In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, small businesses face a unique set of challenges, from unpredictable market shifts to intense competition and ever-changing customer expectations. The traditional ways of operating are simply not enough to guarantee long-term survival, let alone prosperity. To not only endure but truly thrive, small businesses must proactively adapt and adopt strategies that build resilience and foster continuous growth. This isn’t just about surviving; it’s about setting your business on an irreversible trajectory towards success, ensuring it remains robust and relevant for years to come. The concept of future-proofing, once reserved for large enterprises, is now a critical imperative for every entrepreneur aiming for lasting impact.
Embracing forward-thinking solutions is no longer an option but a necessity for any small business owner who understands the value of foresight. One such pivotal solution, often perceived as complex or costly, is Customer Relationship Management (CRM). While the idea of implementing a comprehensive CRM system might initially seem daunting, especially for those operating with limited resources, the truth is that modern CRM platforms are designed with scalability and accessibility in mind. They offer powerful tools that can transform how a small business interacts with its customers, manages its operations, and strategizes for growth. The crucial first step in unlocking these benefits, without incurring significant upfront investment, lies in exploring the numerous opportunities presented by a free CRM trial access, which provides a risk-free environment to discover its transformative potential.
Navigating the Digital Tides: Why Small Businesses Must Adapt for Longevity
The digital revolution has fundamentally reshaped the commercial world, creating both unprecedented opportunities and significant pressures for small businesses. Customers are now more informed, more connected, and expect seamless, personalized experiences across all touchpoints. Businesses that fail to meet these evolving expectations risk falling behind, losing market share to more agile and customer-centric competitors. Furthermore, the pace of technological change shows no signs of slowing, meaning that yesterday’s cutting-edge solutions can quickly become obsolete. This constant flux demands a strategic approach to technology adoption, one that emphasizes adaptability and continuous improvement rather than static reliance on outdated systems.
Beyond customer expectations, small businesses are also grappling with the need for enhanced operational efficiency. Manual processes, disparate data sources, and fragmented communication can cripple productivity, stifle innovation, and lead to missed opportunities. The ability to streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and gain a holistic view of business operations is no longer a luxury but a fundamental requirement for optimal performance. This drive for efficiency is intrinsically linked to future-proofing, as it allows businesses to scale more effectively, respond to market changes with greater agility, and ultimately, free up valuable resources that can be redirected towards growth initiatives and strategic planning.
The Core of Resilience: Understanding Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for Small Businesses
At its heart, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is much more than just a software tool; it’s a comprehensive strategy for managing all interactions and relationships with customers and potential customers. The goal is simple yet profound: to improve business relationships to help businesses grow. A CRM system helps companies stay connected to customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability. For a small business, where every customer interaction is vital and every resource precious, CRM takes on an even greater significance, acting as a centralized hub for all customer-related data and activities. It transforms scattered information into actionable insights, empowering businesses to make more informed decisions and cultivate stronger, more enduring customer bonds.
Historically, CRM was often perceived as a solution exclusively tailored for large corporations with extensive sales teams and complex organizational structures. This perception, however, has become increasingly outdated. Modern CRM platforms are highly scalable and flexible, with many providers offering specialized versions or modules designed specifically to meet the unique needs and budget constraints of small businesses. These solutions distill the powerful capabilities of enterprise-level CRM into an intuitive, accessible format, allowing even the smallest of teams to leverage sophisticated customer management tools. By centralizing customer data, from initial contact to post-sale support, CRM ensures that every member of your team has access to the information they need to provide exceptional service and foster loyalty, which is paramount when you want to Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access.
Beyond Basic Contact Management: How CRM Transforms Operational Efficiency
Many small businesses begin with rudimentary contact management systems, perhaps a spreadsheet or a simple address book, to keep track of their customer base. While these methods can suffice in the very early stages, they quickly become inefficient and prone to errors as the business grows. A true CRM system goes far beyond merely storing names and numbers; it acts as a dynamic repository for every interaction, preference, purchase history, and communication with a customer. This comprehensive view eliminates information silos, ensuring that everyone in your organization, from sales to marketing to customer service, is working from the same accurate and up-to-date data. The result is a more cohesive and professional customer experience, where interactions are consistent and well-informed, rather than disjointed and repetitive.
Furthermore, a well-implemented CRM solution significantly enhances operational efficiency through automation. Repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails, updating contact records, scheduling appointments, or assigning leads, can be automated, freeing up valuable time for your team to focus on more strategic, high-value activities. This automation not only boosts productivity but also reduces the likelihood of human error, ensuring that critical processes are executed consistently and accurately. By streamlining these daily operations, CRM allows small businesses to do more with less, optimizing their existing resources and paving the way for scalable growth without the need for a disproportionate increase in headcount. This efficiency is a cornerstone of any strategy to Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access.
Building Customer Loyalty: The Heartbeat of a Future-Proof Business
In an increasingly competitive marketplace, customer acquisition costs continue to rise, making customer retention more critical than ever before. Loyal customers are not just repeat purchasers; they are also powerful advocates for your brand, generating valuable word-of-mouth referrals and providing essential feedback. Building and nurturing these relationships is the true heartbeat of a future-proof small business. CRM platforms provide the tools necessary to cultivate deep, meaningful connections with your customer base by enabling personalized interactions and proactive engagement. It allows you to understand individual customer needs and preferences at a granular level, moving beyond generic communications to deliver tailored experiences that resonate deeply.
With a CRM system, you can track customer journeys, identify key milestones, and anticipate future needs or potential issues before they escalate. This proactive approach to customer service and engagement demonstrates that you value your customers, fostering a sense of trust and appreciation. For example, if a customer frequently purchases a specific product, your CRM can flag this, allowing you to offer relevant promotions or complementary items. If a service issue arises, the CRM provides a complete history of interactions, enabling your support team to resolve the problem swiftly and efficiently, often turning a potentially negative experience into a positive one. This focus on personalized attention and responsive service is fundamental to securing customer loyalty and ensuring your business’s long-term viability, a critical outcome when you Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access.
Supercharging Sales and Marketing: Unlocking Growth Potential with CRM
For any small business aspiring to grow, effective sales and marketing strategies are non-negotiable. CRM systems act as a powerful engine for both, providing the infrastructure to optimize lead generation, streamline sales processes, and execute targeted marketing campaigns with precision. On the sales front, CRM offers robust lead management capabilities, allowing businesses to track leads from initial inquiry through to conversion. Sales teams can prioritize hot leads, monitor pipeline progress, and access comprehensive customer histories to inform their selling approach. This structured approach replaces guesswork with data-driven insights, leading to higher conversion rates and a more predictable revenue stream.
In marketing, CRM enables sophisticated segmentation of your customer base, allowing you to craft highly personalized campaigns that resonate with specific audience segments. Instead of generic mass emails, you can send targeted messages based on demographics, purchase history, interests, or engagement levels. This not only improves the effectiveness of your marketing efforts but also enhances the customer experience, as they receive content that is genuinely relevant to them. Furthermore, many CRM platforms offer marketing automation features, allowing you to automate email sequences, social media posts, and other marketing tasks, ensuring consistent communication and nurturing leads effortlessly. By integrating sales and marketing within a single CRM platform, small businesses can achieve unprecedented synergy, maximizing their growth potential and ensuring their strategies are aligned for maximum impact.
Data-Driven Decisions: Gaining Competitive Edge Through CRM Analytics
In today’s data-rich environment, the ability to collect, analyze, and act upon information is a significant differentiator for businesses of all sizes. For small businesses, harnessing data effectively can provide a substantial competitive edge against larger, more entrenched players. CRM systems are inherently designed to be powerful data engines, capturing a wealth of information about customers, sales activities, marketing campaign performance, and service interactions. This data, when properly analyzed, can reveal invaluable insights into customer behavior, market trends, sales effectiveness, and operational bottlenecks. It allows small business owners to move beyond intuition and make strategic decisions based on empirical evidence, leading to more predictable and sustainable growth.
From identifying your most profitable customer segments to understanding which marketing channels yield the best ROI, CRM analytics provide a clear picture of what’s working and what isn’t. You can track key performance indicators (KPIs) in real-time, monitor sales forecasts, and pinpoint areas for improvement. For instance, by analyzing customer churn rates and identifying common pain points, a small business can proactively adjust its service offerings or communication strategies to improve retention. This iterative process of data collection, analysis, and strategic adjustment is a hallmark of a future-proof business, allowing it to remain agile and responsive to market dynamics. The insights gleaned from a CRM are not just historical reports; they are predictive tools that empower proactive decision-making, which is paramount when you Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access.
The Low-Risk Pathway: Why a Free CRM Trial Access is Your Strategic Advantage
The prospect of investing in new technology can often be a significant barrier for small businesses, especially when budgets are tight and every expenditure needs to demonstrate a clear return on investment. This is where the strategic advantage of a free CRM trial access truly shines. A free trial eliminates the financial risk associated with adopting a new system, allowing small business owners to explore the capabilities and assess the suitability of a CRM platform without any upfront monetary commitment. It’s an invaluable opportunity to “try before you buy,” ensuring that the chosen solution aligns perfectly with your specific business needs and operational workflows before making a long-term decision.
Beyond the immediate cost savings, a free CRM trial also provides a crucial learning period. It allows your team to get hands-on experience with the software, understand its interface, and experiment with its various features. This practical exposure helps in identifying potential challenges in implementation, assessing the ease of user adoption, and evaluating the level of support offered by the provider. It’s an opportunity to collect internal feedback, gauge enthusiasm, and build a strong case for full-scale adoption. By leveraging a free trial, small businesses can demystify CRM, overcome initial hesitations, and confidently embark on their journey towards a more organized, efficient, and customer-centric future, solidifying their path to Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access.
Choosing Your Navigator: Key Considerations When Selecting a Free CRM Trial
With a multitude of CRM providers offering free trials, selecting the right “navigator” for your small business can seem overwhelming. It’s crucial to approach this decision strategically, looking beyond the surface-level features to understand what truly matters for your specific context. Start by clearly defining your business’s most pressing challenges and desired outcomes. Are you struggling with lead management, customer retention, sales forecasting, or marketing automation? Identifying these pain points will help you narrow down your options to trials that offer robust solutions in those critical areas. A generic trial might offer a broad overview, but a targeted approach will yield more relevant insights.
Key considerations should include the platform’s ease of use and intuitive interface, as a complex system will face significant user adoption hurdles. Scalability is another vital factor; while you’re starting with a free trial, envision your business’s growth trajectory and ensure the CRM can evolve with you, offering more advanced features and increased capacity as needed. Look into integration capabilities with your existing tools, such as email clients, accounting software, or marketing platforms, to ensure a seamless workflow. Finally, assess the level of support available even during the free trial period. A provider that offers responsive customer service and comprehensive training resources from the outset demonstrates a commitment to your success, which is a strong indicator for a long-term partnership in your quest to Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access.
Demystifying Implementation: Getting Started with Your Free CRM Trial
The thought of implementing any new software can often conjure images of complex technical procedures and steep learning curves. However, getting started with a free CRM trial is typically designed to be as straightforward as possible, empowering small businesses to quickly experience its benefits. The first step involves signing up and setting up your basic company profile, which usually takes only a few minutes. The crucial next phase is often data migration, where you’ll begin importing your existing customer contacts and relevant business data into the CRM. While this might seem daunting, most modern CRM platforms offer intuitive import tools and detailed guides to facilitate this process, ensuring your valuable information is transferred accurately and efficiently.
Once your data is in place, focus on configuring the CRM to align with your immediate priorities. Don’t try to implement every feature at once; instead, concentrate on addressing your most pressing pain points. For example, if lead management is your top concern, set up your sales pipeline, define lead stages, and practice assigning and tracking leads. This focused approach allows your team to gain confidence and see tangible results quickly. User adoption is paramount, so encourage your team to actively engage with the trial, providing them with basic training and explaining how the CRM will simplify their daily tasks and improve their overall efficiency. The goal during this trial phase is to demystify the technology and demonstrate its practical value, building enthusiasm for its full integration as you Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access.
Overcoming Common Hurdles: Maximizing Your Free CRM Trial Experience
Even with the most intuitive systems, embarking on a free CRM trial can present a few common hurdles, but understanding and proactively addressing them can significantly maximize your experience. One frequent challenge is setting unrealistic expectations. A free trial is a snapshot, not an instant magic bullet. It requires active participation and a willingness to learn. Don’t expect to transform your entire business overnight; instead, focus on testing specific functionalities that address your critical needs. Another hurdle can be a lack of dedicated time for exploration and training. Small business owners and their teams are often stretched thin, making it difficult to allocate sufficient time for new software. Combat this by scheduling regular, focused sessions specifically for CRM exploration and practice, treating it as a strategic investment in your future.
Furthermore, resistance to change within a team can be a silent killer of new initiatives. Some team members might be comfortable with existing, albeit inefficient, processes and view new technology with skepticism. To overcome this, involve your team from the outset, solicit their feedback during the trial, and highlight how the CRM will directly benefit their individual roles, making their jobs easier and more productive. Provide clear examples of how the CRM solves existing pain points. Finally, ensure you have a clear set of metrics to evaluate the trial’s success. Are you seeing improved lead conversion rates, faster response times, or better data organization? By systematically evaluating these outcomes, you can confidently assess the CRM’s potential and make an informed decision on how to truly Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access.
From Trial to Transformation: Scaling Your Small Business with a Full CRM Solution
The free CRM trial access is just the beginning of a transformative journey for your small business. Once you’ve thoroughly explored the platform, demonstrated its value, and gained confidence in its capabilities, the logical next step is to transition to a full CRM solution. This transition marks a significant commitment to your business’s future, solidifying its operational efficiency, customer-centricity, and growth potential. Scaling from a trial to a paid subscription typically unlocks a broader range of features, increased user capacity, more robust reporting, and enhanced support options, all of which are essential for long-term sustainable growth. It’s about taking the foundational success of the trial and building upon it to create a truly integrated and powerful business ecosystem.
Investing in a full CRM solution is not merely an expenditure; it’s a strategic investment in your business’s infrastructure. It means moving beyond temporary fixes and embracing a permanent solution that will drive consistent improvements across sales, marketing, and customer service. As your business scales, the CRM becomes an increasingly vital asset, helping you manage a growing customer base, expand into new markets, and handle increased transaction volumes without compromising on the quality of customer interactions. This transition should be viewed as an upgrade, enabling your small business to operate with the sophistication and efficiency often associated with larger enterprises, thereby cementing its future-proof status and ensuring its ability to adapt and thrive through various growth stages.
Staying Ahead of the Curve: CRM and Emerging Market Trends for Small Businesses
The business world is in a constant state of flux, with new technologies and market trends emerging at an accelerating pace. For small businesses aiming to future-proof their operations, staying ahead of these curves is paramount. CRM platforms are not static tools; they continually evolve to incorporate cutting-edge innovations, making them indispensable for businesses looking to remain competitive and relevant. Emerging trends like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are increasingly being integrated into CRM systems, offering predictive analytics, automated customer service through chatbots, and hyper-personalized recommendations that were once unimaginable for small enterprises. These advancements allow even the smallest businesses to leverage sophisticated technology, previously exclusive to corporate giants, to gain a significant competitive edge.
Furthermore, the rise of mobile-first strategies and the increasing prevalence of remote work necessitate CRM solutions that offer robust mobile accessibility and cloud-based functionality. Modern CRMs provide seamless access to critical customer data and operational tools from anywhere, at any time, empowering sales teams on the go and supporting distributed workforces. Understanding and embracing these technological shifts through your CRM is vital. It enables your small business to adapt to changing customer behaviors, leverage new channels, and operate with the agility required to thrive in a dynamic environment. By continuously updating and utilizing the latest features of your CRM, you ensure that your business not only keeps pace but actively leads within its niche, truly embracing what it means to Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access.
The Tangible ROI: Measuring Success and Proving Value with CRM
While the benefits of CRM often feel intuitive, especially after experiencing a free trial, demonstrating a tangible Return on Investment (ROI) is crucial for justifying the ongoing investment and securing internal buy-in. Fortunately, CRM systems are designed to make this measurement straightforward, providing robust reporting and analytics tools that track key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to your business goals. By establishing baseline metrics before implementation, you can precisely quantify the improvements achieved through CRM adoption. For instance, you might track changes in lead conversion rates, average sales cycle length, customer retention rates, customer lifetime value, or the efficiency of customer service response times.
The financial benefits often extend beyond increased revenue, encompassing significant cost reductions as well. By automating repetitive tasks, CRM reduces the need for extensive manual labor, freeing up employee time that can be reallocated to more strategic initiatives. Improved data accuracy minimizes errors and reduces rework. Enhanced customer satisfaction and retention translate directly into lower customer acquisition costs. Furthermore, better forecasting and pipeline management allow for more efficient resource allocation and inventory planning. All these factors contribute to a healthier bottom line, providing clear evidence that your decision to Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access, and subsequently invest in a full solution, is delivering measurable and substantial value to your enterprise.
Empowering Your Team: How CRM Fosters Collaboration and Productivity
A small business thrives on the collective effort and synergy of its team members. However, without a centralized system for information and collaboration, teams can quickly become fragmented, leading to communication breakdowns and inefficiencies. This is where CRM plays a crucial role in empowering your team, fostering a culture of shared knowledge and collective productivity. By providing a single source of truth for all customer interactions and business processes, CRM ensures that every team member, regardless of their role, has access to the most up-to-date and relevant information. This eliminates the need for endless internal emails, redundant data entry, and confusion about customer histories or project statuses.
For sales teams, CRM provides a clear overview of the pipeline, allowing for better lead assignment and collaborative selling. Marketing teams can understand sales outcomes to refine their campaigns, while customer service representatives can access complete customer profiles to provide personalized and efficient support. This interconnectedness encourages seamless handoffs between departments, preventing customers from having to repeat themselves and ensuring a consistent brand experience. Moreover, many CRMs offer internal communication tools, task management features, and shared calendars, further enhancing team collaboration. By empowering your team with these tools, you not only boost individual productivity but also cultivate a more cohesive, informed, and responsive workforce, which is a cornerstone of any effort to Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access and ensure its long-term success.
Security and Compliance: Protecting Your Small Business Data with CRM
In an era of increasing data breaches and stringent privacy regulations, protecting sensitive customer and business information is paramount for any small business. A single data incident can severely damage reputation, incur hefty fines, and erode customer trust, posing an existential threat. This makes the security and compliance features of your chosen CRM platform an absolutely critical consideration. Modern CRM providers understand these concerns and invest heavily in robust security infrastructure to safeguard your data. They typically employ advanced encryption methods for data at rest and in transit, multi-factor authentication, and regular security audits to protect against unauthorized access and cyber threats.
Beyond technical security, compliance with data privacy regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and other industry-specific mandates is also a significant concern. Many CRM systems are built with these regulations in mind, offering features that help businesses manage consent, facilitate data access requests, and maintain audit trails of customer data processing. By leveraging a CRM that prioritizes security and compliance, small businesses can not only protect themselves from legal and reputational risks but also build a stronger foundation of trust with their customers. Demonstrating a commitment to data protection is a powerful differentiator and a non-negotiable aspect of truly future-proofing your small business, making the security features a key aspect to evaluate even during a free CRM trial access period.
Integrating Your Ecosystem: CRM as the Central Hub for Business Operations
Few businesses operate in isolation, relying on just one software solution. Most small businesses utilize a variety of tools for accounting, email, marketing automation, project management, and e-commerce. The challenge often lies in getting these disparate systems to communicate effectively, leading to data silos, manual data entry, and fragmented workflows. This is where a robust CRM platform can shine as the central hub of your business operations, seamlessly integrating with your existing tech ecosystem to create a unified and efficient workflow. Imagine a scenario where a new lead captured on your website automatically feeds into your CRM, triggers a marketing automation sequence, and is then seamlessly passed to a sales representative, all without manual intervention.
The ability to integrate with other critical business applications transforms your CRM from a standalone tool into an invaluable central nervous system for your entire enterprise. It ensures that data flows freely and accurately across departments, eliminating redundancies and providing a holistic view of your business from a single dashboard. For example, integrating with accounting software can provide sales teams with real-time financial data, while linking to your e-commerce platform can offer customer service agents immediate access to order history. This level of integration optimizes every aspect of your business, from lead generation to post-sale support, ensuring that your operations are not just efficient but also interconnected and intelligent. This interconnectedness is key to how you can effectively Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access and beyond.
Personalization at Scale: Delivering Exceptional Customer Experiences with CRM
In an increasingly crowded marketplace, delivering a truly exceptional and personalized customer experience is a powerful differentiator that can foster unwavering loyalty and drive word-of-mouth referrals. For small businesses, this can seem like a monumental task, especially as their customer base grows. However, CRM platforms are specifically designed to enable personalization at scale, allowing you to treat every customer like an individual without overwhelming your team. By consolidating all customer data – including preferences, purchase history, communication logs, and support tickets – the CRM provides a 360-degree view of each customer, empowering your team to deliver tailored interactions every single time.
This means being able to segment your audience with precision, creating targeted marketing messages that resonate deeply with specific groups. It means customer service agents can immediately understand a customer’s history and previous issues, offering proactive and informed support without the customer having to repeat their story. It also allows for predictive analytics, anticipating customer needs and offering relevant products or services before they even ask. Moving beyond generic interactions to highly relevant and timely engagements not only enhances customer satisfaction but also significantly boosts retention and increases customer lifetime value. By harnessing the power of CRM for personalized experiences, your small business can cultivate stronger relationships, build a loyal customer base, and establish a reputation for outstanding service, making it truly resilient and ready for the future, a direct result of efforts to Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access.
The Long-Term Vision: CRM as a Foundation for Sustainable Growth
When you first embark on a free CRM trial access, you’re likely focused on immediate benefits like better organization or improved sales processes. However, the true power of CRM reveals itself over the long term, establishing itself as a fundamental cornerstone for sustainable growth and a truly future-proof business. It’s not merely a tool for current operations but a strategic asset that collects institutional knowledge, provides invaluable insights, and enables adaptability in the face of change. As your business evolves, your CRM system becomes an ever-growing repository of customer intelligence, market trends, and operational efficiencies, continuously feeding into your strategic planning and decision-making processes.
A robust CRM system ensures that your business doesn’t just react to market shifts but can proactively anticipate and adapt to them. It provides the data necessary to identify new opportunities, mitigate potential risks, and refine your offerings to meet evolving customer demands. Moreover, by automating and streamlining core processes, CRM builds a scalable foundation that can support significant expansion without compromising on service quality or operational integrity. It allows your small business to operate with the sophistication and strategic foresight often associated with much larger enterprises, enabling it to build a lasting legacy. Choosing to Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access is not just a decision for today; it is a profound investment in the enduring success and sustained prosperity of your enterprise for years to come.
Conclusion: Embracing the Future – Your Small Business, Resilient and Thriving
The journey to future-proof your small business is a continuous one, demanding foresight, adaptability, and a willingness to embrace transformative technologies. In an era where change is the only constant, relying on outdated methods is a recipe for stagnation. The undeniable truth is that a robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is no longer a luxury but a fundamental necessity for any small business owner committed to long-term success, sustainable growth, and unwavering resilience in the face of market shifts. It’s the engine that powers efficiency, the heart that nurtures customer loyalty, and the compass that guides strategic decision-making.
By taking the crucial step to explore a free CRM trial access, you are not just testing software; you are investing in the very fabric of your business’s future. You are granting yourself the low-risk opportunity to experience firsthand how a centralized customer database, streamlined operations, data-driven insights, and personalized customer interactions can revolutionize your enterprise. This trial period empowers you to assess, learn, and confidently choose a path that will enhance every facet of your business, from lead generation and sales conversions to customer retention and operational agility. Don’t let hesitation hold your business back from its full potential. Seize the opportunity today to Future-Proof Your Small Business with Free CRM Trial Access and set it on a clear, prosperous trajectory towards a resilient and thriving tomorrow. Your journey towards unparalleled growth and enduring success begins now.