failed business

I have a strong interest in entrepreneurship. As my followers know, I am a long-time member of JCI, and I am a serial entrepreneur myself. I developed companies in both Norway, and in France, and I have had my share of success and failures.

I have decided that this blog - the Roer.com Information Security blog will change and narrow it's focus a bit, and focus on information security for entrepreneurs and start-ups. I hope that this small change in focus will not drive away my current readers, while continue to grow my readership.

By doing this change, I hope to fill what I think is a gap in the Security blogging arena - to help start-ups and SME's to adequate security. As far as I see it, most security bloggers out there are in one or more of these three groups:

• vendor or service provider, focusing on promoting their own products/services
• (enterprise) risk management, focusing on what many SMEs will consider theory and not very relevant to their everyday focus
• IT-security, focusing on technology, hacking, and "geek" stuff

I think they all have an important role to play, and that they are needed. But for myself, I do not belong directly in any of the categories, plus I am very interested in entrepreneurship. Thus, I will try to fill this gap :)

But worry not, my readers! I will continue to dish out my opinions on global security, TSA, other bloggers and whatever else even remotely securtiy related that I feel an urge to comment upon!

On a side note, I have also established a new blog, focusing on another area I love - trainings!

Do you think this is a good move? Or am I walking into a dead end? Your thoughts are highly valued!

entrepreneurship, jci, security

One year ago, I wrote about Jamparii and their (IMO) bizarre method of raising funds for their business. As it turns out, the company was not able to profit on the rise of social networking websites, and failed to get the required funds.

According to Jim Tuffin, CEO and founder of Jamparii, they have now put the project on hold due to lack of funding. He says that all funds received are returned. I have no reason not to trust his words.

Jamparii serves as an example of how good (or bad) ideas need a critical mass to survive. Building a business is hard work and high risk. I usually see two main reasons young business fails:

• Lack of funding
• Lack of patience

Lack of funding is usually due to the fact that things takes much more time, and costs more money than first imagined. I have seen, and been part of, this kind of failure. It hurts, and it is not fun. The only way to deal with this is to get the funds in time, and enough of it.

Lack of patience is different - this happens if investors, or key members, stop trusting the product. This creates a downward spiral where all energy in the venture goes away, and takes with it the passion that is required to succeed.

Happily, way too few business creators know this. And if they know, they are able to push it aside and get their venture going anyway.