Starting an embroidery business. What machine should I purchase?

Hello, this is my first post. Thank you for checking it out. I know I was supposed to post in the introductions part of the forum but I figure this is a better place for this thread to take place.
I have a friend that owns a screen printing shop in Rhode Island. I may be able to join his business as a partner if I have something to offer aside from helping screen print. I have ~$8000 to spend on this but that is pretty much my entire savings, so if I could find something for a bit cheaper that would be ideal. Maybe if I can make money off of this I can eventually buy another machine to replace this (theoretical) machine or help with the workload. It's going to be a business start up machine though, and since I'm spending so much of my own money I need something reliable and cost effective.
We would be using the machine mainly to create patches up to ~12"x14" and we wouldn't need too many colors to choose from. A lot of the customers that would be interested probably would only want two or three colors to choose from. I'll need to be able to take an image to the machine (artwork) and embroider it onto fabric. So either a USB or floppy drive (I'm computer savvy and can make use of older hardware fairly easy, though USB is obviously better due to the size constraints of the floppy media).
What brands should I look for? Are there professional quality 4 color embroidery machines? What do I need to know or look out for? I assume I'll save money by buying used machinery, is this safe?
I have a background in book binding and portfolio box making but I work for someone and am curious to branch out a bit and start my own business. Can anyone help with advice?
Thanks,
Erik