I haven't posted in a while (I think it's been 8 or 9 months!) because we've been in the midst of a 3 month long cross-country move and all that entails. Things are beginning to settle down a bit, so we were finally able to focus on embroidery. I was able to speak with an old friend recently who actually owns an embroidery shop and listen to his advice and go from there.
This weekend, we attended ISS Orlando. I attended 12 hours of seminars on design and digitizing. My DH attended 12 hours on hooping, troubleshooting thread breaks, and business topics.
I was really surprised that the digitizing seminars made total sense to me. I think that having worked on a residential machine with editing software and having worked in graphics programs like Paint Shop Pro really helped.
But even more surprising was that my husband LOVED his seminars and he's totally excited about switching industries and jumping into commercial embroidery.
We are leaving with loads of catalogs to look through. We went ahead and purchased an SWF 1501CE 15 thread single head machine. We considered a dual function two head or buying two single heads, but thought we would start with just one. We plan to operate out of a home-based shop and don't need to be a full-time business to make it - but we do intend to operate professionally and grow the business to where we're comfortable.
If you'll remember, I had initially been sold on the Amaya. After realizing that tension knobs were nothing to fear, we were opened up to many other options. Our machine should arrive next week and we'll hopefully attend training that week, as well.
I do have a few questions though (and I'm sure I'm going to have an awful lot more!)
- Can anyone recommend a software program for shop management that is good for a small shop and doesn't cost $1000? We'd like to be able to print professional looking forms, store orders/designs, and run reports. Interfacing with QuickBooks would be a major plus.
- How do you find a reputable digitizer? After all of these seminars, I see how important underlay and good layout is and how you as few thread cuts as possible, etc. Do you just hire a digitizer and see what they produce or is there a better way?
- Are all thread brands created equal or are some better than others?
- What's your absolute best piece of advice for a newbie?
I did somehow manage to restrain my husband and keep him from buying a DTG printer or dye sublimation system. He was very tempted
Thanks ya'll!