“LivePlan is useful to entrepreneurs at any stage, not just startup.”

Throughout the cities and rural areas of Texas, women who want to start or scale a business know where to turn for advice, training, and resources. Since 2015, the Texas Woman’s University (TWU) Center for Women Entrepreneurs (CWE) has empowered women entrepreneurs both inside and outside the TWU system. Every year, CWE works with an average of 400 to 500 clients.

At the heart of the CWE AccelerateHER Program, Director Tracy Irby helps women entrepreneurs not only by drawing on her experience as a business owner, but by relying on the pitching, planning, and forecast tools in LivePlan.

“In small business advising, we recommend LivePlan as part of growing a business, or learning and understanding what kind of business they’re going to start,” says Tracy.

Along with training and advising programs, CWE offers small business grants for entrepreneurs. While access to resources is important to helping women entrepreneurs establish their business, Tracy and her team know that money isn’t everything. Time and again, Tracy has seen how writing a business plan helps entrepreneurs better understand their vision, the realities of the industry, and more importantly, have a clear view of the challenges and opportunities ahead.

CWE doesn’t just encourage people to write a business plan. It requires one as part of their grant fulfillment process. CWE gives half the money up front, and the other half once the entrepreneur has completed three hours of small business advising, and had their full business plan reviewed.

“They have to plan out three years of financials,” Tracy says. “If we don’t give them education and just give them money, we’re not really helping them.”

Through LivePlan, owners and founders look at their businesses and strategies in a new way

Wherever Tracy and her team go in Texas, they encounter women who have solid ideas, but need guidance, resources, and planning to set them up for success. Using LivePlan as a framework for their conversation, the CWE team sits down with the entrepreneur to discuss the ins, outs, dreams, goals, and potential of every vision.

Tracy’s experience with LivePlan touches both ends of the entrepreneur/advisor relationship.

“I was an entrepreneur. Then I went to work with small business development centers, and LivePlan was a tool they used there,” explains Tracy. “I realized how helpful LivePlan is, what a good resource it is for anyone, at any level of their business.”

CWE most recently brought their accelerator program city to the city of Abilene. With a population of 125,000, Abilene is home to over 1,500 small businesses — nearly a quarter of which are women-owned. Through 15-week training programs and other resources, CWE hopes to grow the total pie of business ownership by increasing the number of women who start and grow their own businesses.

“I realized how helpful LivePlan is, what a good resource it is for anyone, at any level of their business.”

Wherever CWE goes, they encounter business owners and visionaries at every stage. That’s another reason Tracy appreciates LivePlan’s features so much: besides being easy to use, its planning and forecasting tools can be used however the client needs.

”They don’t always need all of it,” says Tracy. “But many swear by the financials.”

When Tracy works with clients, she often recognizes a common pattern: people tend to only look at their operation or vision from their own perspective, and fail to examine it from other vantages. An owner might not realize that subtle changes, or a more expansive vision, can make all the difference in their business’s viability, timeline to profitability, and overall growth and scale.

“LivePlan made them think about, say, if they had a bakery, all the different items, different revenue streams, that they have from one business,” says Tracy.

“That’s one I wish I had known about when I was 20,” she adds. “How can you get more money from your business? We get them thinking about potential, and sometimes they expand their business that way.”

Sometimes clients believe they need to pursue one type of business model, but after talking with a CWE advisor and using LivePlan, they realize that model isn’t a fit for them after all. For example, it’s not uncommon for entrepreneurs to believe they need a physical location that serves as the heart and face of their operation.

“Brick and mortar is not always the way to go,” says Tracy. “I owned a Sears store, and retail can be draining. People don’t always understand that if you plan to be open seven days a week, you might only have three days off a year. And if you’re not there, somebody has to be there. That gets more expensive.

”LivePlan helps them understand where they want to go with their business and if their first idea isn’t right for them,” she adds. “We can look at the numbers and see what could be the best fit.”

Easy to use interface and real-world examples help clients understand what matters

Examining sample business plans in LivePlan and reviewing specific business models can help clients fully understand the ups and downs of a business—before they commit to a path that may not fit their goals.

“When people are starting on their business plan, they tend to overthink,” explains Tracy. “I tell clients to look at LivePlan’s sample plan library. There are so many similar types of businesses, so there’s no reason to reinvent everything. They can get ideas from those, and see what they want to include or don’t want to include in their own plan.”

Tools for drafting a business plan, creating and modifying financial forecasts, and crafting a pitch deck need to be easy to use. That user-friendliness is a big reason Tracy and the CWE team rely on LivePlan—not to mention the real-world example business plans and explainer videos. They become big eye-openers for entrepreneurs.

“I tell clients to look at LivePlan’s sample plan library. There are so many similar types of businesses, so there’s no reason to reinvent everything.”

The financial component of a business plan can be especially difficult. But when clients examine actual business plans in LivePlan, they can see how other entrepreneurs outlined their financials, including startup phases, growth initiatives, and day-to-day operations. By working through business models and financial models, a client can quickly grasp opportunities like how to fund their operation’s growth, or where expenses might block their path.

The approach pays off. In July 2023, from a pool of 79 applicants, TWU awarded $10,000 grants to 35 businesses, each in operation for at least 3 years and at least 51 percent woman-owned. The recipients can use the funds to cover non-overhead and non-wage expenses, such as improving property, deploying advertising campaigns, and installing new machinery. At the heart of each winner’s application? A 3-year plan for the business’s cash flow.

LivePlan can show a business’s path at any stage

In Tracy’s experience in business and in advising, she has seen business owners at every stage benefit from LivePlan. When entrepreneurs understand the full scope of their opportunity, they gain a new, more knowledgeable perspective of their business.

Tracy recalls a woman who was considering closing her doors after owning her business for seven years. She simply wasn’t making enough money, but she had never run her financials inside a tool like LivePlan.

For the first time, this owner saw what had been wrong: She could have been charging more for her services, but she hadn’t realized that she could. That helped her see that her business had a profitable path forward.

“No business or plan is ever perfect. As your business grows and changes, you can grow and change your plan. LivePlan is a key part of that process.”

Just as a business grows and changes, Tracy likes to help owners understand that their plan can change too.

“LivePlan is useful to entrepreneurs at any stage, not just startup,” she says. “They think they’ll keep at it till it’s perfect. I’ve been an entrepreneur for 25 years. No business or plan is ever perfect. As your business grows and changes, you can grow and change your plan. LivePlan is a key part of that process.”