best machines for startups

Are you interested in a Singlehead or Multihead setup? My suggestion will be to buy a multihead machine as you never know when you receive so much work. Leave your comments for in detail suggestions.

erhhgg.... Hi there... for a first machine I would strongly recommend a more well known name branded machine such as a Tajima, Melco or SWF. Being practical these would be machines that would probably be easier to resell if you decided to. They have a larger base of owners already... with support groups and blogs to allow you more help when something goes wrong as well as a larger group of technicians available.

i want to get in to the embrodery industry and i want to buy a used enbroider but not too expensive. should i get single head ot 3 heads machine. and about how much i will have to spent to get a decent one ?

What part of Zambia? I was there 2 years ago on Safari, going down the Zambezi river and seeing your Victoria Falls, what a beautiful Country! There definitely is alot of room there for embroidered items for the tourists... I think you will do quite well.

Thanks Robert for your comments. I have an office in Livingstone a tourist town, southern part of Zambia and I have another Design office in Kitwe Town a copper mining area. Kitwe is economically growing fast and that is a big reason why I want to set up this industry. Investors are coming to Zambia in numbers becos our country is offering very attractive business conditions and Zambians are peaceful people. So help me out to set up this industry, Robert and others.
Chisuloj

I stayed in a lodge for a few nights right outside of Livingstone.. There too I thought there was an opportunity to do more embroidery. I think you are on to something! I am not familiar with which distributors you have for machines in your country. But I would recommend going with whomever seems to be around more.... so you will have an easier time with maintenance issues ... maybe a preowned Tajima or SWF? as far as training it might be a better investment for you to go to a larger town and work for an embroidery shop for at least 4-6months... after that time you will definitely see all the things that can go wrong.. ha. you will probably want to send out your digitizing for the first year or so... so you can concentrate on quality embroidery and training new staff and selling your items. There are good digitizers in Cape Town, South Africa that would be closer for you.

Hi,
I am also starting up my own embroidery business and just got off the phone with a West-coast SWF representative who was TONS of help. She told me that Tajima, Baruda and SWF were the way to go. She also recommended purchasing a 4-head and a single-head machine for off-sewing purposes. I'm still new to the terminology, but it's when you test a design on a single head while you're still sewing on the 4-head. SWF has great sales and has techs in certain areas of the US that, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not sure if Tajima or Baruda offer that.

Here are some questions she told me to ask while shopping around:
1. Why should I choose your machine?
2. What type of warranty do you offer? (She said the top 3 offer 5 years)
3. Where is your service going to come from? (I, for instance will start my business in Washington State where they already have a service technician there).

She even helped out with an internship idea I'm working on. Just a few things to think about. PM me (I just joined....I think they do that on this site) if you want her specific contact information. She seems like a legit person!

Best of luck,
Tracie

You'll also want to ask about machine and software training and be concerned about the quality of the embroidery. Also, how well does the machine embroider hats? Is it easy to switch to hats? What is the resell value of the machine? Is there phone tech support? what parts are covered by the warranty? What type of parts does the machine have, plastic or metal? What type of technology does the machine use?

Big Choice & lots to consider...
SWF is the only company that offers a 100% Trade up GUARANTE.
http://www.swfeast.com/en/embroidery_machine_trade_value.asp

Check out the SWF 1501c, it is the most popular of their 5 or 6 different single heads they offer for Startup's

Don't buy a Brother 600. We did, and it works OK most of the time, but tech support is awful and fix-it guys are few and far between. Warranty is short, and its impossible to get ahold of anybody at the factory or even in sales.
We wouldn't do it again.

for ease of use and price the brother pr620 6 thread is best