One thing I would like to do, before that transpires, is to pass the skill on to my granddaughter.

The commercial level machines have the advantage of durability over long term use. One problem I’ve seen with lower end embroidery machines and sewing machines in general is that they don’t hold up well for anything much beyond light hobby use. The phrase they don’t make them like the used to certainly applies to sewing machines.

Another thing about the commercial and higher end machines is that they’re much easier to work with so that one can do the work faster and more efficiently. Some of the cheaper ones can be a pain to thread, for example.

Cect is right about it being seasonal. You’ll tend to get a lot of orders for Christmas and for the summer wedding season but it can be really slack at other times of the year.

I remember my grandmother doing embroidery by hand until her arthritis and other problems kept her from enjoying her sewing hobby.

Embroidery machines are great, particularly those you can hook up to your computer via a USB cable. Of course, as you said, that takes a lot of the craftsmanship and fun out of it.

I’ll probably do an article on sergers soon, with my wife’s help. She has some none too flattering things to say about the Singer sergers.

Finding a good deal on a used or refurbished Bernina is a great way to get a quality machine without spending a huge amount of money on a new one.

I guess it depends on if one is looking for a commercial quality or hobby level embroidery machine. There are often very good deals with used machines where the previous owner bought it on a whim, didn’t use it much and is now selling it at a substantial discount.

Like most retail, most of her money for the year comes from the two months before Christmas, and she also sees small bursts of money in the period leading up to Mother’s Day and Fathers Day. I don’t know whether my aunt would be as successful if she was trying to do this from home; I have the sense that many of her customers are making impulse purchases, which of course wouldn’t happen if she wasn’t out there in front of their faces in the mall.

Looking around online, it seems that there is a very big gap between the kind of machine you might use at home, and one that you would use in a business. The price jumps from a couple of hundred bucks to several thousand.

I wish I had some real advice to give her. My gut feeling is that there may not be enough business available to warrant buying a used embroidery machine that costs several thousand dollars, but equally, I don’t wanna crush what sounds like quite a promising business idea by being negative.

Any ideas anyone?