YOUR MONEY
‘The downside is you don’t have water- cooler conversations that can often result in new angles and different perspectives’
the evenings and pick up early next day when you’re fresh and better able to spot mistakes. The downside is you don’t have water-cooler conversations that can often result in new angles and different perspectives. You can miss the environment of serendipity, so I make a conscious effort to attend events run by chambers of commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Institute of Directors.’ With ten years’ experience, Ruth McKay of
UNIQ, a Midlothian-based company advisory and marketing firm, is a seasoned home worker. ‘I’ve never seen full-time salaried employment as an attractive option,’ she says. ‘I value the flexibility of
self-employment at home,
particularly with children. And not having an office brings huge cost savings. There’s no dead time lost to commuting. And you can work your own hours. ‘The downside, of course, is that you never
leave work. The computer is on constantly and when you hear the emails pinging you’re on constant call. And there’s no IT department to turn to for help. You have to learn to fix computer and website problems yourself. ‘There are also distractions – always a
million things to do around the house. And home workers have to contend with isolation and find ways around it. Face-to-face meetings with contacts and customers is absolutely vital. ‘The longer-term problem is how to keep
going when you’ve built your business to a certain level. There’s a lot of informal networking and outsourcing – you call on help and expertise as and when required and provide your own assistance in return. And
Ask the experts We answer your financial queries
this underlines the need to have face-to-face contacts to sustain support and relationships.’ Bell at the Red Shed nursery agrees: ‘I would
say one challenge of working at home is that people can get lonely. I can remember periods when we did not have a sale for weeks. So you’ve got to have a supportive network – mentors, or people to whom you can sub-contract. Businesses are much more collaborative than they were, and that’s a great help.’ He is able to counteract isolation in a couple
of other ways: ‘We have the plant nursery, which is a great teaching resource. The fact that people can come here and learn and be directly engaged gives us the means to build a reputation. I also do a lot of teaching to audiences overseas – from Ireland to Romania to Tenerife.’ Last word goes to Emma Jones, founder of
the small-business network Enterprise Nation, who wrote a best-selling book in 2008 called Spare Room StartUp about how to get your own business up and running. ‘The number of people working from home
has seen a dramatic increase over the past few years – and it comes as no surprise,’ she says. ‘Starting a business from home has never been easier. From where we’re standing, these people are not starting up out of necessity through a lack of jobs, they are responding to the new opportunities that technology brings – and this will only increase as the number of satisfying, well-paid jobs continues to decline. ‘There is still more to be done to fully
understand this new community in order to help it
to build business that can grow and prosper far into the future.’
Q: I’ve heard a lot about online financial fraud recently, what is it and how can I prevent it?
Peter Hillier Tel: 0131 270 3004
peter.hillier@cazenovecapital.com YOURSF
TO HAVE YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED EMAIL THEM TO
EDITOR@SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK
184
WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK
A: Fraudsters are becoming ever more sophisticated in their techniques for stealing money. The use of computers to successfully commit financial crime is a growing industry and a topic that our Security Manager at Cazenove Capital is very aware of. Here are a few examples: Phishing and Social Engineering: suspicious e-mails may try to trick you into going to a fake website or downloading an attachment that contains viruses. Running up-to-date anti-virus protection on your computer will help a great deal, but there are some simple precautionary checks you can also do when receiving a suspicious e-mail. Hovering over a link to a website will show you its true location. If it is a phishing e-mail then the destination of the website will be another site. Delete it immediately. Clicking on the link could infect your computer with a virus. E-mail account takeover: e-mail accounts and passwords are regularly being hacked. Fraudsters are then able to view your account activity. From this they can ascertain who you have accounts with, and can enter into conversations with your bank, giving plausible reasons for the need to transfer funds. Any e-mails they send and receive can then be deleted and you may not find out you have been the subject of fraud until it is too late. Public WiFi connections: a simple connection to a free and public, yet harmless looking WiFi network may not be as safe as it seems. A fraudster can easily set up a WiFi service and anyone joining will be allowing the fraudster to monitor what they do, including access to passwords, e-mails and websites. You should avoid unknown WiFi networks – they may be very costly. To prevent such attacks, you should change your password on a regular basis, delete old messages and never keep details of bank accounts, financial dealings or financial contacts on e-mail. For further information you can visit
www.getsafeonline.com
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