Keep your hands off my laptop. Please! [ASK MR. NOOBIE]

QUESTION:I run my business from my home. I use a laptop for my business. My family always wants to use it because it is the fastest laptop in the house and our other computer is very slow. I don’t like to let them use it. They think I’m just being selfish but I have been told that you shouldn’t let others use your business computer. They think that’s just an excuse—even my husband. Can you give me clear cut reasons why they should not use it for their own personal use? I would appreciate it! Thanks! – Pam from Greenwood, Indiana

ANSWER: The good news, Pam, is that you are going to like my answer. The bad news is that your husband and kids probably won’t like me any more.

I whole-heartedly agree with your position on not letting anyone else use your business computer. In fact, you should see how bent out of shape I get in my house when I come back to my computer and discover someone was using it in my absence.

I can give you several reasons why you should defend your position. How many do you want?

• Your kids unknowingly click on a link and download a virus to your computer wiping it out or at a minimum, taking it out of service for a few days.
• Your husband reboots the computer and doesn’t realize he should have saved that PowerPoint presentation you spent 4 hours working on the night before.
• Your kids install a new browser plugin to play their favorite game and suddenly your computer starts acting “funny.”
• Your husband watches an NSFW video on your computer and it embarassingly shows up in your browser history during your next important client meeting.
• Your kids get mad at you and change your password, locking you out of your own computer, most likely at the worst time imaginable.

I could go on.

The point is, you need to protect your business computer. The computer should be as important to you as your business is.

Which is why the only true solution is to get your kids and husband a better computer. Or do what I like to do and hand down your computer to them so you can get a new one (ahem, business expense?)

Once everyone else in your family stops complaining how slow their own computer is, they’ll start leaving yours alone.

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