New to Embroidery Digitizing

Hey everyone!

The wife and I are new to the embroidery scene, going to start a little side business with lots of promising work to come, but just need to get all set up first. Now I know it’s fairly cost effective and good to use digitizing services but I would like to learn slowly to do our own work.

My back ground is a lot of photoshop, web design and other programs like Corel draw for screen printing and vinyl cutting for t shirts. I know my way around a computer, design and such, but need some help with what program to start with?

Ive seen a lot of good things about Hatch or embrillance, what is everyone’s thoughts and programs they are using? Thanks!

i use hatch by wilcom. it's around $1300. it's basically like vector embroidery. overall it's a easy software to learn and master, however I don't digitize my files. I outsource the designs, because I do a lot of work, and digitizing might take more my time than I need too.
Since you use adobe photoshop, do you use adobe illustrator. There another program called Embroidery i2 for Adobe® Illustrator®.