Help Advice Needed

By Sirsean on Aug. 11, 2011
United States

Hi im new to embroidery, i want to add a machine to my current shop..

these are the machines i was looking at to start out.

1Babylock Commercial 6 Needle for about 5K.

2. Ricoma 15Needle 4500

3 Brother 416A

Brother PR620

Any help will be greatly appreciated

Embroidery

There are 11 Comments

Submitted by xxyybeth on Fri, 08/12/2011 - 08:49

Be Careful What You Wish For.

Can be a Money Pit, Declining Market, SKILLS/ EXPERIENCE and proper TOOLS of the Trade can eat up your retirement funds in a heart-beat and have you beat-feetin' to your Doctor for Stress, Anexiety, Depression med's (-:

I highly suggest you seek employment at a commerical embroidery shop FIRST, of course, in your spare time, get hands on experience, see exactly what's involved/required. Don't forget Digitizing as well.

Again, Be Careful What You Wish For, it's not get rich quick.
Would you like fries with that- pays better.

Submitted by xxyybeth on Fri, 08/12/2011 - 09:08

In this economy, not cost effective to purchase equipment and all other overhead involved.

Farm Out, Out Source, your orders.

There's very little if any profit on small orders, send small orders to your competitor, put them out of business and Farm Out large orders to commercial embroidery house.

Seriously, save yourself, your money:-)

Submitted by mlathem1998 on Fri, 08/12/2011 - 09:55

You know, I disagree and offended that here in an embroidery forum that someone gives that kind of advice. If you are not or did not do so well in the embroidery business that does not mean a newcomer won't. Embroidery work isn't on every street corner. I do not have a machine, and trying to get one myself. I do think purchasing a small machine at first is wise and then upgrading, but to just stay away from it all together is ridiculous advice.

Submitted by ImpactPrinting on Fri, 08/12/2011 - 10:58

You need to what is best for you. Take advice and get a business plan in place. Make you own choices in life. I open 11 months it's been up and down but I wouldn't trade it for a 9:00 to 5:00 job. I have a PR600 bought used and it runs great. Do your homework learn all you can and follow your dreams. You can make money in this business, just charge enough for your products and give excellent service. You will do fine.

Submitted by DASWholesale on Fri, 08/12/2011 - 14:17

Sirsean wrote:
Hi im new to embroidery, i want to add a machine to my current shop..

these are the machines i was looking at to start out.

1Babylock Commercial 6 Needle for about 5K.

2. Ricoma 15Needle 4500

3 Brother 416A

Brother PR620

Any help will be greatly appreciated

I know nothing about the babylock, as I've never seen one run.

The Ricoma is a piece of junk. Avoid it.

I ran the crap out of a Brother single head 6 color machine, and never had major problems. It ran at least 5 hours a day for 8 years, all oneither sew-outs or name drops. My shop ran 24/7 on mostly contract work, and every single tape got sewn out on that machine, was evaluated and stitched out, BEFORE it was released to a production machine.
The PR620 is basically the successor to the machine I ran, so that would be my recommendation.

Submitted by Stitchitintl on Fri, 08/12/2011 - 15:38

Sirsean wrote:
Hi im new to embroidery, i want to add a machine to my current shop..

these are the machines i was looking at to start out.

1Babylock Commercial 6 Needle for about 5K.

2. Ricoma 15Needle 4500

3 Brother 416A

Brother PR620

Any help will be greatly appreciated

I agree with DAS. Either of the Brothers would be the way to go. The PR620 has the advantage of having the LCD sreen and fonts built into the machine so for a small business that is a plus. Don't listen to the person telling you that you can't make money in this business because people are doing it every day.

I would go with a Brother or Tajima if I were you.

Kyle McMinn
Stitch It International
kyle@stitchitintl.com
www.stitchitintl.com
573-866-3676 Office
573-576-8636 Cell

Submitted by xxyybeth on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 08:22

Message Misunderstood.

There's definetely money to be made, but only if you know what you're doing, Experienced and have the proper tools of the trade.

Otherwise, it's a Money-Pit until you have what it takes, and of course, Location, Location, Location.

Submitted by sewforyou on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 12:30

My suggestion is to first ask yourself if you have the desire to develop a business.

Regardless of the economy, the discouraging negativity of some of the responses noted here, there is a great potential for a new person just starting in this business! Many of the embroidery shops and home-operations that have gone under are the result of poor client development and poor choices in their money management. Many of my competitors, that have closed in these difficult times, thought this was EASY money...no business is EASY money. No matter what business you are in it takes work to build. Please do not be discouraged by the negativity you have seen here.

As a successful business operator I offer you this advise:
Take the time to make a list of all the people you will contact and try to develop a business
relationship with. Local business owners, schools, teams, clubs, hospitals, county, state and local organizations, speciality shops, ect. When you have a list of 100 or more prospects then buy your equipment.

Buy QUALITY equipment meant for professional work. Name brands like Brother, SWF, Tajima, are the ones I would consider. In my opinion BabyLoc is not on the same par at the 3 noted as it was introduced for the home hobby sewer. High quality used equipment is a good investment to start. Used equipment may allow you to start with more heads than you might need at first, but will certainly need in the near future.

Find A GREAT DIGITIZER. You cannot do everything yourself and don't let anyone tell you that you can. Lettering software for adding names or monograms is all you should consider starting out. Take time to learn how to use it and practice on lots of different fabric samples.

It takes time to develop your business, but with the RIGHT TOOLS and determination YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS BUSINESS!

Submitted by Fattyonamoped on Sun, 08/14/2011 - 01:49

Like any other business you want to start, takes passion, hard work and even a little luck. If you want to buy a machine I suggest a single brother or tajima. I started with 1 machine 5 years ago in my house and grew into a 2500 sq ft warehouse and 8 machines. Not gigantic but bigger than I imagined especially in such a roller coaster economy. Be careful with growing pains, exciting but can hurt, growing to fast can burn you out. I agree with finding a digitizer you can trust. When I started I gave the same design to 4 different digitizers so I could compare apples with apples. After reviewing the finished designs (because they all claim to be the best lol) I picked one and use him for everything. Expensive but American and top quality. I posted a thread here awhile back titled "Digitizing Challenge" might give you an idea how so many people can interpret the same design so differently.

Anyway i say go for it, even though I got burned out and slightly agree with Negative Nancy that money could be invested somewhere better, you'll never know until you try. Just make sure you stay focused on your business plan and keep a high level of passion. Good luck.

Submitted by xxyybeth on Sun, 08/14/2011 - 11:34

Sound Advice, love the list!

Note: Market Trends, forms of embellishments that Large Organizations are buying (Embroidery versus Screen, Dye Sub, Direct To Garment, Appliques, Holister Look, etc.).
I still highly suggest you seek employment in a shop to gain experience and/or see all that is involved, even if you have to work for free, sweep floors, etc.

Treat it like a business from the Get-Go!

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