just starting

I started with a Tajima Neo. It is a true workhorse and easy to run. Most people consider Corel to be more user friendly & less expensive but opinions can vary depending on the user's background. I see that you're from Long Island. A great way to see different machines in progress and talk to salesmen would be to attend the ISS show in Atlantic, City NJ this March. You might consider taking the embroidery workshop or a few classes. Thomas Moore is giving 2 classes on creating vector art and another art related class is "Digital Art Camp:Powered by Corel X3".

http://www.issshows.com/issshows/1242/index.jsp

hello there,

If you only occasionally do embroidery job, then a single head machine is enough, you may want to consider Babylock, Singer, or other small machines. As for the software, most machines have their own software included.

Hey,
I think for most folks the best thing is to send your digitizing out. It's takes a long time to become a good digitizer and the best software is very expensive. Your time is better spent on getting clients and learning embroidery, which can be more difficult than it seems!

I also highly recommend attending an ISS show and going to workshops. I spent 12 hours on digitizing at ISS Orlando and just finished up 2 hours of training on the digitizing program from SWF. It's very user friendly but there is a HUGE learning curve with digitizing. I'm sure I can handle the very simple designs, but anything at all complex we'll be sending out!