She was a teacher at Longview High School and her daughters were in the band and majorettes. She found a woman to do some embroidery on their uniforms, but that woman told Loy that after that she was retiring and wanted to sell her machine.

"It was a little embroidery machine the size of a regular sewing machine with a keyboard and no monitor," Loy said. "However, I bought it and began doing small personal items for friends and family, just as a hobby, and to have a little 'cigar box' money for fun."

She worked out of her dining room.

"Unbeknownst to me at the time, it was the beginning of an awakening to knowing myself in my own context, not as a mother, a wife, a teacher, but me, the real person behind the concept others had of me," she said.

Time was her biggest challenge at first. Between grading papers and taking care of her family, there was no time to do embroidery work until everyone was in bed. She knew she had to decide what she wanted to do with her life.

"The decision was easy for me at the time," Loy said. "I was quickly burning out on the teaching and absolutely loved the embroidery work, so I resigned my teaching position in 1995."

She was looking forward to being a stay-at-home mom to her daughters, who would be graduating within a couple of years.

Her divorce in 1996, however, changed her plans.

"It was difficult, painful and forced me to rethink my role as a mother, wife and businesswoman," she said. "What started out as being a little home business became a lifeline to which I had to cling in order to support myself and two children approaching college age. It was a matter of survival."

It was an emotional time, she said, but she did not want to return to teaching and was determined to make her business successful. Friends and family, and her ex-husband, supported her personally, professionally and financially to help her get established.

"In fact, within about six months of being on my own, I had to hire an employee to help me keep my head above water."

She purchased two commercial-size embroidery machines and moved from her dining room to the game room - a converted garage. Her school contacts and "bare-bones" marketing paid off.

"It was the beginning of the era of school uniforms, and I was right there as apparently the only commercial embroidery person willing to take on the suppliers of school shirts," she said. "From that point, we just took off."

She often was in the right place at the right time, she said, and she's always taken baby steps when she made any expansion.

"Each time I have taken that tiny leap of faith, it has been in the right direction," she said.

She had to leave her home after her divorce for smaller quarters without space for the business. A friend's husband owned a building with a 750-square-foot vacancy that met her needs.

"That was in 1998, and now, in 2009, we have about 2,000 square feet, and I have an office finally," Loy said. "We have 17 operating embroidery heads (which means we can do 17 items at one time), four full-time employees and two part-timers. We are basically divided into two entities: commercial and retail."

She doesn't want to expand the physical size of the business, but instead wants to figure out a way to increase production. A second shift of workers would be the next step, she said.

"All the steps were taken with much thought and even some spiritual guidance," Loy said.

Every day is a learning experience, she said, and an entrepreneur, no matter how educated, can never expect to know everything about a business.

"I have had to learn everything about running a business as it comes up," she said. "I call it S.O.P. learning (seat of pants) because I had no formal training in business or any courses in business in college. I just know I need a good CPA and a good lawyer — the first to keep me out of trouble, and the second to get me out of trouble."

She said people who are considering starting their own business must be willing to work the 80-hour weeks themselves.

"Don't expect to put it together and hire someone else to run it," she said. "The investment of your own personal time is what makes the difference."