You may have dreamed of starting a home business for various reasons, but before you tell off your boss and quit your day job, consider these tips:

1. Your present job:

• If there are company benefit plans, see when they will increase in value and whether or when you might receive money from them.
• Schedule routine physical, dental or eye exams covered by your company's health insurance. Determine the cost of the health coverage if you had to pay for it.
• Update your references. If your boss commended you for doing a good job, ask whether she would put it in writing and place it in your file.
• Take any courses, training sessions and so on paid for by your employer that could be used in a future business.

2. Financial plan:

• Make sure you have good credit. If not, take the time to establish it, preferably while you are still employed.
• Save money. Try living on the bare minimum to see whether you can get by on less money when you start your business. Put the savings toward your venture. Moonlight at a part-time job. Experts recommend you save two years' worth of living expenses -- the average time for a business to become profitable -- before quitting to start a full-time venture.
• See whether you will be getting a severance or retirement package that could help finance a business or pay living expenses.

3. Self-evaluation:

• Ask yourself and others whether you have what it takes to be a business owner. Setting goals, flexibility, self-discipline, confidence to take calculated risks, being willing to market yourself and your business, and others, are all important characteristics of an entrepreneur.
• Evaluate your skills and education to decide whether you need additional training for your venture.

4. Business start-up preparation:

• Write a business plan you could take to a banker.
• Do thorough market research for your business idea. Use both primary research (asking people directly for feedback) and secondary research (collecting data and demographic information from business organizations, legislators and government agencies) to develop a customer profile and to see whether a market exists.
• Start your business part-time; 90 percent of new business owners do.
• Develop a business network of experts and contacts in your industry and in the community where you will be doing business. Those will be invaluable in getting referrals and clients.
• Set goals, long-range and short-term, to establish a plan of action.

5. Family preparation:

• Discuss with your partner and family the impact a business startup could have on their lives. Their backing will be important to your business' success.

You will need some sort of support until your business can sustain itself. By heeding practical tips such as these, your business will be more likely to succeed when you do go out on your own, full-time.