Some of you have great professions - professions that you have worked hard to earn the respect you have today. You might be sales managers, journalists, accountants, graphic designers, or one of a host of other professionals, and you have decided that it might just be time to test the waters and ply your trade in a home business.

Many people have taken professional careers working for an employer and turned it into lucrative work at home careers. If you are already established in your field, then this should be no problem at all. Even if you have only been around for a short time, you can still make this a very profitable venture. Here are 3 tips to successfully turning your profession into a work from home business:

" Plan accordingly - It is a good idea to plan each aspect of your business; making the transition from regular pay to non-regular pay; where your clients are going to come from; and how you are going to allocate your time (working, marketing, business administration). I've seen too many great professionals make the mistake of believing they can just go into business for themselves just based on reputation alone. Don't make that mistake. Put together a solid plan for making the jump into being self-employed.

" Bank it up - Looking back, I am so thankful that I put money aside so I could make the leap to working from home. Had I not, my family and I might not have made it without making some huge sacrifices. As it turned out, I had put away almost 6 months worth of typical living expenses, just as a fall back. I was lucky - I started generating great income working from home in only a couple of months, so that money never got used. Still, if you are thinking of starting a home business it might not turn a profit overnight, so you need to be prepared with a little back up in the bank account.

" Drum up business before you leave your job - I think this is important so you can hit the ground running when working from home. Even if you are still working at your normal job and looking towards working from home, you should be using the time to start developing business for when you make the jump to your own business. Don't take customers from your current employer, but start finding clients of your own on the outside to take with you when you leave.

With these three tips, you should dramatically improve your chance of great success in a work from home business that you are bringing from a great professional career. More and more people are realizing that they don't need to come up with the 'next best thing' in order to enjoy the comfort, security and stress-free living of building up your own work from home business - they can do it with their own profession!