Back on the money-go-round

Throw a stone anywhere in Edinburgh, and you'll hit someone who works in the financial services industry.

And if the person your stone hits isn't part of the industry itself, they'll be one of the packs of lawyers or IT companies or marketing agencies who get their work from financial companies.

In rare cases, some people get away with just having friends who work in financial services. They're the lucky ones.

At its cold heart, this city's all about money. Having it, not having it, acting like you've got it...or acting like you don't. And in Edinburgh it's never easy to tell whether people are wealthy or borke. When you walk through the front door of a tenement building, you can never tell what you'll find: cool House Beautiful interiors, studied student squalor or IKEA aspirational.

But when it comes to money, most of us want more. And getting the money to move around is where Harbour Financial Ltd comes in.

In the vast scheme of things, Harbour Financial is strictly small-fry. It's a pretty sizeable IFA, but compared the banks and insurance companies it's almost non-existent.

But it happens to be where I earn a crust. And now, I was definitely back in earning mode.

As I picked up the phone to start picking off leads, I tried - as I always do - to visualise the different lives behind those blank shared front doors. What did they wish for? What were their hopes? And what could I sell them?



Story begins here.