3 Ways to Enhance Efficiency in Your Home-Based Business

As a work-at-home mom, you're likely already keenly aware of the delicate balancing act you perform every day. From hitting deadlines and working with clients on projects to picking up the kids from school and dealing with household duties, you're a supreme master of multitasking.

While you enjoy the perks of being a WAHM, you might feel like your to-do list is way too long. 24 hours isn't nearly enough time to get everything done in a day. If this sounds all-too-familiar, read on for some tips to help your home-based business run even more efficiently.

Outsource What You Can

As a small-business owner, there are probably tasks you love doing and those you put off as long as possible. Give yourself permission to outsource the jobs and tasks you despise.

Maybe you hate creating and managing your business websites. It's just not your thing. Well, thankfully there are places like online that can take that burden off your hands and help you grow your business while you kickback. This will allow you to focus more time on the important goals and projects you enjoy.

Make a list of the things you do every day or every week and then determine whether any of these tasks can be outsourced. Since you work out of your home, these tasks can also include household tasks that you simply don't have time for. For example, this might include hiring a housekeeper to clean every week or two.

Invest in an IVR System

If your home-based business involves taking product orders and shipping, then you likely spend a great deal of time on the phone with your customers. In order to free up some of the time, you spend answering basic questions — like, “When did my order ship out?” — you may want to invest in an interactive voice response system from a company like Aspect.

Unlike those annoying automated systems in which many customers aren't fond of, Aspect's IVR systems allow your customers to easily and naturally interact with a virtual assistant through voice commands and basic touch-tone controls. You can even use IVR systems to answer questions about an order status, information retrieval, and more.

Use Kid-Free Time to Your Advantage

When your child is attending school, you can usually count on those precious hours to get your work done. Likewise, if you have young kids, you can typically rely on nap time to accomplish business- or home-related tasks, at least most of the time. As Parents.com notes, get as much of your work done during these chunks of kid-free time as you can.

Yes, the dishes may pile up in the sink, but those things can wait. If you were working in a typical office environment, you wouldn't even have the opportunity to complete those other tasks at work. That's why you must adopt the same mindset about your work time.

Concentrate on getting as much paying work done as you can. Also, look for other kid-free pockets of time to finish up your projects. If you're an early bird, get a couple of hours of solid work done before the kids get up. Or, if you are a night owl, by all means, burn the midnight oil after your kiddos hit the hay.