Most home workers start off with little more than a fax and a computer in the front room.But unless you tell your insurer you are running a business from home you could find a claim being rejected. An insurer might take the view that running a business from home changes the nature of the risk it has agreed to cover. In some ways it is perhaps not surprising that for a growing number of people, working from home can seem a safer and saner option. Not only can you avoid commuting, machine coffee and the boss, but home workers can combine both career and family commitments.
Advances in technology and communications have also allowed people from a range of industries to work at home.

A recent survey by the Henley Centre of Forecasting predicted that the number of people working from home would double by the end of the century. And as companies continue to cut workforces this trend looks set to continue. The Independent on Sunday’s new free guide is aimed at helping you to find the best deal.. THE CONTROVERSIAL new film In the Company of Men, depicts the cut-throat world of office life in the 1990s, a vision backed up by a recent advertising campaign that suggested that you cannot afford to take a day off with flu without colleagues moving in on your job.

“They cannot avoid the bad news in a troubled market.” He believes this inflexibility may prove a problem for UK trackers as investors look for better value by shifting from the safer but highly valued blue-chips to medium-sized and smaller firms.Guide to making your investments work for youCompetition for investors’ money is set to be intense this spring as companies try to convince the public to buy a PEP in preparation for switching into Individual Savings Accounts next year But PEPs are not the only investment choice. Japan is a prime example, where fund managers are keeping clear of banks, which have run into massive debt problems. Actively run Japanese funds may still be falling in value, but not always as far as trackers, which have no choice but to hold banking stocks “Trackers have no defence mechanism,” Mr Bates says. Both offer trackers following Japan, the US, Europe and, in HSBC’s case, the tiger markets of Asia.