You’ve long dreamt of working from home. That hour-long commute to work each day is tough. And it’s hard to get much work done from the office when you’re constantly being called into meetings. But how can you convince your employee to allow you to work from home?

As with most things in the work world, getting that work-at-home position requires a bit of old-fashioned networking.

The first step is to identify the person who has the power to make the decision to let you work from home. Once you find out who that person is, schedule a meeting. You can then spell out to that person the many reasons why you’re the ideal candidate to work from home.

Make sure you list exactly how letting you work from home will benefit not only the company but your immediate bosses. The possibilities here are many: You can stress the fact that you’ll be more productive without wasting so much time stuck in traffic on the way to and from the office.

You can also point to all the technology, everything from e-mail and Intranets to high-tech cell phones and online meeting software, that makes working from home easier than ever.

You might have a job that requires mostly phone work and computer work. If that’s the case, there’s little reason for you to be in the office every day. Make sure to remind your bosses of this.

This meeting is also the right time to bring up your past experience at the company. If you have a long history of meeting goals and turning in high-quality work, your employers will be more willing to take the risk of allowing you to work from home. Unfortunately, if you’re relatively new to your company, or if your work record has been less than stellar, you probably have little chance of gaining that work-from-home job.

This meeting is a good time, too, to lay down some possible ground rules for working from home. These would include how many hours you’re expected to log when working from home, what specific hours you’ll be on duty and what steps you’ll take to communicate effectively with your co-workers and supervisors.

You should also let your employers know that you will be available to come into the office for important meetings or functions. In fact, it’s often good to plan to come into the office on a regular basis. This reminds your bosses that you’re still doing important work for them.

It’s not always easy to convince skeptical companies that you will be able to work from home successfully. But with just a bit of planning, you can significantly increase your odds of landing that coveted work-from-home position.