Are you desperately trying to find a telecommute job so that you can quit your current one? Hold on! Your job just might have the potential to be done from home.

With the right approach, a little research and a good proposal, many employees are selling the idea of telecommuting to their employers.

In this first segment, we focus on the steps you should take in order to determine whether or not your job is a candidate for telecommuting.

Many jobs are well suited for telecommuting...and many arent. Your first step should be to evaluate your current job and determine whether or not it is feasible to do it from home.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Does your job depend on resources that are only available at the office? If your job only requires Internet access, phone and fax, it is definitely possible to do it from a home office. However, if you are a receptionist in a medical office, you probably have other responsibilities that require you to physically be there, i.e. having patients fill out paperwork and filing.
• Do you work well without supervision? Some people are perfectly content to work on their own. Others need the support of having a supervisor and co-workers nearby. Monitor yourself for a week. Be aware of how often you rely on others and how you would deal with it if you had been away from the office. In some cases, a supervisor may feel that getting phone calls from a remote employee is disruptive, while a quick question in the hallway is not.
• Do other companies offer telecommuting for your job type? Do some research and find out if its already being done. Having evidence of success with telecommuting can go a long way in convincing an employer that it can (and does) work.
• Does telecommuting fit with your company culture? If your company has a culture of empowerment and trust, telecommuting may be a perfect fit. If they have a more hands-on management style, it may not work. Think about how your company manages their employees and whether or not the hands-off style required for telecommuting is possible.
• Could you cope with the isolation? Some people crave office gossip, lunches with co-workers, water cooler chats and all the human interaction that comes with a traditional job environment. If this sounds like you, you may need to give serious thought to whether or not working remotely is for you- it may turn out to be more like solitary confinement!

Here are some useful resources for evaluating your current job and for determining whether telecommuting is right for you:

====>Do You Have The Skills to Telecommute? from About.com

====>Is Telecommuting For You?

In Part 2, we will discuss the ways that you can convince your boss to let you telecommute.

Sharon Davis

Sharon Davis is the founder of 2Work-At-Home.com and the Editor of the site's ezine, America's Home.

A work-at-home mom of two girls, Sharon was formerly a sales management and training professional.

"After I had my second child, I was overwhelmed with the need to stay at home with my girls," says Sharon. "I felt that I was missing out on the most important part of my life. The deciding moment for me was seeing a picture of my older daughter on her first day of school. I was never able to be there, as my company held their annual meetings each year on that day. She looked so sad in that picture, it was devastating."

After being at home for some time, Sharon decided to look for a part-time job that she could do from her home office. "I realized that in addition to the extra income we would have, a job would provide me with the professional interaction that I was missing," she says. She embarked on an internet job search and was frustrated to find the large number of scams targeting stay-at-home moms. "I knew there had to be legitimate jobs out there, but I just wasn't finding them," says Davis.

She knew that there were many others who were in the same situation and it was at this point, in September of 1999, that she was inspired to start 2Work-At-Home.com. Her site provides free telecommute job listings, resume posting in the Talent Bank, information on Telecommute Friendly companies and much more.

There are also comprehensive tools and resources for those looking to start a home business. From 100's of home business ideas to tax and legal issues, they have everything you need to start, run and grow a profitable home business.

Sharon runs her business from her home in a small town on the Northern California Coast. Says Sharon, "I'm living proof that you really can work from home. It's fulfilling to know that I am helping others to achieve their goals of working at home. I feel I am the luckiest woman alive."