You just read about the break-in at your friend's home office where thieves stripped the place bare. Now you wonder what you should do to protect your home office from the same fate. Here are several tips, some very low in cost, some where you spend a few bucks, and some that are expensive. The end result, even at the lowest cost level, is better security for your home office than most office buildings provide.

LOW COST SECURITY TIPS
These tips work to help you protect your home whether or not you have a home office.

• The first thing to do is make sure your home looks lived in. Purchase several automatic timers and connect them to lamps, overhead lights, stereos, TVs and the like. Set them to go on and off according to your usual schedule, then use them anytime you leave your home, day or night.
• Next, get out the hedge clippers and work away on those overgrown shrubs, trees, and plants; especially those around windows, doors and basement access points. When you drive up to your home, you want to be able to see an intruder before you ever get out of your vehicle.
• Third, make good use of your answering machine or voice mail, but don't tip-off thieves that you aren't home. It's a lot easier to tell your vendors and customers you will be gone for a period of time than it is to try to conduct business from a stripped home office. One really great idea is to have call forwarding installed on your home office phone and forward the calls to a friend, to an answering service, or to your own cellular phone. This serves the dual purpose of keeping in touch while not alerting the crook.
• Fourth, purchase window locks, and use them. There are locks that work on casement windows, but you may have to have them special ordered. A simple lock for most double-hung window is a hole drilled through the side of the sliding window into the frame with a large nail shoved in to the hole. This secures the window in place. This tip also works very well on sliding patio doors, and is an easy solution.

MEDIUM COST SECURITY TIPS
If you are out of your home office a lot, take these three steps to increase security.

• First, purchase a cellular phone, but use it as an answering machine rather than as a portable telephone system. Have call forwarding on your home office phone, but direct the calls to your cellular phone. This leads the caller to believe you're there in your office.
• Second, ask your favorite neighbor to keep an eye on your home, and call your cellular number if anything doesn't look right. Now, when the cellular phone rings, you know it's a forwarded call or an emergency call. To keep costs down, don't use your cellular phone to call out except in an emergency. When you get a call, say, "Jan, I'm in a meeting right now, let me call you back in ten minutes." Then, go to a nearby pay phone and make your call for a quarter.
• Third, spend a few bucks on automatic outside lighting. Buy the kind (or adapt the one you can get) that will also set off a buzzer or bell in your house. This way, if someone approaches your house, the light will come on and you will be notified by the alarm. Sensitivity can be set on some units to discriminate between a dog and a person moving, but if you have big dogs, forget this tip or you'll be constantly jumping up and down every time your dog goes outside.

HIGH COST SECURITY TIPS
Make your home more secure with these ideas.

• Have a carpenter or contractor examine your outside doors, especially your garage-to-house door. Chances are, all your doors could be opened with a good strong kick. Have bad doors replaced and beef up the locks on others. Use only deadbolt locks which must be opened with a key on both sides. This keeps a thief from bringing out your merchandise even if they do gain access through a window.
• Mount one of the new inexpensive video cameras at the front, back and side door areas with a switchable monitor in your office can do wonders for your security.
• Invest in electrically operated door locks such that you can unlock doors from your office.

SPECIAL COMPUTER SECURITY TIPS
If you haven't purchased a backup system and automatic backup sof tware for your computer system, you are asking for trouble. For a very small amount of money you can purchase a system to back up your computer files every night, and all you have to do is change removable cartridges in the morning, taking the backup with you for secure off-site storage.

OTHER TIPS
Talk with your local security firm. If you let them know you are looking at doing some of the work yourself, they just might come down on the price of materials just to get your business. You never know .