We all know someone with that coveted job – the one where they have a really cool title, fitness benefits, money for the season's newest clothes and they get to work from home to boot. So, green with envy, you may be asking yourself, "How can I convince my employer to let me work from home?"

Before diving into strategies to convince your boss to say yes to telecommuting, you should ask yourself why you want to work from home.

"If a woman wants to telecommute to avoid child care expenses, that is not a good reason," says Catherine Roseberry, a telecommuting expert and guide on About.com who started working from home in the early 1990s.

Working from home does free up time you would normally spend on your commute, allows you to see more of your kids and in some cases even allows you to have them home with you. This depends on your employer, as some companies require you retain daycare when you are working from home.

Proposal or Persuasion
"Anyone contemplating telecommuting should always present a written proposal," says Roseberry. "You want to be taken seriously, so present yourself in the most professional manner."

Before you go off writing your own proposal from scratch, check with your human resources department. Some companies today have policies and proposal formats already in existence for telecommuting.

"You don't want a written proposal to be so rigid your boss feels trapped into a scenario of accepting all or nothing. My boss happens to be a very personable, social character," says Sonja Nickels, who works from her Denver, Colo. home two days a week. "I think the face-to-face meeting worked best with her. It gave us both the chance to discuss what might work and might not."

The Trust Factor
"An employee who wants to work from home has to earn the trust so I know they can get the job done," says Samantha Steinwinder of Seattle-based Steinwinder Public Relations. "It's a major honor system."

Steinwinder recommends educating and reassuring your boss about how you would make it work. "A lot of people assume the decision comes down to the boss, but it's not nearly that simple," she says. "The employee has to have proven they can be productive from home. I don't want to dictate where they work best. I benefit from getting their best work wherever they get it done."

"The employee has to have shown bulletproof reliability in the office," says Christian Gunning, a director of product management in Santa Monica, Calif. "Flaky staff don't get the benefit of the doubt that they can deliver the goods at home. If the job is 9 to 5 and they typically show up at 9:10 and leave at 4:58, they're not good candidates."

Trial Period
In your proposal, you may consider asking your boss to let you try a work-at-home situation on a trial basis.

"Start with one day a week or every other week," says Steinwinder. "I definitely don't recommend it be on a Friday."

"With my boss, we didn't stipulate a timeframe, we just said we would try it for a while and re-evaluate if things weren't going well," says Nickels. "Two years later, I'm still working that schedule, and it's been fine for both of us."

Traveling is another good way to prove that you can be productive out of the office before asking for certain days at home. "For staff that travel, if they can show only nominal drop off in productivity when traveling on work assignments, they show good promise for more flexibility in work allowances," says Gunning.

Do Your Homework
"Understand and learn everything you can about telecommuting," says Roseberry. "Know your job inside and out, learn the software your company uses and be able to troubleshoot problems for yourself and spend time learning about technologies that are available to assist telecommuters."

Roseberry also recommends having concrete answers to any possible objections that you may be faced with. "It's a common misconception that all employers know about telecommuting," she adds. "Be prepared to be told no initially, especially if the employer has no idea what telecommuting means or what it involves."

You should be prepared to provide some information and education regarding tele-work, according to Roseberry. "Perhaps you could team up with your HR department to bring in a speaker or consultant."

For Nickels, she thought through all scenarios of how she could continue to serve her clients and meet their needs. "I decided to carry my cell phone at all times to be accessible to my clients five days a week, even though I was only in the office three days."

According to Nickels, the three things to do before working from home are figuring out how you can continue to serve clients, fulfill all job requirements and know what technology tools are available so responsibilities are maintained.

Tools that enable her to work from home successfully? Voicemail, e-mail, cell phone, personal computer with appropriate software and the ability to log into your company's network.

Attention: Kids at Play!
Some employers allow working from home, but may require you have child care in force. For situations like these, there are still other options for moms who want to work from home to be there for their young kids, including cutting back to part time.

"Let your employer see that you will not be spending more time minding the children than getting the job done," says Roseberry.

"Kids are incredibly distracting, and working from home requires a lot of discipline," says Gunning. "If you're attending to kids, you're not working. Gigs like getting paid for the actual hours worked are good for people at home with kids."

Steinwinder suggests having a very specific plan if you are going to work from home with kids. "Be realistic about how much time out of your work day it's going to take. What specific hours can you work? Before they get up, when they nap? Boundaries need to be set on what hours you will be available."

"Since we switched my pay to hourly, that means my boss doesn't have to pay me for time that I am unproductive," says Nickels. "Older children can be taught to give mom quiet time to work or a lot of work can be done during school hours. Some of my best work has been at home when I can truly concentrate without my phone ringing or people stopping by my desk to chat."

Want to see more?

• Moms at Work: The Work-at-home Option – Is It for You?
• The Morning Routine ... Or the Morning Circus Act?
• Moms at Work: Is Returning to Work Right for You?
• Talk about it!