Cui (pronounced Tara in English) Liu found her way to Murray, and now owns a lifestyle company which operates locally and internationally.

She was born and raised in China. When she was 16 she came to Leitchfield as an exchange student. 

“Kentucky was not on my radar,” she said. “Growing up in China, I had visions of large houses with pools and when I landed in Leitchfield, it was culture shock.”

Cui had studied English for five years before coming to the U.S., but she said that was British English and it did not prepare her for the Kentucky slang and accent.

“The kids in high school were very nice to me and one of them said, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ and I looked up. They explained to me what that meant and I knew I had a lot to learn.”

During her senior year, she started visiting colleges within the state, which brought her to Murray State University.

“I loved the environment in Murray and they had a large international student population,” she said.

“The director of the international program explained the advantages of Murray State and the international program. This made my decision pretty easy.”

Cui began her classes at Murray State in the summer of 1999. She went to summer school and did a quick English as a second language program. She graduated with an international business degree in 2003.

MVP Group International in Mayfield called her right before her graduation.

“They told me they were doing a lot of business in China and my language skills would be very beneficial,” Cui said. “I went for an interview, was hired, and worked for them for several years. They were later bought by another company, but the business was still very similar. Eventually it evolved into the candle factory.”

Cui’s job entailed a lot of traveling. She was working in importing, exporting, and wholesale to retail customers. This job is where she gained a lot of experience.

In 2014 Cui left the company.

“I needed a break,” she said. “I had been living out of a suitcase and had spent 12 prime years of my life working 16 hours a day. I missed holidays with my family here and in China and I didn’t have time for a personal relationship.”

She took a six months break, but during the time she was working for the Mayfield company, she had started a business in China.

“We opened some home furnishings stores in China,” Cui said.” My company was OK with me having this business on the side. I hired a team in China and they worked really hard. I was holding a full time job and couldn’t be in China to oversee. We were trying to set up franchise stores, but all of this led to burn out.”

Cui said she realized she could make a difference in people’s lives if she started her own business.

“My team in China was doing a great job and they were happy. That is when I realized I could start my own business.”

In 2015 she incorporated Cui Liu Designs and has been growing the business each year.

“It is a wholesale home furnishings business where we design, manufacture overseas and import to retailers in the U.S.”

But in the beginning, Cui didn’t know who the customers were going to be.

“First, we had to have a product and I went overseas to work on products, brought back samples and we set up an office on the north side of Murray. But we ran into cash flow problems.”

Cui had made a business plan and had taken it to local banks, but no one would give her financing.

“They told me I was not an established business yet. I had a great business plan, but told me to wait until I had some business history and to come back to them.”

Cui began asking God what she was going to do. 

“He didn’t give me the desire to go on this journey without a plan and I had to just trust that he would help me carry out this business.”

Cui went to investors and pitched to them the idea of a small investment for 40% of her business. Some agreed and then, at the last minute, backed out. Again, she was questioning God’s plan for her life.

“I decided I was going to go for it and I took out a second mortgage on my house, took out all of my retirement funds and I worked with my vendors, who believed in me, to delay invoicing. My parents supported me and all of this got us through the first part of the business.”

Cui said they received plenty of orders. “The retailers loved our products and they knew my history of growing other people’s business, but the money part was the biggest hurdle to overcome.”

For the first year, Cui Liu was running as a two member team working out of her kitchen. As the business grew she added more staff and they eventually outgrew their space on the north side and moved the business to where it is today, on Maple Street.

As the business grew, she added more team members.

“I already knew people in the industry and they knew me. I am, naturally, a very savvy shopper. I know what the price should be and we have to focus on value and design. I had retailers to contact me because they said their business had suffered since I had left the Mayfield company and they wanted me to open my own business.”

Cui said as the business grew, people would see their merchandise in stores, notice their pink signature tags, Google them and then make contact. Cui Liu does business with Ross stores, Burlington stores, TJX companies, At Home, Hobby Lobby, Bed Bath & Beyond and Wayfair, to name a few.

Cui Liu Designs was presented the 2016 Rookie of the Year award and 2019 Quality Leader award from At Home.

“To walk into one of these stores and see our merchandise is a great feeling,” Cui said. “Our greatest moments are when we see all of our pink tags in a store.”

Cui says people are surprised when they find out her business is here. “We fly under the radar because we are not putting our name on merchandise in Murray. Wholesale is our business.”

The Cui Liu team draw their initial designs in Murray and send those design to vendors in different countries to make samples for them. They do business with companies in China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

“We travel overseas and visit our vendors, look at the products and production,” Cui said. “When we are not there our team in China is doing this and our quality control team is on the ground and so is our shipping manager. There are so many different components and what we do here in Murray is different from what our team does overseas.

Cui Liu has been nominated for a small business honor by the local US Bank and was selected from the entire East Coast Division.

“They are coming with their social media team to film us and do a story,” said Cui.

During COVID, Cui said it affected her mentally as most of their customers are brick and mortar stores and they were shut down.

“We were worried. As a leader of a team and business owner, I think it is healthy to share your fears because we are all in this together. We brainstormed together and discussed how we could pivot through this pandemic. My teams, both here and overseas, were so supportive and even volunteered to take pay cuts or work without pay so that the business could stay open.”

Cui said they have been very frugal with their money and their business was OK.

“We took that pause and started developing new products. We ventured into other lifestyle products. For instance, we did a water bottle, we did skin care products and grew our E-commerce. We worked together days and nights and researched and developed new products. In less than three months, we launched a new product on Amazon that we never knew anything about three months ago.” The water bottle was packaged, designed and shipped from Murray and it has been very successful. “My team was committed and knew they were a part of the vision I had,” she said.

Cui’s advice to other women contemplating going into business – You can’t do it alone. “Go through the trials and errors and don’t give up easily. Nothing is an overnight success. When you want to give up, that is just part of entrepreneurship and life. Put the work in and get to where you want to be. As long as you have your vision, you will get there. It just might take awhile. The plan might change, but the end goal will never change. The days you want to give up are the days you are close to a breakthrough. Surround yourself with good mentors.

“As women we don’t like to ask for help. Successful people are very gracious to share their experience if you just ask. I saved a lot of headaches by going to people and asking for help. A lot of local businesswomen and men would sit down with me and were so willing to listen and help.”

Cui believes in giving back and started a nonprofit organization – WIN (Women Inspirational Network) with Loretta Daniel. 

“We came together and thought women in our community needed support, especially ones that wanted to start a business. The program’s mission is to help women connect to mentors. Of course, this was pre-pandemic, but we are gong to start it up again soon.”

Cui is very fortunate in that she has three sets of parents…she calls them her real parents in China, her Murray parents and her Mayfield parents.

She is now the proud mother of a two-month old son. Her partner has a business in Hawaii and travels frequently. They are planning a wedding soon, but because of COVID, they wanted to wait until their families could attend.

Andrus, Martha. “Women in Business: Liu has passion for her business and her team.” Murray Ledger & Times, April 27, 2022. Read the article →