The rate of failures on startup businesses varies from person to person. However, Scott Shane of Case Western Reserve University often has his data cited. He states that failure rates in one year are about 25 percent and 10-year failure is about 71 percent. What do these numbers mean? If four businesses begin in one year, one business is bound to fail in that first year. 71 percent of businesses currently open will be shut down in 10 years.

Understanding Entrepreneurship In Franchising

Since failure rates are high, it’s of no surprise that very few people will try their hand at it. Many people don’t know that a way to become a business owner is to start a franchise. Franchises have less of a chance of failing and are actually do well monetarily. Using the same 10-year study from above, nearly 62 percent of franchises are still in business, an extremely high figure.

Why Franchises Stay In Business

Why is it that franchises stay in businesses longer than a startup company? Franchises have a large quantity of advantages that novice entrepreneurs don’t have, which means the venture is less risky.

Five Advantages of Franchises

Advantage 1 – Training and Support

Franchise businesses will give new franchise owners plenty of training and support in the beginning. Franchisers get a fraction of the profits so it’s in the best interest to ensure that the spin-off franchises do well. Smaller franchises offer people consequential support.

Advantage 2 – Purchase Company Model, Not Just Name

The big reason franchises tend to last and thrive is that the business model is already working. It’s not just about the name or the brand; it’s the model itself that helps to make this franchise successful.

Advantage 3 – Bargaining Power

When you have a franchise, you have some bargaining power with your suppliers. Independent, new business owners don’t have this kind of power or luxury and must earn it, unlike a franchise.

Advantage 4 – Expert Support

When you get involved with a franchise, your business is not alone. If you ever have problems or questions then you seek out some advice. Whatever business franchise you go into, you’re bound to have hundreds of people you can turn to that would love to give you advice so that you succeed. Many larger franchises will also give individual training and support.

Advantage 5 – Well Capitalized

Most franchises are well capitalized, which makes them have a high survival rate. Most startup businesses don’t have this luxury. People who want to get involved with franchises usually have just enough requirements to buy into the business.

Procurement’s increasing importance is being driven by two economic changes:
Increasing competitive pressures are forcing companies to look at procurement as a means of helping boost the bottom line. CEOs are looking for areas to cut costs, and streamlining procurement processes is a viable solution.
A lot of companies are doing more outsourcing. This makes procurement decisions increasingly important to business vitality.

There are numerous ways an effective procurement strategy improves performance, including:
Eliminating maverick spending.
Streamlining operations.
Improving supplier relationships.
Increasing bargaining power with suppliers.
Strengthening supplier relationships.
Aligning purchasing decisions with corporate goals and objectives.

How Mature Are You?

Measuring an organization’s procurement maturity involves assessing how close it is to achieving each of the aforementioned results. There are four levels of maturity: novice, intermediate, advanced, and expert. There is no relationship between company size and procurement maturity. Companies of all sizes are at various stages in the development of their procurement functions.

Maturity Assessment Guide

1.Evaluate maverick spending in the IT department. Talk to supervisors and find out if unauthorized purchases are being made. If so, what kind of purchases? You may be shocked by the number of purchases occurring outside of formal procurement protocols. On the other hand, with no protocol in place, expect excessive amounts of maverick spending. Procurement maturity is typically characterized by the following levels of maverick spending:
oLevel 1: Significant maverick spending.
oLevel 2: Minimal maverick spending.
oLevel 3: Virtually no maverick spending.
oLevel 4: No maverick spending.

2.Examine your procurement processes and procedures. Find your written set of procedures detailing the procurement processes for your company. If there is no documentation, does your company follow repeatable procedures? Or does each purchase result in an ad-hoc patchwork of steps? Procurement maturity is typically characterized by the following levels of procurement procedures:
oLevel 1: No processes or procedures.
oLevel 2: Processes and procedures exist, but are not documented.
oLevel 3: Processes and procedures are documented and implemented.
oLevel 4: Major procurement decisions are determined by a multi-function team.

3.Evaluate your relationship with suppliers. Look beyond your internal procurement processes and focus on how well you know your suppliers. Typically, the more information you have about the people you do business with, the better the relationship. With no purchase information on hand, you cannot develop a partnership with suppliers and service providers. With proper information, you can evaluate and rank suppliers.
Your procurement maturity level relates to your supplier relationships as follows:
oLevel 1: No purchase information on record; need to ask suppliers for it.
oLevel 2: Use supplier information to evaluate price, quality, and delivery.
oLevel 3: Rank suppliers and develop strong relationships with select suppliers.
oLevel 4: A supplier’s percentage of business correlates with performance ranking.

4.Assess your bargaining power. Information also provides you with purchasing leverage. To what degree do you leverage information about suppliers to increase spending power? Do you coordinate purchases to increase leverage? Does your company possess strong negotiating skills? Your procurement maturity level is characterized by your ability to leverage spending power:
oLevel 1: Company spending power is not leveraged.
oLevel 2: Major purchases are negotiated and coordinated to increase leverage.
oLevel 3: All purchases are coordinated and leveraged.
oLevel 4: Supplier’s cost-reduction ideas are brought to your company first.

5.Determine procurement’s strategic alignment. Experienced buyers understand the overall corporate strategy and the procurement strategy. How many of your buying decisions are viewed as strategic decisions? Do you have a strategic plan in place? Procurement’s strategic alignment relates to maturity as follows:
oLevel 1: No strategic plan governing procurement.
oLevel 2: Although no strategic plan exists, purchases are strategically relevant.
oLevel 3: Virtually all purchases are aligned with corporate strategy.
oLevel 4: Perfect alignment with company goals and objectives.

6.Evaluate your buying experience. Do your buyers receive training? Do they understand the strategic relevance of buying decisions? Do they know how to apply cost accounting to a negotiation? For example, do they know the difference between direct and indirect costs, as well as overhead? Your procurement maturity level with respect to buying experience is characterized as follows:
oLevel 1: Limited buying experience; no training.
oLevel 2: Buyer training program is in place.
oLevel 3 & 4: Buyers understand strategic buying and the importance of cost.

In Summary

A strategic approach to IT procurement can help cut costs and improve efficiencies. The first step to taking a strategic approach to IT procurement strategy is assessing your current procurement maturity.

Indeed, if that doesn’t throw a giant bull in the proverbial China shop, I don’t know what would. So, let’s begin this debate shall we? Not long ago, a pro-union, pro-labor, and socialist leaning individual from a Middle Eastern Nation and I (me being a capitalist) got into a heated debate over the how capitalism worked. My antagonist was under the belief that workers and labor should have equal say in the company no matter what, and he stated;

“I believe in Central Bargaining among union and employers also.”

Okay, but if the workers are allowed to walk out and strike, the company should be allowed to tell them to never come back and hire a new batch of people too. Are you okay with the responsibility on the union side of things? Most people aren’t thus, there is no real negotiation, just union extortion, threats, etc. And if a union walks out and hurts the business, the owner should be allowed to deduct the pay from the workers for lost profits, if the workers do come back ever.

Therefore I ask the question, why do we have such lop-sided laws in the nation, and why are labor unions so likely to use strong-arm tactics to bully their way in negotiations? We need new labor laws in this country that allow for greater competition for employment, after all, if everyone wants to enjoy the fruits and abundance of capitalism, lets’ make it a competitive endeavor all the way around. Please consider all this.

This article looks at a methodology called the Porter’s Five Forces Analysis. In his book Competitive Strategy, Harvard professor Michael Porter describes five forces affecting the profitability of companies. These are the five forces he noted:

Intensity of rivalry amongst existing competitors
Threat of entry by new competitors
Pressure from substitute products
Bargaining power of buyers (customers)
Bargaining power of suppliers

These five forces, taken together, give us insight into a company’s competitive position, and its profitability.

Rivals

Rivals are competitors within an industry. Rivalry in the industry can be weak, with few competitors that don’t compete very aggressively. Or it can be intense, with many competitors fighting in a cut-throat environment.

Factors affecting the intensity of rivalry are:

Number of firms – more firms will lead to increased competition.
Fixed costs – with high fixed costs as a percentage of total cost, companies must sell more products to cover those costs, increasing market competition.
Product differentiation – Products that are relatively the same will compete based on price. Brand identification can reduce rivalry.

New Entrants

One of the defining characteristics of competitive advantage is the industry’s barrier to entry. Industries with high barriers to entry are usually too expensive for new firms to enter. Industries with low barriers to entry, are relatively cheap for new firms to enter.

The threat of new entrants rises as the barrier to entry is reduced in a marketplace. As more firms enter a market, you will see rivalry increase, and profitability will fall (theoretically) to the point where there is no incentive for new firms to enter the industry.

Here are some common barriers to entry:

Patents – patented technology can be a huge barrier preventing other firms from joining the market.
High cost of entry – the more it will cost to get started in an industry, the higher the barrier to entry.
Brand loyalty – when brand loyalty is strong within an industry, it can be difficult and expensive to enter the market with a new product.

Substitute Products

This is probably the most overlooked, and therefore most damaging, element of strategic decision making. It’s imperative that business owners (us) not only look at what the company’s direct competitors are doing, but what other types of products people could buy instead.

When switching costs (the costs a customer incurs to switch to a new product) are low the threat of substitutes is high. As is the case when dealing with new entrants, companies may aggressively price their products to keep people from switching. When the threat of substitutes is high, profit margins will tend to be low.

One of these five forces is the bargaining power of your suppliers. You will find that strong suppliers can reduce the level of profitability in your industry.

In this article you will learn how you can analyse the bargaining power of suppliers in your industry.

Why analyse the Bargaining Power of Your Suppliers?
An analysis of the bargaining power of suppliers is completed to identify how much power your suppliers have in your business relationship.

If you have a powerful supplier you will find that they have a lot of influence over your profitability, as they may choose to raise prices, reduce quality or reduce service without fear of consequence.

As the bargaining power of your suppliers increases the profitability in your industry tends to decrease. However, supplier power can vary from season to season and at different stages of the economic cycle.

How do you Analyse the Bargaining Power of your Suppliers?

You can complete this stage of your analysis relatively easily, by answering a number of generic analysis questions about the nature of your relationship with your suppliers. The common analysis questions that you are likely to ask are as follows

Are your supplier’s products generic commodity items or are they able to differentiate their products? To answer this question you need to consider if there are any valued, unique and tangible product differences that exist only in your supplier’s products. A supplier whose product or service is unique or has special attributes that you desire restricts your ability to switch to another supplier.
Will you incur any costs to switch to another supplier? When answering this question consider maintenance spares, unique tools required and the costs of drawing up a new contract incurred by you to switch to another or a new supplier. You should also consider your time investment and the risk of the unknown that comes with a new supplier. You will find that any cost associated with changing supplier generally reduces the frequency that the businesses will change suppliers.
Can you substitute your supplier’s products for an alternative product that your supplier does not provide? When answering this question also consider the switching costs of the alternative product.
How many suppliers are there compared to the number of buyers? When answering this question you can normally consider the market share of the top four suppliers to your industry. The greater the market share of the top four suppliers, the greater their power. However, you also need to consider how many suppliers there are in total compared to buyers. If there are far more buyers than suppliers then your supplier has the marketing power, as the ratio approaches 1:1 the buyer power increases. If you have more suppliers than buyers then the buyer has the power.
How important is the volume of sales to your supplier? When answering this question consider the importance of your purchases to the supplier, can they scale back production if you shift your purchases to another supplier. If demand for a product is less than the suppliers to your industries total capacity and it is hard to scale back production then the higher volume buyers will have the bargaining power. If demand exceeds production capacity then the suppliers to your industry will have an increased bargaining power. Note: Watch for economic changes that will shift the bargaining power between supplier and buyer.
What percentage of your annual expenses do you spend with each supplier? When answering this question consider the value to be derived from entering into price negotiations with each supplier. You will find that the greatest value comes from directing your negotiation effort towards the suppliers who represent the largest spend for your industry. Some companies insist on entering into competitive tender for any category of product over a set value, say $100,000.
How important is your supplier’s product to your product or service? When answering this question consider the role of your suppliers product on the cost of your product (or service) and the role of your suppliers product in the market differentiation of your product. When answering this question consider if your business is successful because of a quality that is inherent in your supplier’s product, if so your supplier will have the negotiating power.
Is there a threat of forward integration? When answering this question consider if there is a risk that one of the suppliers to your industry will choose to become a competitor of yours, either by establishing a business like yours or buying one of your competitors. Now, you will have all of the information that you need to complete an analysis of the bargaining power of the suppliers to your industry.

Fair Trade is an attempt to reverse the process of exploitation within the global marketplace. Many producers in developing nations are unaware of their rights for fair and liveable wages. In developing nations, severe poverty has a profound effect on one’s outlook. Any employment, even one that is exploitative and unsustainable, is welcomed over the absence of any work to support oneself. Therefore, many people growing up in these communities feel powerless to complain about an employment opportunity. Yet, a function of Fair Trade requires buyers to educate producers about their rights to “fair pay”. This doesn’t open the gates for factory workers to demand salaries that can buy them the latest sports car or most expensive designer clothing. However, at the very least being able to purchase adequate nutritious food and basic over-the-counter medicine for a child with a minor illness should be a human right for everyone who works. Moreover, doesn’t it seem contradictory to purchase a product sold in the U.S. by an employee who is legally granted a minimum wage if the same product was initially produced by an underpaid exploited worker abroad?

Non-fair trade products have a lower currency price. Our nation has become accustomed to rock-bottom prices and extraordinary deals but at what price does this have on our concept of humanity? When cheaper products at your local Wal-Mart result in thousands of underpaid workers in a foreign land who do not earn enough to provide meals for their families, adequate medical care, and basic education for their dependents how can we assess the true cost of these purchases as inexpensive.

Shopping Fair Trade puts you in an active role in helping to mend the disparity between the developing world and our own. Paying workers in developing nations livable wages provides a more meaningful base for development as manufacturers and producers are able to provide basic necessities for the next generation. There is also a lasting impact of empowering Fair Trade producers in these communities to hold themselves and the products they make to higher standards which result in a better finished piece. If you’d like more information or have comments on the issue of Fair Trade please communicate them with our growing community.

Well, it’s not that simple. For a start, getting vacation rentals owners to pay for a listing on your site is not that easy, and secondly, if you expect to keep them, you will need to generate enquiries and bookings, which only come as a result of spending money, time and effort marketing your “vacation rental by owner” site.

Compare Owner Holiday Rentals (http://www.compareownerholidayrentals.com) recently decided to take an analytical look at the business of running a “Vacation Rental by Owner” site.

Some of you may be familiar with Michael Porter’s famous framework for analysing the attractiveness of an industry: based upon Porter’s model, you can predict how profitable a particular industry is likely to be in the long term. We have used this model to analyse the attractiveness of the business of running a “vacation rentals by owner” site.

Porter’s model says that there are 5 factors which influence the level of competitive rivalry, and hence the relative profitability, of an industry. These are:

1. The threat of entry by new competitors.

2. The intensity of rivalry among existing competitors.

3. Pressure from substitute products.

4. The bargaining power of buyers.

5. The bargaining power of suppliers.

These factors can either have a positive or negative effect on the long term profitability of an industry. Let’s take each of these in turn and see how they can be applied to the business of running a “Vacation Rentals by Owner” site.

1. The Threat of Entry by New Competitors: As already indicated, there are new competitors entering the “vacation rentals by owner” business on an almost weekly basis. The main reason for this is that the “barriers to entry” are so low: anyone with some IT skills can quickly build and publish a site, with the only cost being their time and some hosting charges. These low “barriers to entry” and the presence of so many new competitors are a negative for the profitability of the industry.

2. The Intensity of Rivalry among Existing Competitors: Free trials, free listings, reduced prices: all of these are indications of the increasing level of rivalry among the existing sites. Many of the new “vacation rental by owner” sites offer the first 6 or 12 months free of charge. Although some of the established “vacation rental by owner” sites have tried to hold the line on pricing and special offers, the indications are that they are finding it hard to hold their market share. Again, the level of rivalry is a negative for the industry profitability.

3. Pressure from Substitute Products: By “substitute “products, we will restrict ourselves to other ways that vacation rentals owners can choose to market their properties. Hence, this includes newspaper / magazine advertising (a medium in declining usage), using rentals agencies (still highly used, particularly in Europe) and marketing via the Owner’s own website (which seems to be increasing, particularly with the advent of Google Ads). All the evidence suggests that more owners are using the internet for advertising their vacations rentals; even the rental agencies now heavily use “Vacation Rentals by Owner” sites for marketing their properties. Also, although there are exceptions, using the commercial “Vacation Rentals by Owner” sites is very much more effective than using a personal site. Hence, the pressure from substitutes is relatively low, the industry is growing and this is a positive for the industry profitability.

4. The Bargaining Power of Buyers: Largely because there are so many options, including free trials and special offers, buyers (owners) have a lot of power when deciding where to list their properties. Also, the cost of switching to a different “vacation rental by owner” site is relatively low. Most owner’s review their advertising on an annual basis, based upon the results (enquiries, bookings) that they have received. “Vacation rental by Owner” sites that fail to produce results are not able to persuade owners to renew. Many new sites that start off by offering free trials fail to turn these into paying customers because they have not been able to attract renters in sufficient numbers to generate rental bookings. Hence, the bargaining power of buyers (owners) is a negative for the industry profitability.

5. The Bargaining Power of Suppliers : In the context of running a “Vacation Rentals by Owner” site, the main services that site owners buy are “hosting” ( which is cheap and plentiful) and marketing/ advertising ( which is plentiful, but not that cheap). Since hosting is relatively unimportant, let’s focus on marketing/ advertising. As more and more “vacation rental by owner” sites come online, getting good results on search engines such as Google is getting harder and harder. Hence, “Vacation Rentals by Owner” sites are experiencing the need to invest more in targeted marketing and advertising in order to attract renters to their sites. This eats into margins and is affecting the profitability of the business. Hence, although previously neutral, the bargaining power of suppliers is increasingly a negative for the industry profitability.

So, with 4 out of 5 factors being negative, does that mean that this industry is so unattractive that it is impossible to make money running a “Vacation Rentals by Owner” site?

Not necessarily, although undoubtedly it is getting tougher. In particular, smaller “me-too” vacation rentals by owner sites are unlikely to be able to be profitable enough to stay around for the long term, although new ones will probably continue to enter the market, start off by offering extended free trials, stay in the market for a couple of years and then fold.

However, there are probably two ways you can build and maintain a profitable business in this industry.

Firstly, some large “vacation rental by owner” sites will achieve sufficient scale (possibly through acquisition) to use their size to generate competitive advantage. These sites will have the critical mass of owners and visitors to be economically viable. As evidenced by the recent acquisitions that the WVR Group have made, it’s likely that some of the better smaller “vacation rental by owner” sites will get absorbed into such larger entities. Currently, VRBO and the WVR Group, (which owns a1vacations, Greatrentals, Cyberrentals and Holiday-Rentals amongst others) are the two 800 pound gorillas in the industry. Expect further consolidation to happen in the coming years.

(1) Strategic Risk
(2) Operational Risk
(3) Political Risk
(4) Country Risk
(5) Technological Risk
(6) Environmental Risk
(7) Economic Risk
(8) Financial Risk
(9) Terrorism Risk

Strategic Risk: The ability of a firm to make a strategic decision in order to respond to the forces that are a source of risk. These forces also impact the competiveness of a firm. Porter defines them as: threat of new entrants in the industry, threat of substitute goods and services, intensity of competition within the industry, bargaining power of suppliers, and bargaining power of consumers.

Operational Risk: This is caused by the assets and financial capital that aid in the day-to-day business operations. The breakdown of machineries, supply and demand of the resources and products, shortfall of the goods and services, lack of perfect logistic and inventory will lead to inefficiency of production. By controlling costs, unnecessary waste will be reduced, and the process improvement may enhance the lead-time, reduce variance and contribute to efficiency in globalization.

Political Risk: The political actions and instability may make it difficult for companies to operate efficiently in these countries due to negative publicity and impact created by individuals in the top government. A firm cannot effectively operate to its full capacity in order to maximize profit in such an unstable country’s political turbulence. A new and hostile government may replace the friendly one, and hence expropriate foreign assets.

Country Risk: The culture or the instability of a country may create risks that may make it difficult for multinational companies to operate safely, effectively, and efficiently. Some of the country risks come from the governments’ policies, economic conditions, security factors, and political conditions. Solving one of these problems without all of the problems (aggregate) together will not be enough in mitigating the country risk.

Technological Risk: Lack of security in electronic transactions, the cost of developing new technology, and the fact that these new technology may fail, and when all of these are coupled with the outdated existing technology, the result may create a dangerous effect in doing business in the international arena.

Environmental Risk: Air, water, and environmental pollution may affect the health of the citizens, and lead to public outcry of the citizens. These problems may also lead to damaging the reputation of the companies that do business in that area.

Economic Risk: This comes from the inability of a country to meet its financial obligations. The changing of foreign-investment or/and domestic fiscal or monetary policies. The effect of exchange-rate and interest rate make it difficult to conduct international business.

Financial Risk: This area is affected by the currency exchange rate, government flexibility in allowing the firms to repatriate profits or funds outside the country. The devaluation and inflation will also impact the firm’s ability to operate at an efficient capacity and still be stable. Most countries make it difficult for foreign firms to repatriate funds thus forcing these firms to invest its funds at a less optimal level. Sometimes, firms’ assets are confiscated and that contributes to financial losses.

Terrorism Risk: These are attacks that may stem from lack of hope; confidence; differences in culture and religious philosophy, and/or merely hate of companies by citizens of host countries. It leads to potential hostile attitudes, sabotage of foreign companies and/or kidnapping of the employers and employees. Such frustrating situations make it difficult to operate in these countries.

Mistake #1: Looking at Only One Place

When you are car shopping you often get quotes from different dealerships. You can do the same thing for your business property. Getting a “Request for Proposal” is a great way to create competition. Put down all the things you want from the property and start asking for bids. The more competition you create the better the offers will be. There is no flexibility from the owner when they are your only option.

Mistake #2: Overlooking Important Information in the Lease

This might seem like a no-brainer, but there are a lot of businesses who don’t notice rent increase clauses in the lease. One of them is a CPI (customer price index) clause. What this means is that as your business grows, the property owner has the right to increase the rent on you. While there may be no way to avoid this altogether, you can work it out so that they hold off increasing it until the business is stable and healthy. Ask for a two to three year rent control.

Mistake #3: Forgetting About Lease Incentives

Many business owners get enamored with the space and forget to use their leasing as bargaining power. Asking the property owner about leasing incentives is a great way to get free rent or reduced rent for a certain period. Often times, the property owner has previously listed or advertised incentives. Hold them to those promises.

Mistake #4: Ignoring Room for Improvements

No matter what the property is, one of the biggest conflicts between the tenant and the property owner is over improvements to the property. When you sign a lease, make sure the lease language is very clear on the amount of improvements you can and can’t make. The best idea is to have language in place that allows you to make improvements cosmetically and up to a certain dollar amount without the property owner’s approval.

Mistake #5: Relocation Ruckus

If you rent in an office building, your property owner may have to move you at some point. However, just because they may have to move you to another part of the building doesn’t mean you should be punished for it. Many renters make the mistake of not getting the cost of the move covered, or not ensuring that the place they move to is the same size or the same quality. Make sure your lease agreement promises you fair and financially acceptable relocation.

Fair Trade is an attempt to reverse the process of exploitation within the global marketplace. Many producers in developing nations are unaware of their rights for fair and liveable wages. In developing nations, severe poverty has a profound effect on one’s outlook. Any employment, even one that is exploitative and unsustainable, is welcomed over the absence of any work to support oneself. Therefore, many people growing up in these communities feel powerless to complain about an employment opportunity. Yet, a function of Fair Trade requires buyers to educate producers about their rights to “fair pay”. This doesn’t open the gates for factory workers to demand salaries that can buy them the latest sports car or most expensive designer clothing. However, at the very least being able to purchase adequate nutritious food and basic over-the-counter medicine for a child with a minor illness should be a human right for everyone who works. Moreover, doesn’t it seem contradictory to purchase a product sold in the U.S. by an employee who is legally granted a minimum wage if the same product was initially produced by an underpaid exploited worker abroad?

Non-fair trade products have a lower currency price. Our nation has become accustomed to rock-bottom prices and extraordinary deals but at what price does this have on our concept of humanity? When cheaper products at your local Wal-Mart result in thousands of underpaid workers in a foreign land who do not earn enough to provide meals for their families, adequate medical care, and basic education for their dependents how can we assess the true cost of these purchases as inexpensive.

Shopping Fair Trade puts you in an active role in helping to mend the disparity between the developing world and our own. Paying workers in developing nations livable wages provides a more meaningful base for development as manufacturers and producers are able to provide basic necessities for the next generation. There is also a lasting impact of empowering Fair Trade producers in these communities to hold themselves and the products they make to higher standards which result in a better finished piece. If you’d like more information or have comments on the issue of Fair Trade please communicate them with our growing community.