone actually having the time to do it!

    Ask yourself just how committed are you to starting a business that can improve your life?

    You can find the time if you REALLY want to have your own business.

    Here are 7 ways to find the time to start your own home business

    1. Stop watching T.V.

    Television is such a time waste when you think of what you could be doing in that hour to take action in your business. If you “have to be social” with the family then at least bring out the laptop or phone to work on your business while you are there.

    2. Get up one hour earlier every day

    If you were to get up at 5 a.m instead of 6 a.m. just think of the action you could take planning your business in the quiet of the morning. Staying up late to work isn’t recommended as you aren’t getting the sleep your body needs to work during the day.

    3. Take 15 minutes a day for you

    Fifteen minutes for 30 days is equal to 450 minutes or over 7 hours you have spent to move your business forward. I use a small book to write in my ideas and next action steps.

    4. Take the time while commuting or waiting at appointments

    Just think of the minutes and hours you spend just travelling or waiting in life that you could do something productive towards planning and taking action to start your business. I like writing down ideas and next steps in my Moleskine notebook because I like the visceral feel of the book and paper but you can just write on your phone or record your thoughts.

    5. Get a Mentor

    Find someone who already has a business and ask if you could ask questions of him or her about starting a home business by email or on the phone. A mentor can help you save time by preventing you from making common mistakes and helping you take action.

    6. Allow yourself to take baby steps of action.

    You have to celebrate whatever small action you may take every day to move forward. If you celebrate rather than counting the number of things you need to do that will help with overwhelm.

     

    7. Read a book about business instead of a novel at bedtime

    If you don’t know someone successful in business, you can read about entrepreneurs and starting a home business to absorb the lessons they have learned whether it is “The Reluctant Entrepreneur” by Michael Masterson or “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.

     

    If you want to learn about starting, running or growing a home business all in one place, you should join “The Business of At Home Business” membership where you can learn and implement about what it takes to start an online or offline home business all in one place!

    Categories: Be Your Own Boss, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , ,

    Guerilla Marketing to Grow Your Business

    It’s about growing your own home business by using some offline tactics to do your marketing that are traditional but have been working for ever. So for those of you who have never tried to grow your home business, there are three point six billion people online. So remember to get your Web site up there like I mentioned on Thursday so that you connect with those people.

    If you want at first start connecting with your local community. Believe it or not,  yes, Yellow Pages is a great way to start. Get your advertising info into Yellow Pages and that does cost money but that will last you a lifetime in order of “word of mouth.” Once people start to get to know that you’re in the Yellow Pages in the directory, they can look you up easily and get your phone number and your address also maybe depending on the Yellow Pages. And of course, it is put up in the Yellow Pages on the Internet. And once they have your web site, you have a Web site up and an address. You can put that Web site and your phone number and e-mail and your mobile phone on business cards. On your Web site, have a contact form to “contact us” form as they say on your Web site that they could fill in and contact you for more information about your business.

    You can actually pay for the domain and pay for the hosting for a web site and it is certainly less than a hundred dollars You could easily learn WordPress. I know you don’t want to but obviously you could and that would be also free. Once you have that, you could put up a few blog posts and you have a Web site or you could hire someone to do that or get a free Web site as long as they allow you to attach a email auto-responder that will make a list of the people who contact you. Once they get onto your e-mail address list then you are in business with possible customers because that’s a very simple way for you to start your business growing is by getting on the Internet.

    But anyway, for those of you who are local businesses, you have to do some marketing for your business. There are still direct mailers out there depending on your community they could be reasonable. Send out a press release saying that you’re in town and available or you could do some ads in your local paper.

    You could also network out there in your community. There’s a lot of business networking groups. I’m not sure if they’re free to join in your community. The Chamber of Commerce in our community you pay a yearly fee but you have a lot of free networking by being in the chamber. Go out and volunteer in your community at a local food bank or any local business entrepreneurial type group. Go to a Meetup networking event. Meetups are free and create your own Meetup where you provide information and people can come and learn about your business or service depending on what you actually do and you could actually be there and meet up with others who are in business. Those are just a few of the ways that you have to be able to get out into the community so people get to know about you as you have to network.

    You have to market your business. So obviously you could also do a press release send it to your local newspapers saying that you’re in business. They’re always interested in profiling new businesses this community. Those are some of the traditional ways that Jay Levinson of the Guerilla Marketing book series has for you and let me just get his Web site because of course everybody has a Web site now and you can go and get some more guerilla marketing hacks for your local business that you don’t have to cost too much money to spend to get them.

    Gmarketing.com or his book “Guerrilla Marketing” by Jay Conrad Levinson.

    But anyway , so guerrilla marketing is a great way to save money in order to grow your business when you’re offline. Obviously there is some cost to be an offline business in people finding you in your local community. Tell all your family and friends that’s an inexpensive way. Hand out cards to your family and friends note cards to anyone you know. So for our offline business it’s now of course you can get online and get more business from the Internet. That’s why you need a web site. So as I mentioned get your Web site up there. Then you’re going to have to go and participate in social media.It doesn’t cost money to get on to social media and just chat and add your social media pages.  So that’s another hack is to get your Web site up and then get connected on some of the social media that might be of interest to you.

    So we’ll be talking about some of them that we’ve talked about in season one like Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest  and  Twitter .  Then you can see that it is possible even if you have a shipping company to be successful on his Instagram or even of course company like Ikea it can be very successful on Facebook. So hopefully you’ve got a few ideas today and I’ll give you some more when I get Guerrilla marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson out!

    Categories: Networking, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , , , ,

    Your Website Is Your Online Hub

    I’d like to talk about running your own business and some of the systems that you need to put in in order to have a home business whether it’s offline or on. I wanted to emphasize the importance of having a Web site for your business. So today I wanted to talk about your ONLINE HUB.

    I like to call it the ONLINE HUB which is your Web site on the Internet. It will have its own unique address. You will have it on your business cards for people to go to whether you’re offline or online.  Visitors can click on and go to your business there and your web site will be important in your business for running it. It will be the place where you can actually talk to them about your business by talking about your product or service on your blog. And if you don’t know what a blog is we’ll be talking about that later. And then also it will be the place where you can get them to subscribe. Any of your visitors who come to your Web site, they will be interested in your business and maybe they want to get a newsletter from you. You should have a place called a lead page where they can sign up for either your newsletter or your emails that you send out weekly or monthly depending on your business As well your web site can be the online hub for where you can sell to them if you wish.

    So ,for example, you can have a page on your Web site which talks about your product or your service and it gives all these details about it even if they are interested in learning more than they can read about it.

    Obviously you could put your phone number on the page or you could also give them a button to click and sign up by e-mail to contact you with information about your product or service. You can even have a sales page which you can link up to a payment button service that will actually sell to any visitors that come to your business website.

    So, the ONLINE HUB  is what I like to call the and that is your Web site has a unique location on the internet. Whether you’re an off line or an online business, you should have a Web site that is easy to navigate easy to read and simple enough that they can figure out where to go when they have a question. Also, have a place where they can search and find information if they need to have your phone number, your contact e-mail and you have a place where they can sign up for their e-mail newsletter if they wish. It could be right on your front page of your website or it could be on a separate page that you will send them to if they click on or gotten that kind of thing.

    So your ONLINE HUB is your Web site. It’s important to have in your running of your business because it can be the place that you send visitors whether it’s from a business card or from on the Internet. You send them through social media to check out your product or service on your website. It is an important part of your business and it should be running efficiently quickly and be an easy place for them to contact you for them to buy. Of course, also, to get on a list to learn more about your business and get information from you.

    So if you haven’t thought of- your offline business should have a Web site and it should be running efficiently.

    So we’ll be talking a bit more about your Web site in the next episode in some of the ways that you can make it easier for them to find you and to connect to you and to buy from you.

    Get your Web site up!

     It’s a great place now for people to check you out.

    Mobile Responsive

    A lot of people now are using their mobile phone to search for products or services. So it’s time to get your web site to be mobile responsive. You know where to find out if your Web site is mobile or responsive. All you have to do is get a phone out and find the browser that you’re going to use and use it to search for your search for your own business if you haven’t done that yet. See how it looks on mobile in order to be a mobile responsive web site.

    For mobile responsive , the look of your web site changes so that it has a navigation which is easy to use with buttons to push and to go and to sign up etc.. It actually looks a bit different from your actual Web site on the desktop.

    For a non-mobile responsive website on your phone will have all the text, all the buttons, all the pages, all menus small and very hard to access. So you need to be able to get a mobile responsive web site. At some point, we’ll be talking about how you should make sure you have the priority of having a mobile responsive web site.

    But for now, let’s just go next week have a look at some of the things you should have on your Web site that are important to your visitors, your leads and who will become your customers.

    Yes, you better get your website up there on the internet even if you are an offline business!

    Join “The Business of At Home Business” to learn more!

     

    Categories: Run a Home Business, Website Tags: Tags: , , ,

    What Is Your Solution For Your Customer

     

    It is all about selling and your customers. And as I mentioned previously in the other episode we’re going to start at the very basics of looking at who is your customer. Before we even talk about selling because if you haven’t defined who your customer is then you won’t be able to find them in order to sell to them.

    Because not everyone is your customer.

    Not everyone wants your gadget.

    No everyone wants your information

    Not everyone wants your newest Plumbing apparatus.

    So you have to decide. what are you selling.

    That’s the first step.

    What is the outcome that your customers will get from buying your solution?

    Is it something they desire?

    Is it the newest golf club?

    Is it something that is a solution to their problem?

    What is your solution?

    So first of all, you should really actually define what your outcome is as a result of using your product or service.

    If someone was to actually use your product or service, what is their outcome and how will it improve their life? 

    What is the end results?

    Will they have more money at the end of using your solution or are you just solving one little problem in their life?Maybe it’s time to define that little problem as to how small it is and decide if you can help by adding a few more other solutions to get it into a bigger solution and bigger results.

    So first off, you’ve got to decide what you’re going to be selling as a solution.

    What is that solution and what is the end results of that solution?

    Next question.

    Who would want that solution?

    So you’d be surprised who wants your solution. At one point, I thought the coaches would want my solution for someone who is thinking of starting a home business in general. But actually I’ve found that for one of my products, I could actually have real estate agents who would be more interested in my solution. So that’s from doing the research and finding out that there aren’t that demand and the audience.

    For example, I’ve found out on Facebook that the majority of people there in my audience are from 45 to 65. There are a lot of people out there at 45 to 65 who are starting another business in their life because they want to have the freedom and control of their own life in terms of having a business, so that was a big surprise. I thought it was just teenagers and young people who are on Facebook.

    But then I’m not usually on Facebook. 

    So, what I’m trying to say is first you got to figure out what your solution is and what is the end result for that solution.

    What is the outcome for anyone who might happen to use that solution?

    And then go and do research on your social media in trade publications in your industry go out and talk to people in your industry about what kind of problems they have and see if they actually NEED YOUR solution. They may not need it because they already have a quicker way to solve what they want so that you’re going to have to find a way to have a solution that is a different, unique way of solving that problem.

    So really before you can even start selling or even defining who your customers are, you have to decide what your solution is and what is the end result.

    What is the process that you go through to use your solution and get a better outcome?

    They always want to buy something for a better outcome, quicker outcome or a more fun outcome of all kinds of outcomes that are positive.

    So before you can start even defining your customers, which we will do next time, are you even selling to the right customers. You have to know what your solution is that you have that your product or service solves in terms of what the problems might be or what do they desire.

    So, start with the basics and decide what it is that is the outcome for your product or service. And then go and research with a few examples on customers and what they need and who they are and finding out who they are.

    Now I’ll tell you bluntly, with our structural engineering firm, we didn’t have to do any of this research because basically people when you want to build and renovate a house and they need an engineer then we are the solution. Obviously, the only thing that is really required in terms of our solution is how we could be quicker; how we can be more responsive; on how we can be on call; for your client and get a good reputation. So we didn’t have to do too much research on what the market was because we have a pretty large market. So the competition was not too fierce in our area.

    So just so you know I’m talking right now about online.

    But of course we’ll also define offline research but before we can do any of that out, figure out what your solution is whether it’s a product or service that you want to sell.

    What is it solving?

    What is the end result for your client?

    why would they want to buy it?

    So have a look at that this week and see what you think about your solution for your business. Maybe look at what you’re going to be doing and see what is the end result of your solution.

    That’s a very important task.

    And then the next phase, very important, is defining your customer and who they are and where they are. So we’ll do that next week.

     

    Categories: Run a Home Business, Sales, Solopreneur Success Strategies podcast Tags: Tags: , , ,

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