Winning Ideas from
Winning Women
with Cindy Cox Wilson

Cindy Cox Wilson, owner of Artwear Embroidery in Kernersville, began her embroidery business after searching for a particular decorative thread to complete holiday gifts. Unable to find the thread in retail stores, she bought it directly from a wholesale supplier, who included an embroidery trade magazine in the mailing.

Cindy never realized that embroidery was an industry unto itself and her revelation could not have come at a more perfect time. She had recently left her job with AT&T to devote more time to the video business she and her husband had started, but soon after became divorced. So, the idea of embroidery arose while Cindy was seeking a direction for her creative energy. Longing to learn something new, Cindy began Artwear and the rest is history.

Cindy Cox Wilson

That history begins with Cindy’s love for textile arts in her childhood. Always an “artsy” kid, Cindy had a knack for making something out of nothing. She was always crafting things for her dolls: furniture, cars and houses. And she made all kinds of toys for her sister and herself. By the time she was 12, Cindy was making clothes and conducting a sewing class for her friends on the back porch.

In retrospect, she says, “An entrepreneurial nature is part of my basic operating system, inherited and taught to me by my mother.” Cindy’s mother, her role model, was a very talented seamstress, who made most of her children’s clothes, along with draperies for their home and for customers as well.

Although Cindy’s knowledge of sewing and crafts positioned her well to open her own embroidery plant, at such a fragile point in her life, she worried about the financial investment and also harbored the possibility of failure. But after realizing that everyone used or wore something with an embroidered logo, Cindy knew she could make this idea work.

Before jumping in, however, Cindy really did her homework. She read every trade magazine she could get her hands on, she received information from industry suppliers and she visited large embroidery factories. She sketched a business plan and did a lot of praying. “They say that you always find what you’re looking for. Well, I was looking for purpose and the courage to pursue it, and there it was.”

After purchasing her first industrial machine in 1992, Cindy launched Artwear Embroidery in her basement in Clemmons, NC. Within a year she moved the business to a small commercial location in Winston-Salem and joined the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce. Just two years later, Artwear moved to a larger facility in Winston-Salem, and in 1995 Cindy purchased Embroidery Unlimited, a larger embroidery company out of Greensboro. Within the next year she merged both the Winston-Salem and the Greensboro plants into one building in Greensboro. Over the years Artwear has continued to grow, and in March 2004 Cindy again moved the company to Kernersville.

Like all entrepreneurs, Cindy has experienced her ups and downs. She smiles with pride as she remembers a contract she received two years ago from Oprah Winfrey to produce the entire sample embroidered items for her new “Oprah Boutique.” It was Cindy’s proudest moment to see Oprah demonstrating Artwear products on TV.

On the other hand, Cindy has also been negatively impacted by recent economic events. “The economic downturn we experienced following NAFTA, which sent so much of the textile business off shore, was our worst nightmare.” Like most business owners, Cindy had to make difficult business decisions and ended up cutting two-thirds of her workforce. As she tells it, “Responsible employees and respected friends lost their jobs and I lost my self confidence for a while.” Cindy admits that her biggest mistake was not recognizing changes in her business and, therefore, not reacting to insulate the company from catastrophic events. “I have learned that long-range perspective, planning and flexibility are fundamental to survival in an ever-changing business environment.”

Cindy’s highs have been high, and her lows have been low. But looking back on it all, Cindy knows she made the right decision in starting Artwear. And, she shares these words of wisdom with women considering entrepreneurship:

“Choose something you have a passion for,
as well as the necessary skills and aptitudes.
Muster up all the resources you can and
don’t surrender easily to challenges.”