UTAS Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, award winning thinker (and much more) Colin Jones spoke on Tasmania's EdgeRadio's Mind's Eye program last night, taking a broad look at the ecosystem that supports entrepreneurship. A key factor? Informal support groups and connections with others. 

By involving yourself with others who are taking risks, testing out ideas, sharing hopes and dreams, you have a chance to ground-truth your ideas again and again.

Top tips:

• identify the assumptions of your business plan and test them - especially with potential customers
• find the wave of energy around your idea, get into the sweet spot and ride it - who else is riding that wave and what energy can you leverage for your ideas?

Both involve taking a big step back, and having an honest look at the business idea and identify the elements that make it a viable proposition on the marketplace. What will make it fly, what will make it fail? Statistics and market research, the cornerstone of any business plan, are only part of the picture.