#Shortenings Market Growth

[chemicalresearchupdates]

Shortenings Market Insights: Understanding the Influence of Regulatory Changes on Product Formulations and Market Strategies

Shortenings, in the context of the culinary industry, refer to fats used to enhance the texture, flavor, and shelf life of various food products. These fats can be derived from sources like vegetable oils, animal fats, or a combination of both. The market for shortenings has gained significant attention due to its widespread applications in baking, frying, and other food preparation processes.

The market overview reveals a dynamic landscape driven by the increasing demand for convenience foods and the growth of the bakery and confectionery industry. Shortenings find extensive use in these sectors, contributing to the market's expansion. Additionally, the scope of shortenings market extends beyond the food industry, encompassing applications in non-food segments such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

Market growth in the shortenings industry is propelled by factors like changing consumer lifestyles, rising disposable incomes, and an evolving food culture. The versatility of shortenings in adapting to different culinary requirements has made them a staple in the food processing landscape.

The Shortening market industry is characterized by the presence of both established players and new entrants striving to innovate and meet the evolving consumer preferences. As consumer awareness regarding the impact of dietary choices on health increases, there is a growing emphasis on the development of healthier and sustainable shortening alternatives.

Trends in the shortenings market reflect a shift towards plant-based and sustainable options, driven by the rising popularity of vegan and eco-friendly lifestyles. Manufacturers are investing in research and development to create shortenings that not only meet functional requirements but also align with the growing demand for healthier and ethically produced food products.

In conclusion, the shortenings market is a dynamic and evolving sector, deeply intertwined with the broader food and culinary landscape. As consumer preferences continue to evolve, the industry is expected to witness further innovations and a shift towards sustainable and healthier alternatives.

[pravalika]

Shortenings Market - Forecast (2023 - 2028)

The Shortenings Market size is estimated to reach $4.33 billion by 2027 and is poised to grow at a CAGR of 4.17% over the forecast period of 2022-2027. Shortenings are the ingredient that helps in adding texture-flakiness and even crispiness to the various bakery and confectionaries items. Some of the common shortening products are vegetable oils or hydrogenated vegetable oils such as palm or coconut oils. Further, consumers often add non-vegan shortening ingredients such as margarine and lard. Margarine has had an interesting processing method that allows it to be made from either animal-based sources or vegan sources. Lard, on the other hand, is completely obtained from the fatty tissue of a pig, while tallow another shortening product is obtained from cattle or sheep. Shortening products, just like starch are an important baking ingredient as they elongate the feeling of crispiness and flakiness in longer solid fat confectionaries. Bakers and Confectioners add monoglycerides to reduce the water-oil interfacial tension, thereby helping in making various bread and buns. The governing application, Bakery, has been growing at a rapid pace thereby supplementing the growth along with the uprising of robust working-class supplemented by growing urbanization across the globe and acting as key drivers for the Shortening Industry in the projected period of 2022-2027.

Report Coverage

The report: “Shortenings Market Forecast (2022-2027)", by Industry ARC covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the Shortenings Market.

By Source- Animal and Vegan. By Application- Bakery and Confectionary, Snacks and Savoury, and Others.  By Distribution Channel- Online Channel and Off-Line Channels. By Geography- North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico), Europe (Germany, United Kingdom (U.K.), France, Italy, Spain, Russia, and Rest of Europe), Asia Pacific (China, Japan India, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, and Rest of Asia Pacific), South America (Brazil, Argentina, and Rest of South America), and Rest of the World (the Middle East, and Africa).

Key Takeaways

Geographically, Europe’s shortening market held a dominant market share in the year 2021. It is owing to the presence of a robust bakers’ and confectioners’ association and group of manufacturers. Additionally, the other raw material pertaining to bakeries and confectionaries have been long dominated by the said region. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to offer lucrative growth opportunities to the marketers in the projected period owing to the uprising of soar and robust manufacturing capacities. The flag bearer for such movement would be China-India and Japan.

Increasing consumption of bakery confectionery items is one of the crucial drivers for the Shortenings Market. However, awareness pertaining to the heightened consumption of excessive fats has hampered the overall market growth.

A detailed analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats will be provided in the Shortenings Market Report.

Shortenings Market Segmentation Analysis- By Source

The Shortening market based on the source can be further segmented into animal and vegan. Vegan held a dominant market share in the year 2021. Various vegetable oils are included within the vegan segment, and the rise of veganism as a trend has rightly helped the market gain an edge. Consumers have become extremely aware of the ingredients they are consuming, plus aspects such as non-GMO, organic, and other aspects have aided the market growth. Further, giants such as Cargill had introduced new product lines especially for supplementing the vegan demand within the bakery items.

Moreover, vegan is estimated to be the fastest-growing, with a CAGR of 4.8% over the forecast period of 2022-2027. Product launches substantially within the organic and sustainable product categories are growing. Further, a 300% increase in vegans was observed between 2004-2019, thereby holding around 3% of the total population in the US.

[ghelgheli]

According to Marx, metabolic rift appears in three different levels and forms. First and most fundamentally, metabolic rift is the material disruption of cyclical processes in natural metabolism under the regime of capital. Marx’s favourite example is the exhaustion of the soil by modern agriculture. Modern large-scale, industrial agriculture makes plants absorb soil nutrition as much as and as fast as possible so that they can be sold to customers in large cities even beyond national borders. It was Justus von Liebig’s Agricultural Chemistry (1862) and his theory of metabolism that prompted Marx to integrate an analysis of the ‘robbery’ system of agriculture into Capital. [...]

Liebig harshly criticized modern ‘robbery agriculture’ (Raubbau), which only aims at the maximization of short-term profit and lets plants absorb as many nutrients from the soil as possible without replenishing them. Market competition drives farmers to large-scale agriculture, intensifying land usage without sufficient management and care. As a consequence, modern capitalist agriculture created a dangerous disruption in the metabolic cycle of soil nutrients. [...]

Marx formulated the problem of soil exhaustion as a contradiction created by capitalist production in the metabolism between humans and nature. Insofar as value cannot fully take the metabolism between humans and nature into account and capitalist production prioritizes the infinite accumulation of value, the realization of sustainable production within capitalism faces insurmountable barriers.

This fundamental level of metabolic rift in the form of the disruption of material flow cannot occur without being supplemented and reinforced by two further dimensions. The second dimension of metabolic rift is the spatial rift. Marx highly valued Liebig in Capital because his Agricultural Chemistry provided a scientific foundation for his earlier critical analysis of the social division of labour, which he conceptualized as the ‘contradiction between town and country’ in The German Ideology. Liebig lamented that those crops that are sold in modern large cities do not return to the original soil after they are consumed by the workers. Instead, they flow into the rivers as sewage via water closets, only strengthening the tendency towards soil exhaustion.

This antagonistic spatial relationship between town and country – it can be called ‘spatial rift’ – is founded upon a violent process of so-called primitive accumulation accompanied by depeasantization and massive urban growth of the working-class population concentrated in large cities. This not only necessitates the long-distance transport of products but also significantly increases the demand for agricultural products in large cities, leading to continuous cropping without fallowing under large-scale agriculture, which is intensified even more through market competition. In other words, robbery agriculture does not exist without the social division of labour unique to capitalist production, which is based upon the concentration of the working class in large cities and the corresponding necessity for the constant transport of their food from the countryside. [...]

The third dimension of metabolic rift is the temporal rift. As is obvious from the slow formation of soil nutrients and fossil fuels and the accelerating circulation of capital, there emerges a rift between nature’s time and capital’s time. Capital constantly attempts to shorten its turnover time and maximize valorization in a given time – the shortening of turnover time is an effective way of increasing the quantity of profit in the face of the decreasing rate of profit. This process is accompanied by increasing demands for floating capital in the form of cheap and abundant raw and auxiliary materials. Furthermore, capital constantly revolutionizes the production process, augmenting productive forces with an unprecedented speed compared with precapitalist societies. Productive forces can double or triple with the introduction of new machines, but nature cannot change its formation processes of phosphor or fossil fuel, so ‘it was likely that productivity in the production of raw materials would tend not to increase as rapidly as productivity in general (and, accordingly, the growing requirements for raw materials)’ (Lebowitz 2009: 138). This tendency can never be fully suspended because natural cycles exist independently of capital’s demands. Capital cannot produce without nature, but it also wishes that nature would vanish. [...]

The contradiction of capitalist accumulation is that increases in the social productivity are accompanied by a decrease in natural productivity due to robbery [... i]t is thus essential for capital to secure stable access to cheap resources, energy and food. [...]

The exploration of the earth and the invention of new technologies cannot repair the rift. The rift remains ‘irreparable’ in capitalism. This is because capital attempts to overcome rifts without recognizing its own absolute limits, which it cannot do. Instead, it simply attempts to relativize the absolute. This is what Marx meant when he wrote ‘every limit appears a barrier to overcome’ (Grundrisse: 408). Capital constantly invents new technologies, develops means of transportation, discovers new use-values and expands markets to overcome natural limits. [...]

Corresponding to the three dimensions of metabolic rifts, there are also three ways of shifting them. First, there is technological shift. Although Liebig warned about the collapse of European civilization due to robbery agriculture in the 19th century, his prediction apparently did not come true. This is largely thanks to Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, who invented the so-called Haber-Bosch process in 1906 that enabled the industrial mass production of ammonia (NH3) by fixing nitrogen from the air, and thus of chemical fertilizer to maintain soil fertility. Historically speaking, the problem of soil exhaustion due to a lack of inorganic substances was largely resolved thanks to this invention. Nevertheless, the Haber-Bosch process did not heal the rift but only shifted, generating other problems on a larger scale.

The production of NH3 uses a massive amount of natural gas as a source of hydrogen (H). In other words, it squanders another limited resource in order to produce ammonia as a remedy to soil exhaustion, but it is also quite energy intensive, producing a lot of carbon dioxide (CO2) (responsible for 1 per cent of the total carbon emission in the world). Furthermore, excessive applications of chemical fertilizer leach into the environment, causing eutrophication and red tide, while nitrogen oxide pollutes water. Overdependence on chemical fertilizer disrupts soil ecology, so that it results in soil erosion, low water- and nutrient-holding capacity, and increased vulnerability to diseases and insects. Consequently, more frequent irrigation, a larger amount of fertilizer and more powerful equipment become necessary, together with pesticides. This kind of industrial agriculture consumes not just water but large quantities of oil also, which makes agriculture a serious driver of climate change. [...]

[T]here remains a constant need to shift the rift under capitalism, which continues to bring about new problems. This contradiction becomes more discernible in considering the second type of shifting the metabolic rift – that is, spatial shift, which expands the antagonism of the city and the countryside to a global scale in favour of the Global North. Spatial shift creates externality by a geographic displacement of ecological burdens to another social group living somewhere else. Again, Marx discussed this issue in relation to soil exhaustion in core capitalist countries in the 19th century. On the coast of Peru there were small islands consisting of the excrement of seabirds called guano that had accumulated over many years to form ‘guano islands’. [...]

In the 19th century, guano became ‘necessary’ to sustain soil fertility in Europe. Millions of tons of guano were dug up and continuously exported to Europe, resulting in its rapid exhaustion. Extractivism was accompanied by the brutal oppression of Indigenous people and the severe exploitation of thousands of Chinese ‘c**lies’ working under cruel conditions. Ultimately, the exhaustion of guano reserves provoked the Guano War (1865–6) and the Saltpetre War (1879–84) in the battle for the remaining guano reserves. As John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark (2009) argue, such a solution in favour of the Global North resulted in ‘ecological imperialism’. Although ecological imperialism shifts the rift to the peripheries and makes its imminent violence invisible in the centre, the metabolic rift only deepens on a global scale through long-distance trade, and the nutrient cycle becomes even more severely disrupted.

The third dimension of metabolic shift is the temporal shift. The discrepancy between nature’s time and capital’s time does not immediately bring about an ecological disaster because nature possesses ‘elasticity’. Its limits are not static but modifiable to a great extent. Climate crisis is a representative case of this metabolic shift. Massive CO2 emissions due to the excessive usage of fossil fuels is an apparent cause of climate change, but the emission of greenhouse gas does not immediately crystallize as climate breakdown. Capital exploits the opportunities opened up by this time lag to secure more profits from previous investments in drills and pipelines. Since capital reflects the voice of current shareholders, but not that of future generations, the costs are shifted onto the latter. As a result, future generations suffer from consequences for which they are not responsible. Marx characterized such an attitude inherent to capitalist development with the slogan ‘Après moi le déluge!’ (Capital I: 381).

This time lag generated by a temporal shift also induces a hope that it would be possible to invent new epoch-making technologies to combat against the ecological crisis in the future. In fact, one may think that it is better to continue economic growth which promotes technological development, rather than over-reducing carbon dioxide emissions and adversely affecting the economy. However, even if new negative emission technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) are invented, it will take a long time for them to spread throughout society and replace the old ones. In the meantime, the environmental crisis will continue to worsen due to our current inaction. As a result, the expected effects of the new technology can be cancelled out.

Kohei Saito, Marx in the Anthropocene

[twinkubus]

Instead of improved productive efficiency being used to shorten the working week so we could enjoy growing and preparing more food for ourselves, companies profit from selling us fast food and ready-cooked meals. Deprived of the leisure and facilities to make our everyday journeys by foot or bike, we are co-opted into weekend 'health walks' (with Apps to monitor them) or persuaded to buy stationary cycling and treadmill-walking sessions in the gym. We might have longer holidays, in which we could travel more slowly and experience more genuine relaxation, but meanwhile the tourist and therapy industries provide profitable mini-breaks and stress relieving services. When products are advertised and sold on the basis of their authenticity and naturalness, the market promises to salve nostalgia for the very losses inflicted by its own advances into everyday life.

Kate Soper, Post-Growth Living

[harmonyhealinghub]

Lughnasa: The Festival of Transition Shaina Tranquilino August 1, 2024

As the sun reaches its zenith and summer begins its slow transition into autumn, many cultures around the world celebrate the ancient festival of Lughnasa, also known as Lammas. This festival, rooted deeply in Celtic tradition, marks a significant point in the agricultural calendar and symbolizes a period of transformation, gratitude, and community.

Origins and Significance

Lughnasa, celebrated on August 1st, is named after Lugh, a prominent deity in Celtic mythology associated with the sun, light, and skill. It is believed that the festival was originally dedicated to Lugh’s mother, Tailtiu, who was honoured for her contributions to agriculture. The name Lammas, derived from Old English “hlaf-mas” (loaf mass), reflects the Christian influence on the festival, focusing on the first harvest and the blessing of bread made from new grain.

Celebrating the Harvest

At its core, Lughnasa is a harvest festival. It is a time to give thanks for the abundance of the earth and to celebrate the fruits of labor. Traditionally, communities would come together to share the bounty of the harvest, with feasts featuring freshly harvested grains, fruits, and vegetables. Bread made from the new crop of wheat was a central symbol of this celebration, signifying both the sustenance provided by the land and the communal spirit of the festival.

Rituals and Traditions

Lughnasa is rich with rituals and customs that honour the changing of the seasons and the cycles of nature. Here are a few traditional practices associated with the festival:

Harvest Feasts: Preparing and sharing a meal made from the season's harvest is a cornerstone of Lughnasa celebrations. Dishes made with freshly harvested grains, fruits, and vegetables are enjoyed by family and friends, reflecting the abundance of the season.

Bonfires: Lighting bonfires is a common practice during Lughnasa. These fires symbolize the sun’s energy and warmth, and they serve as a way to honour the light that has nurtured the crops. Dancing around the bonfire is also a traditional activity, representing the joy and vitality of the harvest.

Games and Competitions: Historically, Lughnasa was a time for community gatherings and games. Athletic competitions, storytelling, and music were integral parts of the celebration, fostering a sense of unity and shared joy.

Nature Walks and Offerings: Spending time in nature and making offerings of gratitude to the land are practices associated with Lughnasa. People might leave small tokens or offerings at sacred sites or in natural settings as a way to honor the earth and express thanks for its bounty.

Modern Observances

In contemporary times, Lughnasa has experienced a revival as people seek to reconnect with ancient traditions and the rhythms of nature. Modern celebrations often blend traditional practices with new interpretations, reflecting a growing interest in sustainable living and community-building.

Many people today celebrate Lughnasa through gatherings that emphasize local and seasonal foods, and they may incorporate rituals that honor both the agricultural significance and the spiritual aspects of the festival. Community events, farmers’ markets, and harvest festivals often feature elements of Lughnasa, making it accessible to a broader audience.

The Spirit of Transition

Lughnasa is not just a festival of harvest; it is a celebration of transition. As the days gradually shorten and the first signs of autumn appear, Lughnasa reminds us of the cyclical nature of life and the importance of embracing change. It is a time to reflect on the past season, give thanks for what has been achieved, and prepare for the shifts that lie ahead.

By observing Lughnasa, we connect with an age-old rhythm that has guided humanity through the ages, reminding us of the ever-changing dance between light and dark, growth and rest. It is a celebration of life’s abundance and a testament to the enduring power of tradition and community.

As you prepare to celebrate Lughnasa, whether through traditional practices or modern interpretations, take a moment to appreciate the seasonal transition and the opportunities it brings for reflection, gratitude, and renewal.

[accountsend]

Maximizing Conversion Rates: Turning Leads into Loyal Clients

Article by Jonathan Bomser | CEO | AccountSend.com

In the realm of B2B sales, the journey from leads to loyal clients is a captivating narrative that blends strategy, empathy, and innovation. Within this guide, we uncover seven indispensable strategies that hold the key to skyrocketing your conversion rates. Join us as we traverse the path from lead generation to nurturing steadfast client relationships, all while delving into the invaluable insights gleaned from AccountSend.

DOWNLOAD THE CONVERSION RATES INFOGRAPHIC HERE

Peering into the Soul of Your Leads

At the heart of conversion success lies a profound understanding of your leads. It's a journey that transcends data, inviting you to explore the depths of their business aspirations, challenges, and dreams. Guiding you through this exploration is the meticulously crafted B2B contact database. This treasure trove of insights empowers you to paint a vivid portrait of your leads, allowing you to craft personalized sales strategies that resonate deeply with their unique needs.

Crafting Connections Through Personalization

Your leads aren't just entries in a sales log; they are stories yearning to be heard. Personalization is your brush, your tool to craft connections that linger. By immersing yourself in their narratives, addressing their pain points, and acknowledging their aspirations, you pave the way for genuine connections. These personalized interactions transcend transactional exchanges, laying the foundation for enduring relationships built on trust and mutual understanding.

Navigating the Terrain with Account-Based Marketing

In the sea of possibilities, precision becomes your guiding light. Enter account-based marketing (ABM), your compass in this vast expanse. ABM directs your focus towards the accounts with the greatest potential. It's the art of resource allocation, shortening sales cycles, and elevating conversion rates. With ABM, your efforts become laser-focused, nurturing connections that promise lasting value.

Value as a Prelude to the Sale

Value doesn't wait for a deal to be struck; it's a prelude that sets the stage. Share insights, offer guidance, and provide resources aligned with your lead's goals. This pre-sale value isn't just a gesture; it's a declaration of intent. By offering a taste of the value that awaits, you create a fertile ground for a productive sales journey.

Symphony of Follow-Up Strategy

A 'no' today is a 'not yet' in disguise. Enter the art of follow-up, your symphony of persistence. A well-designed follow-up strategy transforms initial rejection into eventual acceptance. A systematic approach ensures consistent touchpoints with your leads, maintaining your presence in their minds and eventually shifting hesitation into enthusiastic embrace.

Cultivating a Pristine Contact Canvas

In the digital era, a clean contact database is your foundation for success. Regular updates, purging outdated information, and ensuring accuracy are the pillars of a quality database. A pristine contact list enhances your outreach, elevating conversion rates by guaranteeing that your efforts hit the bullseye every time.

The Science of Measurement and Refinement

No journey towards excellence is complete without measuring the terrain. Continuously gauge your conversion rates and dissect the contributing factors. This analytical exploration becomes your guide to refining your lead generation and sales strategies. Let data illuminate your path, leading to informed decisions and perpetual enhancement.

Harmonizing Conversion Mastery

Elevating conversion rates is a symphony of strategic understanding, personalization, and value delivery. These seven strategies are the notes that compose this symphony, the keys to transforming leads into devoted clients. As you integrate these strategies into your sales narrative, witness the metamorphosis of your business into a realm where loyal clients fuel perpetual growth.

[mariacallous]

For the last three decades, the Chinese economy has resembled an impressionist painting: beautiful from afar, but a jumbled mess up close. China’s economic model has centered around investment-led growth made possible by the supply of cheap capital extracted through domestic financial repression, using a combination of policies—such as interest rate caps, capital controls, and restrictions on credit allocation directions and financial market entry—to channel capital into state-prioritized sectors. While this model has contributed to China’s rapid rise, it has also led to the entrenchment of structural issues that began to emerge well before President Xi Jinping assumed power in 2012. Instead of taking the chance for reform, though, Xi’s policies have only worsened these issues.

China faces three major structural challenges that expose it to the risk of economic stagnation akin to Japan’s “lost decades”: Escalating debt coincides with decelerating growth, sluggish household consumption lags overextended supply, and adverse demographic trends have blunted China’s edge in cheap but skilled young labor, which amplifies social welfare costs and causes housing market demand to dwindle. The inevitable reckoning of China’s structural challenges has been accelerated since Xi’s ascendence.

The fuse on this economic time bomb is steadily shortening. In recent months, critical economic indicators—from industrial profits and exports to home sales—have all recorded double-digit percentage declines. In July, while consumer prices rose globally, they fell in China, raising concerns that deflation could worsen the difficulties faced by heavily indebted Chinese companies. A convergence of idiosyncratic factors now threatens to ignite a crisis in the property and construction sector, which makes up nearly 30 percent of Chinese GDP. China Evergrande’s recently filed for bankruptcy. Coupled with the impending default of Country Garden, another major property developer, after missed bond payments this month, it has deepened the already profound sense of uncertainty and fear among the business community.

This economic uncertainty is further heightened by the Chinese Communist Party’s ever-shifting targets of anti-corruption and anti-espionage campaigns. Health care is the latest sector to fall under the gaze of authorities, even as the effects of previous campaigns against tech, private education, gaming, and finance still linger. In the background, the friction between China and the United States continues largely unabated. Private conversations among Chinese citizens, particularly the young, reveal an undercurrent of pessimism and unease. Among the contributing factors is the looming specter of military conflict with the West regarding the future of Taiwan. China’s one-child generation would shoulder the weight if such a conflict were to happen, an existential threat of unparalleled proportions.

Milton Friedman was partially correct when he famously stated that “[i]nflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” In China, the manifestation of economic deflation symptoms—even transitory—has been shaped by Xi’s departure from the reform and opening up policy and the return of expansive political, ideological, and geoeconomic aspirations reminiscent of the Mao Zedong era. We might dub the resulting phenomenon “Xi-flation,” deflation with Chinese characteristics. The cumulative policy shocks of the last five years have exacerbated, rather than quelled, the structural challenges that have been dragging—but not crashing—China’s growth.

The posture of China’s teetering-but-not-tumbling growth trajectory has long called for careful structural reform. The goal should be to squeeze out the property market bubble without bursting it, to alleviate income inequality without stifling entrepreneurship, and to foster fair competition without hurting productivity. The success of these reforms hinges on a calibrated policy orchestration. Instead, Xi’s policy has produced grandiose political rhetoric, such as “common prosperity” or “shared human destiny,” mixed with clumsy and misguided enforcement.

Economically, Xi has been a bull in a china shop. His economic policies have often shifted focus but always emphasize the party’s overarching control across nearly all dimensions of China’s economic and financial activity. Since 2017, foreign companies operating in China have organized lectures for employees to study the role of the party and Xi speeches. As of October 2022, 1,029 out of the 1,526 of the mainland-listed companies (more than two-thirds) whose shares can be traded by international investors in Hong Kong acknowledge “Xi Thought” in their corporate constitutions and have articles of association that formalize the role of an in-house party unit.

In fairness, Xi did not create China’s structural woes. However, the reform and opening up policy suffered a quiet, unheralded death as Chinese policy thinkers attempted to compensate for the absence of prudent economic strategy under Xi by ceaselessly leaping from one grand idea to the next under the banner of national rejuvenation.

For example, since December 2016, the phrase “houses are for living, not for speculation” has become the principle to curb the property sector. In 2017, the “thousand-year project” Xiong’an New Area was launched as a city of the future. In 2019, “establishing a new national system for innovation” entered the lexicon for state-led science and technology innovation. Since 2020, “common prosperity” has become the mantra behind which to launch antimonopoly and antitrust probes into China’s tech sector. And since November last year, when Xi suddenly reversed China’s zero-COVID policy, the new catchphrase has shifted to “consumption promotion.”

Xi-flationary policies have exacerbated China’s latent structural problems and rung up a steep tab. For instance, Xi’s regulatory crackdown on China’s leading tech companies wiped out more than $1 trillion in market value, a figure comparable to the GDP of the Netherlands. The zero-COVID policy incurred costs of at least 352 billion yuan ($51.6 billion) for Chinese provinces, almost twice the GDP of Iceland ($27.84 billion in 2022).

The financial cost of these policy missteps is not their worst aspect. The most profound cost of Xi-flation so far is an unprecedented run on confidence in the Chinese economy from within and without. Beijing’s old economic playbook has run out of pages when it comes to tackling this crisis. China cannot export its way out of today’s economic challenges or stimulate its way toward a full recovery without also addressing the underlying political cause. As China moves up global supply chains, foreign companies are increasingly looking for alternative countries to sources for inputs and locate production to ensure they do not fall on the wrong side of any lines drawn as part of Western policymakers’ drive to “de-risk” their reliance on China.

This is, in part, a belated reaction to the willingness of China under Xi to use economic coercion. Researchers from the International Cyber Policy Centre found that between 2020 and 2022, China resorted to economic coercion in 73 cases across 19 jurisdictions, a marked increase compared to China under Xi’s predecessors.

China’s waning comparative advantage is a long-term structural problem, but political and geopolitical factors drive the current run on confidence. As Xi continues to consolidate power, the once lucrative China premium will be further discounted due to the growing regulatory and geopolitical uncertainty. Chinese technocrats cannot fully address this run on confidence using only their limited economic toolbox, such as the People’s Bank of China’s use of the so-called precision-guided structural monetary tools to selectively provide credit for state-preferred sectors.

Xi’s global assertiveness has caused negative spillback for China’s economy. Amid China’s fraying ties with the West and multinationals hastening to diversify their supply chains, ordinary Chinese households are left to deal with mounting anxiety. They are economically less secure as a consequence of Xi’s zero-COVID policy, and they are increasingly concerned that geopolitical forces beyond their control have limited their individual futures. Xi’s commitment to reunite Taiwan with the mainland, by force if necessary, has created the perception among some in China that conflict is inevitable—the same as in the United States. This loss of confidence aggregates across hundreds of millions of Chinese households, underpinning an economic condition that James Kynge has characterized as a “psycho-political funk.”

An essential factor behind China’s economic success during the reform and opening up period was what economist John Maynard Keynes termed “animal spirits”—those emotional and psychological drivers that push people to spend, invest, and embrace risk. For decades, China not only benefited from the inflow of foreign direct investment and technology from the West, but also enjoyed a steady tailwind from the optimistic outlook of Western business leaders eager to capitalize on the globalization trend. When Western companies briefly reconsidered their involvement with China in the aftermath of the Tiananmen protests, Deng Xiaoping rescued the situation by embarking on his influential southern tour in 1992. During his tour, he the world of the party’s commitment to economic reform, stating, “It is fine to have no new ideas … as long as we do not do things to make people think we have changed the policy of reform and opening up.”

However, Xi’s policies have undone much of Deng’s legacy and upended China’s prior economic success formula. China’s appeal as a destination for both tourism and business has dimmed, and a growing number of the country’s elite look beyond the border for their future. If this trend continues, China may fall into the dreaded middle-income trap or face even graver risks such as a financial crisis. A financial crisis in China would have far greater consequences than any other previous emerging market crisis. The size of China’s economy and its level of integration dwarf that of South Korea in the late 1990s, when it was at the epicenter of the East Asian financial crisis.

The West has a genuine interest in preventing the economic downfall of China. Washington and Brussels must closely coordinate to ensure their de-risking policies send a clear message to Beijing on its intended goals and limits by drawing a bright red line around sectors with potential military dual use while clarifying in which circumstances cooperation is still encouraged. Otherwise, the West risks legitimizing Xi’s claims that economic containment is to blame for China’s economic woes, and that further self-sufficiency is the only antidote. The West must be careful to communicate that its policies are designed to avoid the global alienation of 1.4 billion Chinese people.

When the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meets this November in San Francisco, the sister city of Shanghai, China’s economy may be on considerably less sure footing than the United States for the first time in decades. That may prove to be an opportune time for both countries to repair the world’s most consequential bilateral relationship.

The Biden administration can take a page from the playbook of Otto von Bismarck: “Diplomacy is the art of building ladders to allow people to climb down gracefully.” A good start would be for the United States to lend a ladder this fall and help China clean out its gutters—if a Xi-led China is capable of accepting the help.

[beardedmrbean]

Five are the main priorities contained in Bulgaria's management program for the period from June 2023 to December 2024, adopted by the government today. The deadline specified in the announcement of the government press service means that the tasks are planned until the end of the mandate of the cabinet with Prime Minister Mariya Gabriel, after "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" and GERB agreed on a rotation of the Prime Minister 9 months after the election of the government of Nikolay Denkov on June 6.

The program is the result of an agreement reached between "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" and GERB-SDS. It contains specific activities of the government in fulfillment of the commitments for legislative initiatives agreed between the two coalitions supporting it before the formation of the cabinet.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov stated that the program is directly related to the state's budgets and without financial support, it will remain just a set of good intentions. He called on the leaders of the parties supporting the cabinet to correct "some wrong decisions" made yesterday in the parliamentary budget and finance committee. Boyko Borissov, Kiril Petkov and Hristo Ivanov have already committed themselves to corrections.

The five priorities in the program are:

1. Bulgaria's accession to the Schengen area by the end of 2023.

- The aim is to carry out all the necessary activities in order to meet the requirements of the European partners for the acceptance of the country in Schengen. The government plans to strengthen border control by creating an effective infrastructure and organization of work, with which Bulgaria will contribute to the general security of European borders. A set of new anti-corruption measures will be introduced and the security services will be reformed.

The abolition of the borders between Bulgaria and the neighboring EU countries will lead to a significant easing of traffic and a shortening of the time of stay at the borders, which will give an additional boost to tourism, trade and all other areas of cross-border business, the government states.

2. Joining the Eurozone from 1 January 2025.

- Bulgaria will work in close cooperation with the European institutions and partners in order to fulfill all the necessary conditions for the successful completion of the process. The cabinet will propose budgets for 2023 and 2024 with a 3 percent annual budget deficit. It will conduct a large-scale explanatory campaign about the benefits of the introduction of the single European currency, which aims to refute the disinformation spread and dispel the concerns of some of the Bulgarian citizens. In it, the government will defend the many benefits of the euro for citizens, businesses and the economy, such as the abolition of conversion fees; stimulation of European investments in Bulgaria and creation of more, better quality and better paid jobs; strengthening the competitiveness of Bulgarian enterprises; increasing price and economic stability and accelerating growth; facilitating and cheapening the trade of Bulgarian enterprises in the Eurozone and beyond; better integrated and therefore more efficient financial markets.

3. Controlling inflation.

- The government will take the necessary measures and reforms to stabilize the prices of goods and services and create a favorable economic environment for businesses and citizens. The Council of Ministers will support and encourage the development of innovation and industry as well as agriculture. It will strengthen control over the appropriate use of subsidies and against potential abuse of the provided financial resources.

4. Implementation of reforms and projects from the National Recovery and Sustainability Plan.

- The cabinet will take concrete actions, including through legislative initiatives, to ensure the effective implementation of the National Recovery and Sustainability Plan and the absorption of subsequent payments. The foundations will be laid for a green and digital transformation of the economy in the context of the ambitious goals of the European Green Deal. The government expects the implementation of the plan to restore the potential for growth of the economy, will develop and increase it, which in the long term will achieve the strategic goal of convergence of the Bulgarian economy and equalization of income levels in Bulgaria with those of Central Europe.

5. Improving the efficiency and transparency of municipal project management.

- The government is planning a targeted financial resource for municipal projects, which will allow municipalities to realize their priority initiatives for development and improvement of services for citizens. In order to guarantee maximum publicity and transparency in the expedient spending of the funds for the municipalities, a predictable and objective methodology for the evaluation of the projects will be developed.

[ashishaggarwalacubeventures]

What is the Internet of Things and how might it aid in the growth of startups?

IoT is essentially a network of interconnected devices and technology that makes it easier for them to communicate with the cloud. The number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices being used in business is rising quickly. By 2025, Gartner estimates that there will be about 25 billion IoT connections worldwide. IoT offers startups a number of advantages, including decreased operational costs, fresh consumer insights,  and chances to optimize business processes.IoT is essentially a network of interconnected  devices and technology that makes it easier for them to communicate with the cloud. The Internet of Things, according to Ashish Aggarwal, director of SpaceMantra, can enable companies to gather enormous volumes of consumer and product data, giving them insights into how products are utilised and can be adjusted to enhance the user experience.

 Companies that employ IoT to accelerate organisational modernization to shorten the time it  takes to market brandnew goods or services and boost ROI. As the gadgets' actionable data is  readily available, they help new firms develop more quickly and profitably.

Businesses can track, monitor, unearth, and analyse client data faster than ever before thanks  to IoT devices. Startups are able to foresee shifts or patterns in consumer behaviour. With the support of cuttingedge IoT technologies, personalization based on priorexperiences helps to improve the consumer experience.

IoT tools may help entrepreneurs collect, transmit, and analyse user personal data, enabling them to deliver a superior customer experience that engages people more deeply and fosters customer loyalty.  Because they provide realtime data, these devices are also costeffective because they assist firms in streamlining workflows and lowering operating expenses.

Security and privacy issues are a couple of the difficulties, accordingto Aggarwal. IoT devices / are evolving and becoming more widely used, making it challenging to maintain the security of the data they gather and communicate.  He advised businesses to make sure the data they acquire complieswith laws. However, the  deployment of IoT devices typically requiresa sizable time and money investment. In addition,  unless you employ a third party, implementing any new technology requires staff training in new capabilities.

[dangalante]

2022 Survey of US Holiday Spending

I surveyed my audience on LinkedIn about their holiday spending intent, method of purchase, types of purchase, and sentiment in the U.S. Consumer spending is always top of mind for marketers, sellers, and retailers. With inflation on the rise, consumers spend differently than when inflation is low.

I asked my audience four questions.

How has inflation impacted your holiday spending?

Which types of holiday gifts are you buying?

How did you buy your holiday gifts this season?

Did you use shoppable ads to make a purchase?

Below you can find the results of each survey question.

1.How has inflation impacted your holiday spending?

As you can see, 60% percent said they spent less during this holiday season. Consumers must see value in what they are buying. Brands need to create memorable experiences for consumers with their offerings.

2. Which types of holiday gifts are you buying?

This survey was split across different categories. Gift cards were top at 33 % percent of those surveyed saying they were buying gift cards and giving cash as a gift. Experiences and electronics were tied at 25 %. Media was in the lowest category at 17%. Across all of these categories, there are opportunities for brands to sell to consumers.

3. How did you buy your holiday gifts this season?

Based on the survey, 56% percent of consumers said they started their customer journey online; including purchases on a mobile device. Brands need to make an e-commerce experience seamless for customers. Most big box stores are creating an omnichannel buying experience; 31% percent of those surveyed stated that they made purchases online and in-store. Small businesses only received 11 %, followed by only in-store buying at 2%.

These findings suggest that small businesses need to create an e-commerce store to create an omnichannel experience for consumers, catering not just to what they want to buy but how they purchase. Small businesses need to show up where consumers make purchases.

4. Did you use shoppable ads to make a purchase?

75% of those surveyed said that they did not use a shoppable ad to make a purchase. Since late 2019, shoppable increased. Consumers can buy products directly from ads on search engines and many social media sites. This will shorten the customer journey.

Based on my research, my finding suggests:

1. Inflation has dampened consumer spending during the holiday season.

2. Brands need to provide value to consumers creating memorable experiences.

3. Businesses should serve consumers on the channels where they make purchases.

4. How consumers buy will continue to evolve.

5. With Shoppable Ads on the rise, the customer journey will be shorter. More purchases will occur during the time consumers search for products.

It will be interesting to see the consumer sentiment and the price of goods with the release of the CPI and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey due to be released this week.

How did inflation impact your spending during the holiday season? Share your thoughts.

If you want to share your opinion but didn't get the chance to vote, answer these questions in the comments.

How has inflation impacted your holiday spending?

Which types of holiday gifts are you buying?

How did you buy your holiday gifts this season?

Did you use shoppable ads to make a purchase?

Additional places to find my content and blog

WordPress: https://dangalante.me/

Tumblr: http://www.askdangalante.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/DanGalante

Medium https://medium.com/@DanGalante

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/trendsettingsm

Anchor https://anchor.fm/dangalante

About Me

I’m a Strategic Marketer with Field Sales, Sales Enablement, Content Creation, and, Classroom Teacher/Trainer skill sets using Marketing to drive Sales/Growth.

As a Marketer, I’ve worked with Start-Ups, a Political Campaign, and a Digital Marketing Conference.

I’m certified in Inbound Marketing with classes in Marketing, Product Management, Product Marketing, SEO, and SEM.

Before teaching, I was an Outside Sales and Marketing Rep. selling and marketing dental products to Dentists using consultative selling, trade show marketing, field marketing, and market research.

I publish Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today a blog covering industry events and trends.

I’m seeking a full-time role in

Inbound Marketing, Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, Product Marketing, CI, Demand Generation, Social Media Marketing,

Sales Enablement, Enablement, Sales Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Employer Branding, and Recruitment Marketing.

Open on title, industry, company, location, and level. Reach out on LinkedIn or at dan@dangalante.com to start a conversation.

[strangemusictriumph]

Biscuits Market - Forecast (2022 - 2027)

The Biscuits Market size is estimated to reach $129.1 billion by 2025 with a estimated CAGR of 4.9% during the forecast period 2020-2025. Biscuits are made of flour, sugar or salt, butter or vegetable shortening, and baking powder as a leavening agent. They are baked food item that is flour-based and used as a snack. These food products are available in different flavours, types, tastes, and textures. Biscuits are generally sweet in taste made from sugar or honey and some of their types are savoury or salty in taste. Biscuits are one of the most famous and preferred packaged snacks around the globe. They can be mixed along with a variety of ingredients, which include, nuts, chocolate flavour, Choco chips, sandwich fillings, which include cream-based fillings of fruit, chocolate, and jam fillings. 

Biscuits Market Report Coverage

The report: “Biscuits Market Forecast (2020-2025)”, by Industry ARC, covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the Biscuits Market. 

By Type: Crackers and Savory, Sweet Biscuits

By Packaging: Pouches/Packets, Jars, Boxes and Others

By Distribution Channel: Convenience Stores, Independent Bakery, Online Retail, Supermarket/ Hypermarket and Others

By Geography: North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World.

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Key Takeaways

Geographically, Asia Pacific holds the largest share in the global Biscuits market in 2019, owing to the increasing consumer demand in the region.

Increasing disposable income of consumers and changing living standards of the middle-class population across the globe is set to boost the global biscuits market growth positively.

Competition is very high in the market with virtually no entry barriers and almost 100% penetration of the product, which is set to increase the demand of the market for the forecast period 2020-2025.

By Type - Segment Analysis

Based on type, the global Biscuits market has Crackers & Savory and Sweet biscuits. The sweet biscuit segment accounted for the largest share of the global biscuits market in 2019. In sweet biscuits, the market for the filled biscuits is poised to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period 2020-2025. Sweet biscuits are consumed worldwide owing to their taste, energy content, and easy availability. The high nutrient content of sweet biscuits also makes it a preferred choice of consumers. The growing preference for ready to go snacking, along with easy accessibility for consumers through the advancing retail sector, is set to help the sweet biscuits market to grow in the forecast period 2020-2025.

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By Distribution Channel - Segment Analysis

Based on the distribution channel, the global Biscuits market has Convenience Stores, Independent bakeries, Online Channels, Supermarkets/ hypermarkets, and others. The supermarkets and hypermarkets segment accounts for the largest share of the market in 2019. The online retail segment is poised to register the highest CAGR of 4.99% during the forecast period 2020-2025. This is owing to online retailing provides more discounts and wider options to purchase. Besides, the online platform becomes popular owing to its doorstep delivery. 

Supermarkets and hypermarkets are self-help shops giving a wide variety of biscuits such as sweet biscuits, savory, crackers, filled or coated, and others. Supermarkets and hypermarkets offer extensive merchandise mix along with different brands of biscuits, placed under the same roof, which helped it to occupy more revenue share. 

By Geography - Segment Analysis

The global Biscuits Market by geography had the dominant share in Asia-Pacific, in terms of revenue and market share in 2019 owing to rising middle-class population coupled with increasing disposable income in developing countries of this region such as India and China. Besides, rising demand for biscuits as an alternative for bread, and confectioneries in this region, which is surging the global biscuits market in a positive way. Europe is set to generate the highest CAGR in the market during the forecast period 2020-2025. In North America, the market is poised to drive in the forecast period 2020-2025. This is owing to the rising consumption of sandwich biscuits, especially among the working-class population in U.S. Canada, in the North American region has been driving the regional market further. 

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Drivers – Biscuits Market

The Rising Demand for Healthy Cookie

Demand for biscuits witnessed to have a rising trend owing to the product innovations involved in the sector and the use of high-quality ingredients. Biscuits, which are available in forms like multiple grains, Ragi, Oats, and others, are grabbing the attention of the millennials who tend to stay fit with ready to-go food. In addition, bakery manufacturers attract customers with innovative packaging solutions, which is set to drive growth. 

Increasing Demand for “Ready to Go” Food 

The factors that are driving the growth of the biscuits market are increasing preference for convenience and snacking. Besides, demand for biscuits is increasing owing to the innovative packaging, new flavors, and addition of ingredients, shapes, and technologies.

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Challenges – Biscuits Market

The High cost of raw materials 

High raw material cost and growing tax burden on the industry is the challenge to look after for the biscuit market growth soon. Also, the shortage of food ingredients and labor are the factors that tend to be a challenge for the biscuit market.

Biscuits Industry outlook:

Product launches, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and geographical expansions are key strategies adopted by players in the Biscuits Market. Key companies of this market are Nestlé UK Ltd. Parle Products Pvt. Ltd, Kellogg Company, Britannia Industries Ltd., Burton's Foods Ltd, Lotus Bakeries NV, ITC, United Biscuits, Cadbury, Walkers Shortbread Ltd etc.

Acquisitions/Product Launches:

In Apr 2019 Barilla, an Italian food company has declared that it is set to begin a range of biscuits made completely of sustainable soft wheat. A division of the Buongrano line of Mulino Bianco, the product was introduced at the end of April. The biscuits were baked in the business's biggest biscuit factory, in Castiglione delle Stiviere, near Mantua, which manufactures 108,000 tonnes of biscuits per year.

In September 2018, Leading Food & Beverage Manufacturers, Mars Saudi Arabia, Kellogg's Arabia, and Nestle Middle East signed a voluntary pledge with the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) to reduce Sugar, Salt and Fat Content in their products. The companies also pledged to place clear nutritional labels on their products.

March 2016 - The FMCG giant ITC is focusing on tapping the niche market for health biscuits, which includes digestive biscuits. To compete with brands, like Britannia Nutri Choice, McVities Digestive, and Parle Simply Good, the company launched Sunfeast Farmlite digestive biscuits in India.

For more Food and Beverages related reports, please click here

[rajukumar8926]

Top Benefits of Implementing Cost Segregation in Hotel Facilities 

The hospitality industry, particularly hotels, operates in a highly competitive environment where managing costs is important for profitability. One effective strategy to maximize tax savings and improve cash flow is through cost segregation in hotel facilities. Cost segregation is a tax planning tool that identifies and reclassifies personal property assets to shorten the depreciation period, allowing hotel owners to accelerate deductions and reduce their tax liabilities. Here you will discuss the top benefits of implementing a cost segregation analysis for hotel, highlighting how it can significantly impact a hotel's financial health and operational efficiency. 

1. Accelerated Depreciation and Increased Cash Flow 

The primary advantage of a hotel cost segregation study is accelerated depreciation. By breaking down the components of a hotel facility into shorter-lived asset classes, such as fixtures, flooring, and specialty plumbing, owners can depreciate these assets over five, seven, or fifteen years instead of the standard 27.5 or 39 years for real property. This acceleration results in substantial tax savings, freeing up cash flow that can be reinvested in the hotel to enhance guest experience, expand services, or reduce debt. 

2. Significant Tax Savings 

Conducting a cost segregation study for hotels can lead to immediate and substantial tax savings. By categorizing and depreciating assets separately, hotel owners can claim higher depreciation deductions in the earlier years of ownership. This process reduces taxable income and results in lower tax payments. Moreover, it can be particularly beneficial when acquiring or renovating a hotel property, as the study helps maximize deductions by identifying all eligible assets for accelerated depreciation. 

3. Improved Return on Investment 

For hotel owners and investors, maximizing the return on investment (ROI) is an important objective. Implementing hotel cost segregation can improve ROI by improving the property's cash flow and reducing its taxable income. The additional cash generated from tax savings can be reinvested into the hotel for improvements, marketing efforts, or expansion, driving revenue growth and profitability. Over time, these investments can lead to a higher valuation of the property, further boosting the owner's ROI. 

4. Better Financial Planning and Management 

A thorough cost segregation analysis hotel provides detailed insights into a hotel's asset allocation and depreciation schedule, helping owners make informed financial planning and management decisions. Understanding the breakdown of assets allows hotel owners to plan for future capital expenditures, manage repairs and maintenance more effectively, and allocate resources where they are most needed. This data-driven approach to financial management ensures that the hotel operates more efficiently and remains competitive in the market. 

5. Benefit from Recent Tax Reforms 

With recent changes in tax laws, such as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in the United States, there are increased opportunities for hotel owners to benefit from hotel cost segregation study. The TCJA allows for 100% bonus depreciation on qualified assets, which means hotels can write off the full cost of certain assets in the year they are placed in service. This provision significantly improves the benefits of conducting a cost segregation study hotel, leading to even greater tax savings and financial advantages. 

Implementing cost segregation in hotel facilities offers numerous benefits, from accelerated depreciation and increased cash flow to improved financial planning and compliance with tax reforms. These advantages can significantly impact a hotel's profitability, making it a valuable tool for hotel owners and investors. For those looking to maximize the benefits of cost segregation, partnering with a specialized firm like Capstan Tax is essential. Capstan Tax provides comprehensive hotel cost segregation study services tailored to the unique needs of the hospitality industry. With their expertise, hotel owners can unlock significant tax savings and drive growth.  

Contact Capstan Tax for effective cost segregation! 

[thelandscapingemployeetrap]

12 Questions on How to Scale a Landscaping Business | Dan Platta Home Service CFO

In this episode of the Untrapped Podcast, Keith Kalfas interviews Dan Platta, the Home Service CFO and founder of Best Dan Bookkeeping. They discuss key topics such as managing chaos in business, the importance of having the right team, effective organizational strategies, and Dan's journey from the corporate world to entrepreneurship. The conversation touches on the significance of recruiting top talent, leveraging checklists for operational efficiency, and the biggest lessons learned from past mistakes. Dan also shares his vision for future ventures and insights on balancing business and personal life. Throughout the episode, actionable advice is provided for small business owners aiming to scale and improve their operations.

  "Find good mentors and learn from their mistakes"   Dan Platta

Topics Covered:

Revenue and Services: Dan's Business Insights

Organizational Strategies for Success

Recruiting the Best Employees

Top Influential Books

Overcoming Entrepreneurial Fears

Advice for New Entrepreneurs

Short-Term Goals and Business Philosophy

Customer-Centric Business Philosophy

The Importance of Zero Attrition

Big Hairy Audacious Goals

Overcoming Business Challenges

Lessons from Business Mistakes

The Value of Good Bookkeeping

Key Takeaways

Revenue Achievement and Service Diversification:

Dan Plata discusses achieving nearly $4 million in revenue, emphasizing the importance of offering diverse services such as window cleaning, pressure washing, maid services, bookkeeping, recruiting, and marketing.

Key takeaway: Diversification can lead to higher revenue, but managing multiple services requires robust organizational strategies.

Importance of Support Systems:

Dan highlights the critical role his wife plays in his success, even though she isn’t directly involved in the business.

Key takeaway: A strong personal support system can significantly boost business performance and personal well-being.

Organizational Strategies:

Dan stresses the importance of checklists and to-do lists to maintain accountability and ensure that employees stay on task.

Key takeaway: Simple organizational tools like digital checklists can streamline operations and prevent errors in repetitive tasks.

Recruitment and Quality of Employees:

Dan learned to recruit high-quality employees rather than hiring quickly to fill positions. By finding the best candidates in advance, he ensures that he can select from the top talent when needed.

Key takeaway: Continuous recruitment and having high standards for employee selection can improve service quality and business growth.

Influential Books:

Dan recommends "The E-Myth Revisited," "Peak Performance," and "Leadership and Self-Deception" as pivotal books that have impacted his business approach.

Key takeaway: Reading and learning from comprehensive resources can offer new perspectives and practical strategies for business improvement.

Facing and Overcoming Fears:

Dan reflects on his fear of leaving the corporate world to become an entrepreneur, but realized the risk was worth the learning experience.

Key takeaway: Overcoming initial fears and making calculated risks can lead to greater opportunities and personal growth.

Mentorship and Learning from Others:

Dan advises new entrepreneurs to find good mentors and learn from their mistakes to avoid common pitfalls.

Key takeaway: Leveraging the experiences of successful mentors can shorten the learning curve and provide valuable insights.

Prioritizing Customer and Employee Satisfaction:

Dan’s goal is to build a business driven by customer demand and employee satisfaction rather than solely focusing on financial targets.

Key takeaway: Focusing on creating value for customers and providing a great work environment for employees can lead to sustainable business growth and profitability.

Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG):

Dan's major life goal is to combine his passion for business with his love for outdoor activities by creating a mastermind group for business owners that includes outdoor adventures.

Key takeaway: Aligning personal passions with business goals can lead to a more fulfilling career.

Handling Mistakes:

Dan admits that growing his business too rapidly and spreading too thin were significant mistakes but valuable learning experiences.

Key takeaway: Learning from business missteps is crucial. Scaling should be done thoughtfully to avoid overextension and operational disarray.

Understanding and Leveraging Financial Data:

Dan emphasizes the importance of having impeccable bookkeeping to make better business decisions and ensure financial clarity.

Key takeaway: Accurate financial data helps in making informed decisions, which is essential for managing growth and ensuring long-term success.

  Connect with Dan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-platta-30736b31

Connect with Keith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas

  Resources and Websites: 

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇  Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS  How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Get Ballard: https://www.ballard-inc.com/

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

Build Your Website: https://durable.co/    Promo Code: keith30

Check out this episode!

[breekelly]

A Comprehensive Guide to URL Shortening: How It Works and Why You Need It

In the vast digital landscape, every click, every character, and every second counts. URL shortening has emerged as an essential tool in online marketing, social media, and general web usage, offering a way to transform long, unwieldy links into concise, easy-to-share URLs. But what exactly is URL shortening, and why should you care? In this guide, we’ll explore the ins and outs of URL shortening, how it works, the benefits, and the best tools available for your needs.

What is URL Shortening?

URL shortening is the process of converting a long web address into a shorter, more compact version that still directs users to the original destination. These shortened URLs are particularly useful in situations where space is limited, such as social media posts, emails, or printed materials.

How Does URL Shortening Work?

URL shortening relies on a technique called HTTP redirection. Here's how it works:

1. Short URL Creation: A long URL is entered into a URL shortening service, which generates a unique, shortened version.

2. Storage in a Database: The service stores both the original and shortened URLs in a database.

3. Redirection: When someone clicks on the short URL, the service looks it up in the database and redirects the user to the original long URL using a 301 (permanent) or 302 (temporary) HTTP redirect.

When Not to Use URL Shortening

While URL shortening is convenient, there are times when it may not be ideal:

Email Marketing: Shortened links in emails may be flagged as spam by certain email clients.

Sensitive Content: If you’re linking to sensitive or highly important content, a shortened URL may raise concerns about the legitimacy of the link.

The Future of URL Shortening

As social media platforms evolve and the digital landscape shifts, URL shortening will continue to play a vital role in online communication. With the growth of link tracking, custom branding, and analytics, these tools will become even more integrated into marketing strategies.

Conclusion

speedyshort.com simplifies link sharing, enhances click-through rates, and offers valuable analytics for marketers and web users alike. Whether you’re promoting products, sharing content on social media, or managing email campaigns, shortened URLs can help streamline your digital presence. By choosing the right service and implementing best practices, you can improve your online engagement and better manage your link strategy.

[docvuai]

How to Streamline Mortgage Operations with Template-Free Document Processing

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” — George Washington.

The same can be said about data these days. Today businesses have to transform with changes in the market dynamically and thus cannot afford to spend time extracting data and insights from unstructured bulk documents. Freedom from manual and time-consuming tasks such as document processing can give businesses the bandwidth to focus on their core business functions. Across industry verticals, technologies such as OCR are recognized to accelerate growth.

Being independent and liberal means that each data can have its characteristic format. While there are solutions to reduce manual efforts — the technology still requires human intervention to extract and process all the available data in prescribed formats, hence making it largely complicated

Template-based OCR: Time-consuming way to process documents.

Earlier document-processing workflows mirrored paper-based workflows. Document images were captured and stored digitally, but any processing such as data extraction and indexing remained manual. The next generation of solutions relied on templates to locate and extract required data. While this provided huge productivity gains, these types of applications worked well for structured documents like forms or semi-structured documents such as statements and invoices, where the required data elements remain in the exact location on the page. Though templates provide a high level of accuracy, the problem with this approach is that if the format of a document changes, a new template has to be created every time. Templates limit the scope of extracting valuable insights from data. The task of creating and maintaining templates for multiple document types is manual, time-consuming, and not scalable with the possibility of manual errors.

Template-Free OCR: A democratic solution to process documents.

Unlike the traditional template-based approach, template-free OCR understands the context of documents to optimize data extraction. The technology combines the traditional OCR with Deep Learning, computer vision and neural networks to scan and dynamically process data from the documents in structured or unstructured form. It identifies multiple document types in a multi-page document and automatically splits it into single pages along with classification. This speeds up the process and reduces continuous manual intervention, giving document processing freedom and independence from the clutches of template-based OCR. DocVu.AI can also accurately distinguish between real image detail and noise. The solution leverages noise reduction technology to eliminate noise and extract the required information.

In the context of the mortgage industry, Intelligent Document Processing Solutions leverage the template-free approach to expedite loan processing from end-to-end to shorten closing cycles with greater accuracy and cost efficiency. With AI/ML at its core, template-free OCR solutions accelerate the straight-through processing (STP) percentage through continuous learning.

The key advantages of the template-free approach are:

A higher degree of information accountability and visibility.

Improved responses of enterprises to customers.

Faster and better decision-making compared to paper-based workflows.

Reduction in costs.

Speedy extraction of unstructured data from documents.

Increased productivity and efficiency.

Better employee management hence better TAT and customer satisfaction.

Case Study — How Automating Document Processing proved beneficial for a large US bank providing residential mortgages.

A top bank in the US, offering residential mortgage services across 50 states, can have innumerable templates for some of their mortgage offerings. The template-based approach still made the process highly manual and the technology wasn’t scalable, thus limiting the scope of extracting insightful data and increasing the turnaround time for the customers. DocVu.AI with its speedy extraction of unstructured data from documents and democratized automation with its “Template-Free” approach increased the productivity and efficiency of the processing of the loans. As a result, the bank saved up to 53% in 6 months and had an annualized savings of 99.2%.

About DocVu.AI: Ushering Freedom from the Template-Based Approach.

DocVu.AI is a cloud-based open, robust, and enterprise-grade Intelligent Document Processing solution that improves quality, reduces manual effort, and shortens the closing cycle. Having processed over 10 million loans with over 350 different templates, DocVu.AI leverages the power of template-free OCR technology to increase STP percentage. Enhance your revenues by cutting up to 30% of the cost of processing every mortgage package by harnessing the power of DocVu.AI.

“We have more details that let you explore how DocVu.AI helps you to make your operations more efficient with the following article.”

[warehouses1234]

Warehouses for Rent in Hyderabad: Why MyHub Cloud Store Is the Perfect Solution

Finding an appropriate warehouse solution today is vital for those companies interested in managing storage, inventory, and distribution efficiently. Whether an e-commerce merchant is at the growth stage or a mega-scale enterprise, leasing warehouses is flexible, scalable, and cost-effective. If you are searching for warehouses for rent in Hyderabad, look no further than MyHub Cloud Store with innovative customized solutions to suit your requirements.

Here’s why:

1. Flexi-rental Plans Meeting Your Perfection MyHub Cloud Store gives businesses flexibility in scaling up or down depending on their needs; it offers different warehouse rental options and makes sure that companies do not get locked into long-term leases-an exercise on saving costs, especially for businesses going through seasonal fluctuations or organic growth patterns. Pay-as-you-use plans entitle you to pay just for the months or years needed, depending on how much you need.

2. A 100% SKU Visibility Enables Efficient Inventory Management One of the biggest headaches in warehousing for businesses is tracking of their inventory. MyHub Cloud Store eliminates this headache by giving 100% SKU visibility, allowing you to track your inventory in real-time. Such transparency assures that your stock is always in an account, reducing chances of overstocking or even stockouts. Businesses can also minimize waste due to the intelligent use of advanced inventory management systems to make efficient use of storage spaces.

3. Real Time Tracking and Advanced Technology Integration Manual warehouse activities are, however, a thing of the past in MyHub Cloud Store. It offers businesses the benefits of real-time tracking and seamless integration with WMS, which manages sophisticated warehouse management systems. This is easy to administer while providing the insights into stock movement, which enables businesses to make the right decisions on data. The use of technologies such as IoT and AI-driven software will make the operational process efficient while minimizing human error.

4. Strategically Located Warehouses in Hyderabad Hyderabad is a prime destination among India’s fastest-growing cities and the most significant logistics hub. Overall, myHub Cloud Store warehouses are placed strategically all over the city, addressing easy access to key commercial and transport areas. For that reason, this prime location allows businesses to reduce their average transit times and cut costs associated with transportation, thus shortening delivery times for customers.

5. On-Demand Delivery Services MyHub Cloud Store also offers business on-demand delivery services, so the merchandise will be picked and packed quickly to ship over to clients’ destinations. E-commerce will need this service highly fulfilled fast to meet customer expectations. MyHub Cloud Store, by offering delivery solutions, keeps small-scale businesses competitive in this ever-quickened market today.

6. Scalable Storage Solutions for Businesses of All Sizes Whether you just begin with your business, require only a small amount of storage space, or you are a large enterprise requiring great amounts of storage, MyHub Cloud Store has scalable storage for all sizes of businesses. Customized storage offers businesses easy scale-up or scale-down according to demand and, hence, if the business needs change, the cost for excess space is brought down.

7. Cost-effective and Hassle-Free Besides, one of the most significant advantages of renting a warehouse through MyHub Cloud Store is cost-efficiency. Warehouse rentals remove the enormous capital expenditures accumulated from building or purchasing storage facilities. Secondly, all maintenance, security, and operational costs are taken care of by MyHub Cloud Store, leaving businesses free to focus on growth instead of warehouse management.

8. Top-notch security and Safety No business wishes for unsafe and valuable store items. Ensuring safety is a critical function of any business. The MyHub Cloud Store secures your inventory with 24/7 surveillance, state-of-the-art security systems, and regular audits. A secure environment offered by MyHub Cloud Store can help businesses sleep sound at night knowing that their products are safer from theft, damage, or loss.

9. Eco-friendly warehousing Sustainability is the aim, so MyHub Cloud Store’s focus is fully centered on green warehousing. For example, energy-efficient lighting reduces energy consumption, and numerous waste-reduction practices are applied to these warehouses to minimize harmful impacts on the environment as much as possible. For business houses that wish to improve their CSR profiles, partnering with a warehouse company such as MyHub Cloud Store can be a strategic advantage. 10. Tailored Solutions for Specific Industry Requirements Every industry has peculiar warehousing needs, and MyHub Cloud Store is capable of understanding the needs as they offer tailored solutions that suit all sorts of requirements, like cold storage of perishable goods, temperature control, or specialized storage for fragile items. Their services ensure that your products are stored under optimum conditions, thereby upholding quality and value.

Conclusion Among warehouse rentals in Hyderabad, MyHub Cloud Store offers you the widest range of services that precisely meet the specific needs of a new generation of business. They provide very flexible rental plans, cutting-edge technology, and pledged services in the areas of security and sustainability to optimize every company’s storage and distribution operations.

We’re ready to take your storage management to the next level; call us today at MyHub Cloud Store to learn more about our warehouse rental services and how we can help your business grow.