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Should You Hire a Freelance Graphic De-signer or a Firm?

There are so many options these days for getting the expertise you need to fire up your business. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t get the best possible people on board to help you with everything from recruitment to graphic design. But how do you decide which is the best option for your business?

Hiring a graphic designer is a business decision, and you should go about it just as you would with any other investment or recruitment process. Part of your process should include consideration of what business model will suit your needs. And the two main types of graphic design business model to choose from are a freelance designer or an agency. But how to decide which model will suit you best? Who can get the job done successfully and at the best price?

As with many other business decisions, it will come down to an assessment of pros and cons for each option and which will suit your project and your business.

Freelancers

• Lower price. Generally speaking, freelancers can offer a better price, mostly because they will have a lower overhead.
• One-on-one communication. You will be dealing with just the designer for the whole project, not a team or having different contacts in several organization departments.
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• Flexibility. Freelancers usually work flexible hours and can be available when you need them (within reason, of course. You shouldn’t expect weekend or late-night contact.)
• Speed. A freelancer may be able to complete your project, respond to ques-tions or make revisions faster than an agency could.
An agency
• Experience and skill range. When you engage an agency, you’re buying the ex-perience and skills of a team of people. This means access to a broader range of services and skillsets than one person can offer. An agency is also likely to have access to a number of specialist services in-house, enabling multiple tasks to be undertaken at once.
• Reliability. An agency is not dependent on the health and circumstances of one person. Short of a full-scale disaster, they are likely to be able to complete your project no matter what.
• Efficiency. Again, due to economies of scale, an agency may be able to com-plete your project faster than a freelancer, simply because they have more re-sources to draw upon. This can include pre-existing templates and designs as well as people.
• Ongoing support. An agency will usually provide you with ongoing services such as SEO, online marketing, and tech support.

What to Include in a Contract with your Graphic Designer

You’ve done your homework, checked out the field, and found the right graphic designer for your project. Now you need to get everything into a contract so that the project can get started. A good project contract will include all the details nec-essary to get the job done. If both you and the designer have a shared and agreed understanding of the project right from the start, you will eliminate the risk of back and forth questions and answers later – that waste time and money. Here are some key elements to make sure to include in your contract.

1. Project details

Details of the project can be drawn from the creative brief, or the creative brief can be an attachment to the contract itself. It is fundamental that you and the graphic designer know exactly what is required for the project.

This section should spell out the deliverables such as logos, banner ads, brochure details, file formats, and image types and resolutions. How will they be delivered? Via email, flash drive or hardcopy?

It should also delineate your respective roles and responsibilities. Who will pro-vide the copy, for example, or post-project technical support?

2. Timelines and deadlines

Project timelines and dates for deliverables and milestone payments should be clear and realistic. Timelines should also allow for some flexibility and potential delays. Another important consideration is being clear about the approval process and at what stage designs need to be signed off and by whom.

3. Costs and payments

The contract should clearly spell out the budget for the project, expenses proce-dures, and the payment process.

Many contracts allow for 50% of the total fee to be paid when the contract is signed, followed by milestone payments tied to completion of deliverables or tasks during the life of the project. There may be a final payment upon agreed successful delivery of the project.

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How to Hire a Web Developer – The Timeline

What is the process involved with hiring a web developer? What can you expect? What should you do first, and what do you do last? Web development projects can be as varied and different as the people handling those projects, but they of-ten go through the same basic process. From idea to completed project, the fol-lowing timeline gives you a good idea of what to expect the next time you have to hire a web developer.

• Decide what type of professional you need. Web designers, web developers, and graphic designers have different skill sets. You wouldn't expect a graphic designer to be able to write code, and not too many web developers are at the top of the talent pool where graphic design is concerned. Write down exactly what you need done, and then choose the corresponding type of web devel-oper or designer.

• Write a job description or project scope. You can get fancy here or just scribble down a couple of lines. Whatever you do, be extremely detailed, clear, and to the point. Include mockups, examples, a project timeline, and other expecta-tions. Be very clear about what you want, and what you don't want.

• Set a budget. Choose whether you're going to pay by the hour, or if you are go-ing to attach a flat fee to the finished project. Having some idea of what graphic designers, web developers, and website builders make is important in this step of the process.

• Post the job and interview applications. Are you advertising on Craigslist or Fiverr? Will you be using a freelance website like Freelancer or UpWork to find and hire your talent? Wherever you advertise, follow the process required to get your job posted, and begin sorting through applicants.

• Hire a few of the better-suited developers. No doubt some of the developers who apply for the job are going to be better suited for the task than others. Check their testimonials and work samples. See if there is a rating system in-volved. Ask the top 2 to 4 developers if they wouldn't mind taking on a small paid test project before you hand them the job you are advertising for.

• Review the experience and results from the test project. If you are lucky, there will be a clear-cut winner that stands head and shoulders above the competi-tion. The communication, number of revisions, and quality of the finished pro-ject will probably show one of your test candidates as superior to the rest. Ar-range a Skype call, in-person meeting, or telephone call to discuss the original project.

• Discuss milestones and pay structure. If the job is not that involved, you are probably going to pay when you have been satisfied with the end product. For larger jobs, it is common to issue incremental payments as different levels of the job have been completed.

• Check on progress regularly. Don't wait until the entire job has been finished and handed to you to find out you and your developer are not on the same page. Review and talk about revisions along the way. Finally, when the project has been completed to your satisfaction, release a final payment and give your developer any feedback you may have.

Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Web Developer

There is usually a right and wrong way to do most things, including hiring a web developer. This is almost always the case. While you may be able to achieve a de-sired set of results by traveling down different pathways when you hire a web de-signer, graphic designer, or web developer, there are a few things you want to avoid. The following mistakes are unfortunately common when hiring a web de-veloper and can slow down or derail even the simplest of projects.

Hiring a Website Development Company

This may not always be a mistake. Big jobs sometimes require big resources, and the largest, most reputable web development firms have those resources. How-ever, hiring a talented individual could get the job done for $35 to $75 per hour, which is not usually the case when you employ a web development company ra-ther than a freelancing individual.

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5 Microphones for Great Sound Quality in Your YouTube Videos

If you have a great video camera and a terrible microphone, your YouTube videos will stink. They may look amazing. And since you are the one broadcasting your message, you may think that your content is straightforward and easy to under-stand. Remember, people are viewing your video and hearing your message for the first time. That means your audio must be clear and of high quality, or poten-tial viewers will click away.

Fortunately, this does not mean spending a lot of money. In many cases, afforda-ble microphones have shown in field tests to perform as admirably as mics which are hundreds of dollars more expensive. The following 5 microphones are used by many full-time video bloggers, and from the least to most expensive, they all guarantee excellent audio for your videos.

1. Blue Snowball

This microphone will set you back about $50. It is available in white or black and delivers crystal-clear audio for your YouTube videos or your podcast. This is a "plug-and-play" microphone that only requires a USB plug. For ease of use and sound quality, along with a decent camera, the Blue Snowball may be the only mi-crophone you will ever need for making great YouTube videos.

2. Audio-Technica ATR2100

Usually offered for about $65, the ATR2100 offers both USB and XLR connectivity. This is a truly outstanding microphone, and you shouldn't judge sound quality by the price tag. There are professional podcasters and video bloggers that swear by this mic, as it consistently outperforms microphones which cost hundreds of dollars more in side-by-side audio tests.

3. Blue Yeti

Like the Blue Snowball, the Blue Yeti records great audio at a budget-friendly price tag. It costs around $110. As an upgrade from the Blue Snowball, you get multiple pattern selections with this microphone, and you can set it up to record sound from all directions, or focus in on just one audio source. It works great in the field, is the perfect podcasting microphone, and only requires a USB connec-tion.

4. Rode Podcaster USB Mic

Many people believe the Rode Podcaster delivers sound quality as good as that of the more expensive Heil PR40. Additionally, unlike the Heil PR40, this microphone only requires a USB connection for it to operate. That means you can plug it straight into your computer, without having to purchase a mixing board. The price usually runs around $225.

5. Heil PR40

For a lot of professional YouTube video bloggers and full-time podcasters, the Heil PR40 is the cream of the crop. This is a professional level microphone that works great in unprofessional environments. It is a true workhorse, and requires approx-imately a $300 to $400 investment, depending on whether you purchase it alone or in a bundle. Keep in mind that you must have an XLR connection to use this mic, which in many cases means hooking it up to a mixing board.

Great YouTube Videos Mean Detailed, In-formative Descriptions

Video moved past text as the preferred way to consume information online some time ago. The people that keep track such things say that this trend is only going to continue in the future, as video becomes more popular online and text is pre-ferred even less than it is now. This doesn't mean that all the text-based infor-mation on your blog or website is useless. The Internet will probably always be predominantly a textual experience.

What it means is that you need to include video in your marketing plan. Since there are those who prefer text-based learning over watching a video, offering both video and text is a smart marketing move.

Combining Text and Video

Have you ever been watching a great YouTube video and looked directly below that video to get more information? People do this all the time. Something inter-ests them in the video they are viewing, and they want to learn more or see if there is possibly a website they can visit for more of the same type of infor-mation. This area only shows a limited amount of text characters, but there is a button below that text titled SHOW MORE.

Click on that button, and you get even more info. This is what YouTube calls the Description area. You can rehash what you talked about in your video, provide ex-ternal links to drive traffic to your web properties, or offer a word by word tran-scription of the video. Using your YouTube description area properly provides both you and your viewers with a lot of benefits.

First off, you need to understand that YouTube was purchased by Google years ago. Google is, as you probably know, the world's largest search engine. The more words, and phrases, and text-based characters you provide Google in your YouTube video description, the better chance that your video will rank for those important phrases and keywords. This is good for your YouTube channel, as well as any webpages where you are sending traffic.

What it does for your viewer is probably more important.

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5 Tips to Help You Locate a Talented WordPress Plugin Developer

If you are a WordPress blogger, you have plenty to do. You have to write your blog posts, research new material, create new images and videos for your blog, and you may constantly be tweaking your landing page. The same is true if you are the CEO of your company or a busy project manager, and whether or not you are working with an authority website or an online retail shopping site.

This means you may choose to outsource certain tasks and duties, such as the de-velopment of a WordPress plugin that will improve your customer experience. Outsourcing can save time and money, increase productivity and efficiency, and provide many other benefits. Keep the following 5 recommendations in mind the next time you outsource the creation of a WordPress plugin, and you improve your odds of having a pleasurable experience.

1 – Develop a Detailed Project Brief

A project brief allows you to effectively communicate the goals of the project you have in mind. Your brief will include budgetary constraints, timeframe re-strictions, and design guidelines. Communicate who will be using the plugin, and clearly detail communication expectations. Be extremely detailed here, or the plugin you get might not be the plugin you had hoped for.

2 – Consider Toptal

UpWork is probably the most widely recognized website where you can find free-lancers that are talented in many areas. There is no doubt you can locate excel-lent WordPress plugin developers on UpWork. In some cases, you may want to consider the website Toptal for your WP plugin needs, especially if you have a detailed and difficult project. Toptal only allows the top 3% of freelance developers around the world to list on their website. This means that you may pay top dollar for your project, but you are going to get the best talent in the world for your particular job.

3 – Use WPMUDEV.org

The oddly named site just listed puts you in touch with WP development profes-sionals. When you go to the https://premium.wpmudev.org/wordpress-develop-ment/section of that site, you don't have to sift through a bunch of freelancers who do things other than work on WordPress. The more well-known freelancing websites include talented designers that work on a number of platforms, while WPMUDEV.org deals exclusively with WordPress development.

4 – Take Reviews with a Grain of Salt

Whether you locate a developer on a job placement board or freelance website, you may have access to user reviews. These are reviews left by former employers, and in many cases, they can be very revealing. Just remember to compare apples to apples. A nearly perfect user review score may have been achieved in one area, but that area of expertise may or may not apply to your particular WordPress plugin project.

5 – Start with a Small Project

If you think you may be doing a lot of work with freelancers in the area of Word-Press plugin creation, why not get started with a small "test" project? This can help you assemble a team of capable developers you can rely upon to follow a set process. It also ensures you don't blow your budget on a big project when work-ing with a developer for the first time. It gives both you and your developers a chance to get to know each other, and the better your relationship, the better the odds that the project will meet everyone's expectations.

Before You Outsource Your WP Plugin Needs, See What's Already Out There

Outsourcing can be a lifesaver for the busy professional. You have a lot on your plate. Whether you own your own company or fill some needed role in a large business, the last thing you probably need is more responsibilities and deadlines. When you realize you're going to have to take some time to find a WordPress plugin developer, outsourcing looks like the perfect solution to your problem.

By outsourcing, you hand the entire job off to someone else. You are obviously still going to communicate and set up a system of reporting and follow-up to make sure things are going smoothly, but for the bulk of the job, you are taking a hands-off approach. With all your current work responsibilities, not to mention your busy home life, this can look like a dream scenario.

Before you run off to have a developer create a unique plugin for your WordPress site or blog, see what software is already out there.

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The Best App to Slow Down and Speed up iPhone Videos

You are out with your friends. You are having a great time, and everyone is enjoy-ing the evening when you notice a familiar look on the face of your "crazy" friend. You know the one; this is the person that always does ill-advised and silly things, stuff that is definitely Snapchat-worthy. Anticipating what is about to happen, you whip out your iPhone and start recording.

Sure enough, Crazy Friend does something memorable and hilarious, and you have recorded it for posterity. Hello social media, here we come! You play back the video to see just what you have recorded, and you are not disappointed. What you have captured on your iPhone is a video clip that will probably stand the test of time as a definite top 10 "crazy friend does something funny" moment among many such moments you have enjoyed with your amigos over the years.

Then you get to thinking. All the credit for creating this memorable episode is probably going to go to your friend, and not you. After all, she was the instigator of the craziness, and all you did was pull out your phone and press record. Chan-neling your inner Spielberg, you begin to think of ways that you can infuse an al-ready awesome video memory with your own creativity to make it even better.

Slow Fast Slow to the Rescue

There is an application for your iPhone appropriately named Slow Fast Slow. It al-lows you to control the speed of the videos you record on your phone. Especially entertaining are the slow-motion videos you can create from normal moments, you can import videos you have previously recorded from your photo library, and you can retain regular audio speed even while you speed up or slow down your video.

A simple video timeline is provided, which makes it easy to adjust the events in your video or remove them altogether. You can then export your videos in the original screen capture ratio, or in a square format. Visual design manipulation features are also present, and as long as you have any iPhone or iPad running iOS 10 or higher, you can use this entirely free application available in the Apple App Store.

Unlike a lot of iPhone applications which are designed to do several things, Slow Fast Slow focuses on one video manipulation task, speeding up and slowing down your video, and does it exceptionally well. Your friends' shenanigans will never be the same again.

Top iPhone Video Recording Tips That Minimize the Amount of Editing You Have to Do

There are plenty of applications which make your iPhone's built-in video record-ing, and editing features even better than they already are. On the other hand, your Apple device contains a noteworthy number of features and capabilities that mean that you can record excellent video which needs minimal editing. Between available applications and the onboard video recording features your phone of-fers, the following tips will help you record video that needs minimal editing. The video recording best practices mentioned on this list depend on you following this first important tip, which is ...

... Get Filmic Pro

The smartest thing to do to ensure your iPhone video editing tasks are few is to skip the camera app on your phone. Do this instead. Download Filmic Pro, a pre-mium quality video recording application. If you want to spend less time in the video editing room than you do out and about recording videos, this is an im-portant tip to follow.

One of the top features Filmic Pro offers is the ability to select a higher Video Bi-trate than what is offered by your phone. The standard bit rate on iPhones is 24.0 Mbit/sec, and Filmic Pro provides more than double that at 50.0 Mbit/sec. This means a much higher quality video to begin with, and the application also gives you the ability to change your recording frame rate. You additionally get absolute control over exposure, focus, and other video creation features which can mini-mize editing later on.

Consider Your Lighting

Most smartphones, the iPhone included, don't like to capture images and video in poor or low lighting. This means that whether you use your standard camera ap-plication or Filmic Pro, you should record when lighting is substantial if at all pos-sible. If you must record at nighttime or some other lowlight situation, make sure your subject is well lit.

Use the Grid Feature

Filmic Pro provides a grid feature which allows you to use the Rule of Thirds which professional photographers use all the time. When in use, a 9 panel, 3 x 3 grid ap-pears over whatever you are viewing through your camera lens. These 9 rectan-gles are equally sized, and the goal of using the grid is to help you perfectly center the focus of your video, from top to bottom, and side to side. Turn this feature on by choosing Overlays, Settings, then Thirds Guide in Filmic Pro.

Choose the Correct White Balance before You Start Recording

Your iPhone will record videos with a set white balance if you do not mess with this feature. However, manually adjusting the white balance on your videos guar-antees you get the colors you are looking for every time, and that your subjects and backgrounds look natural.

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Choosing From the 10 Facebook Ad Ob-jectives

Have you ever advertised on Facebook? If so, you had to choose from the many options for marketing on the world's largest social media website. Do you want your ads showing up on news feeds? Should you set a daily or monthly budget? What demographics should you target? There are plenty of choices you need to make if you want to get your marketing message in front of the more than 2 bil-lion people who regularly use Facebook.

Whether you decide to boost a post, advertise with video or keep your marketing efforts restricted to your business page, there are currently 10 different ad objec-tives Facebook offers. Facebook asks you to reverse your traditional marketing mindset by thinking about your intended result first and then working backward towards the type of ad you are going to create. In early 2018, here are the 10 dif-ferent objectives you can try to accomplish by advertising on Facebook (listed al-phabetically).

Application Installs – Choose this option if you are trying to get prospects to download one of your business apps. This option allows you to choose between desktop or mobile applications.

Brand Awareness – This is a good option if your goal is to introduce your business to the world, and boost the number of people who understand what it is your business does.

Conversions – If you want someone to click on a link, purchase a product, or join your email list on your website, converting someone from tire-kicker to action-taker, choose Conversions in the Facebook ad objectives menu.

Engagement – This is the option you should choose if you want to get the FB world to like, share, or comment on a post or page.

Lead generation – If you are trying to turn prospects into eventual customers, you have to fill your sales funnel with leads.

Reach – This option exposes your marketing message to as many targeted pro-spects as possible.

Product catalog sales – This is a relatively new option, which allows you to build and display a catalog of your products and services.

Store visits – If you run a brick-and-mortar business, getting people in your front door is crucial to your success. This is the Facebook advertising option that allows you to do that.

Traffic – For a virtual business, traffic is everything. Choose this ad objective when you want to direct traffic to a specific webpage.

Video views – This objective is self-explanatory. It helps boost the number of views your video receives.

As the initial step for advertising on Facebook, you must choose from one of the 10 options just listed. These options are updated from time to time, and can al-ways be accessed from the Facebook Ads Manager. Once you decide on the busi-ness objective or goal you are trying to achieve, you are then taken through a sim-ple to follow, step-by-step process that allows you to create your ad, set your budget, and start advertising.

How Facebook Blueprint Can Help You Make Money With any FB Advertisement

Facebook has changed its advertising offerings over the years. Like many compa-nies who make the majority of their income from advertising revenue, Facebook is always trying to find that perfect mix of marketing options that suit the individ-uals and businesses which want to advertise on FB, while also making a minimally negative impact on its users.

If its users were blasted with advertisements everywhere, Facebook would make a lot of money in the beginning, but then people would stop visiting that social media giant. On the other hand, if they dramatically limited the number of adver-tisements they allowed, marketers would go elsewhere with their ad dollars. This means Facebook is constantly changing the ways you can advertise on the world's largest virtual meeting place.

This can cause some confusion for marketers who would like to cash in on the 2+ billion people who regularly use Facebook. Because of the constantly changing face of FB ads, it is tough for some marketers to keep up.

Enter Facebook Blueprint

Facebook Blueprint is a digital learning application created to educate would-be marketers on the best practices for advertising on the FB network. Facebook pur-chased Instagram a few years ago, so Facebook Blueprint is also a good way for you to improve your Instagram advertising chops. Instead of just providing a mar-keting guide like other social media networks that have advertising capabilities, Facebook Blueprint offers a course through which you can earn your certification as an "in the know" FB ads expert.

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5 Top Tips for Introverts Who Stink at Networking

The definition of the word network is "to connect or operate with a net-work." In a business sense, the word means to "interact with other people to exchange information and develop contacts, especially to further one's career or business." Since many introverts despise the very thought of making small talk, meeting strangers, spending time in large groups and other networking must-dos, the introverted entrepreneur may be chal-lenged.

Don't worry, introvert-preneur, help is here.

The following 5 tips will help even the most introverted entrepreneur or businessperson excel at networking, making it a powerful skill rather than necessary exercise to be despised and avoided.

1 – Remind Yourself That Everyone at the Networking Event Can't Wait to Meet You

This is the beauty of networking! You don't have to do a lot of hard work. Everyone is there to meet you. They can't wait to see what you have to offer them, that can benefit your business and theirs. You shouldn't feel insecure or self-conscious as if you are hanging out at a bar or a party. Simply by being there, other people are telling you they want to hear what you have to say. 5 Your Website URL

2 – Steer Conversations by Asking A Lot Of Questions

Most people feel comfortable talking about themselves, extroverts or in-troverts. Make that easy for others, and you will not have to do much talking. Ask a question early on in the meet and greet process, and you will control the conversation with your natural ability to listen rather than talk.

3 – Create an Exit Strategy

Before you attend a networking event, tell yourself you will leave at a specific time. Allow yourself to be the most extroverted person in the room for 20 or 30 or 60 minutes, and then head home for some alone time to recharge your introverted batteries.

4 – Meet and Greet Online First

Introverts have a much easier time interacting with people online than off, in many cases. When you reach out to fellow networking attendees before an event online, you take a lot of pressure off a face-to-face meeting. This can create a friendship that means going to a networking event with someone you feel comfortable with.

5 – Plan and Prepare… And Then Prepare Some More 6 Your Website URL

Spend some alone time thinking about what you will talk about when you meet someone. Choose 2 or 3 topics you feel very comfortable with dis-cussing, those that will also help you meet your networking needs. Pre-pare what you are going to say and how to say it, because practice makes perfect. 7 Your Website URL

Affiliate Marketing – The Perfect Busi-ness for the Introverted Entrepreneur

All introverts are not "like this", and all extroverts are not "like that". Ex-troverted or introverted traits and characteristics are part of a person's personality, not the totality of it. No two introverts are completely alike, but if you tend towards introversion rather than extroversion, you gener-ally have a dislike for the following things.

• Making small talk
• Networking for business
• Selling yourself
• Meeting new people
• Not enough time to spend alone
• Talking on the phone ... for any reason
• Crowds

This could be a problem if an introverted person were to become an en-trepreneur. Starting and running your own business can be difficult if you don't enjoy or are not good at networking, selling, meeting, and greeting and doing other things that most introverts would rather avoid.
Introverts worry no more. There is a perfect entrepreneurial career path that is right for you, and it is called affiliate marketing. 8 Your Website URL

To define affiliate marketing is easy. You let people know about a partic-ular product or service. If they buy that product or service, you are paid a commission. That is all there is to affiliate marketing. You don't have to get up in front of large crowds and give presentations, and you never have to network if you don't want to.

Spending hours on the phone is entirely up to you, but you never have to speak to another human being again, as far as business is concerned, when you become an affiliate marketing entrepreneur. All you have to do is apply to become an affiliate for any number of companies online, and you never have to speak to anyone.

Approval is not as hard as you may think because companies are more than happy to have you promote their products and services. Then you simply write blog posts, make videos, post to social media, build an email list and promote offers to it, or do any other number of things that you would like to do to get people looking at your affiliate offers.

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4 Time Management Hacks and tips for Busy WAHMs and Mompreneur

Being a mom is a full-time job. As a work-at-home mom or mompreneur, it is like you're working two full-time jobs at once. Then there is your spouse you have to take care of as well, who sometimes seems to need more assistance and attention than the kids. Don't forget yourself. You need to make time for yourself, or you may just go crazy! All told, you have a ton of responsibilities to juggle every day.

It's okay. Breathe in. Breathe out.

There are some things you can do to become much more productive, and at the same time feel like you are spending less time accomplishing your tasks than before. If you are a small business person or entrepreneur that is also a mom, start putting the following 4 best practices for time man-agement and productivity to work immediately to see less stress and more results in your business, and in your family life.

1 – Schedule EVERYTHING

Do you have post-it notes everywhere? Do you have post-it notes attached to your post-it notes? Whether you are the type of person who writes eve-rything down or not, you're going to have to start scheduling everything. Each night you add tomorrow's tasks to your daily schedule and review the week ahead.

Google Calendar is a free and wonderful resource accessible from your smartphone, tablet, computer and any electronic device with an Internet connection. You can set notifications and reminders that keep you on track and productive. Don't forget to schedule time for yourself as well.

2 – Separate Motherhood from Your Business

Being a mother is wonderful and rewarding, excruciatingly tough and mis-erable, positive, negative and everything in between. However, you wouldn't trade anything for it. Respect being a mom. Respect your busi-ness as well, but keep the two separate. There are times throughout the day when the two will cross each other, and that is okay.

As much as possible though, keep your work responsibilities at the office (or in the spare bedroom you turned into your home business epicenter), and your parenting elsewhere. This not only keeps the little ones from destroying that big project you have been working on with finger paint, but it also allows you to detach and de-stress from your business.

3 – Understand Your Priorities

Is your business priority to make $100,000 this year? If so, that is not laser focused enough. Big goals are great, but they need to be chopped down into bite-size pieces. Multitasking is the mom's mantra, but it can kill your productivity.

Understand which priorities matter most, and rank your goals in order. If your business goal is to make $100,000 this year, that means roughly $2,000 a week, $300 per day. With that figure, you can now prioritize the important activities you must take every day to reach that smaller daily goal. Prioritize your personal and mom-related responsibilities as well.

4 – Find Some Calm, Quiet Planning Time

Carve out 15 to 20 minutes of calm, quiet, distraction-free planning time each day. A lot of moms like to do this first thing in the morning, getting up before the rest of the household. Make yourself a soothing cup of tea. If coffee is your thing, grab a cuppa Joe. Give yourself a couple of minutes to relax and breathe deeply.

Then plan your entire day. Alternately, as discussed earlier, you can do this at the end of the evening. Just make sure this is time you spend by yourself with you and no one else. A few minutes of smart planning each day, and writing down your plan, can lead to a day full of low stress and high productivity levels.

How 2 Hour Tech-Free Time Chunks Can Make You a Time Management Pro

Here are a few news flashes for you. You spend way too much time on Fa-cebook. You text too much. You are "wired" much more than you should be. Survivor, Dancing With the Stars and The Voice are ruining your qual-ity of life. If you keep your smartphone in your pants pocket much of the time, you are killing your reproductive abilities. Okay, that last one may or may not be true, but at least 2 of those previous statements are proba-bly applicable to your life.