So, you’ve decided to start an embroidery business or add stitch-ability to your existing enterprise. You can start by researching machines on the Internet, or you can attend one of the many trade shows where everything embroidery is gathered together in one place for your pleasure. (There are five—yes, five—Printwear Shows this year, so check them out at NBMShows.com and see which one is just right for you.) You can also join an Internet forum such as the Embroidery Line (EmbroideryLine.net) and ask lots of questions before you take the plunge.

Start with the ABCs It’s a good idea to get familiar with the terminology that is used to talk about embroidery machines; it will be easier to make a pro and con list to compare and contrast the different models and makes. For instance, some machines have only one needle bar and presser foot that travels from needle to needle (color to color) as you sew. That may sound good—“Wow, only one needle bar to adjust.”—but what if it breaks? Wouldn’t you rather have a needle bar and presser foot on each needle so you can just “retire” the broken one and use another until the repairman arrives? Maybe, maybe not. But if you have the information, you can decide. And if you know what a needle bar is, you’ll be better prepared to make the decision.

So, you’ve decided to start an embroidery business or add stitch-ability to your existing enterprise. You can start by researching machines on the Internet, or you can attend one of the many trade shows where everything embroidery is gathered together in one place for your pleasure. You can also join an Internet forum such as the Embroidery Line (EmbroideryLine.net) and ask lots of questions before you take the plunge.

Start with the ABCs It’s a good idea to get familiar with the terminology that is used to talk about embroidery machines; it will be easier to make a pro and con list to compare and contrast the different models and makes. For instance, some machines have only one needle bar and presser foot that travels from needle to needle (color to color) as you sew. That may sound good—“Wow, only one needle bar to adjust.”—but what if it breaks? Wouldn’t you rather have a needle bar and presser foot on each needle so you can just “retire” the broken one and use another until the repairman arrives? Maybe, maybe not. But if you have the information, you can decide. And if you know what a needle bar is, you’ll be better prepared to make the decision.

Some older machines (maybe you are looking for a used machine) stitch flats only; the newer ones are tubular with a drop-away table for flat goods. Why is that important? Well, do you want to wrestle with bags and shirts, turning and twisting them to get them flat enough to stitch, or would you rather just slide the opening of the bag or garment over the arm of the machine? Maybe your business will just sew flat panels, because your other business is a cut-and-sew operation. If so, save yourself some money and buy a machine that does just flat work. Don’t spend extra for tubular arrangements or cap attachments. Buy what you need.

Study the machines and ask questions about the computer and other peripherals you may need to make the whole operation run. Determine how much, if any, of the operation may be proprietary. The more independent you are in your business, the more control you have over your destiny.

Proprietary is also the name of the game when it comes to hoops—the framing device that holds the goods while they are being stitched. Not many hoops can be interchanged between machines, and so it is more expensive to have disparate machines with their own hoops in your line-up.

Ask questions even if you think you may know the answer, and begin as you mean to go on. Better to start with an eye to com - patibility so you can grow with economy.

Now, on to the 123s

Once you have a handle on the machine differences and similarities, it’s time to think about configuration. How many heads (that’s the working part of the equipment, where you thread the machine, set the tension and sew; sort of like the number of platens on a screen-printing press) are in the configuration? You can buy a single-head, two-head, four-head, six-head, twelve-head—you get the picture— depending on your production needs.

Like anything else, the more heads, the lower the cost of each. Some shops have single heads which can stitch all the same or different items. Other shops may have a single head for personalization (name drops) and larger machines for production work. I think of this part of the decision making process as the three-bears dilemma: is it too big, too small or just right? The answer is important when it comes to choosing machines to produce embroidery in your business.

Most start-ups begin with a single-head machine. This makes sense. You start small, build your business, use the machine to stitch samples, maybe as a verifier to check your progress as you learn to digitize.

The single-head used to be the buzz at the trade shows, but I’ve noticed a real move on the part of machine salesmen to recommend the two-head. This machine enables the business to take on larger orders with the ability to produce them twice as fast as a single head. Only one head needs to be disabled to stitch a single unit or verify a design, and you can always keep the second head on and stitch a sample for your portfolio, or a special marketing lagniappe (French Creole for “value added”—the 13th pastry in a baker’s dozen) for your customer. Slipping an embroidered golf cap in with an order of shirts can spark the idea for an additional order.

I would think that all embroidery shops would want a single or a two-head in the line, no matter how big they grow. There will always be a need for samples and singles and it is much less expensive to turn off one head on a two-head—or keep a single head in the shop—than to turn off three out of four or five out of six heads to fill a one-ofa- kind order or verify a design.

ABCs and 123s of production

I have met folks across the nation who wanted to buy a big machine based on one large order or, more distressing, the promise of a large order. A significant exception, one couple I know entered the business with the purchase of two twelve-head machines—but they had been part of corporate America for years and had carefully laid the groundwork for a move into significant embroidery production, based on their existing business relationships.

I have had many discussion about an all single-head configuration versus a combination of multi-heads, and written about both sides of the argument. But, if you are looking to get into mega (or even minimega) production, the chances are you will have a single or two-head for the reasons stated above, and multi-heads as well. Is that your dream?

Some shops make the decision to duplicate machines, adding a second two, four, or six-head to allow simultaneous stitching of different jobs or the convenience of stitching a cap and matching shirt order at the same time. It all depends on what is coming in the door, and the heft of the marketing you are doing to capture your share of the embroidery pie.

For the sake of demonstration, let us equip our dream shop with a single-head, one four-head and a 12-head. How do we use these machines to best advantage? Let’s say we just wrote a large order for 120 embroidered placket shirts and 120 embroidered jackets.

We can do those shirts in 30 runs on our four-head. Or we can finish them in 10 runs on the 12-head. This makes it awfully tempting to go for the 12-head, right? But let’s say that the design is a left-chest logo with only 2,400 stitches. Running the machine at 800 stitches per minute (spm), it will take three minutes to sew the design. If you have the luxury of two sets of hoops for the 12-head, you begin with 24 hooped shirts. When the first run comes off and the second run is sewing, you now have three minutes to correctly and accurately hoop 12 shirts. Can you do it? Can anybody do it? My point is, if you can’t keep up with the equipment, the largest, newest, fastest machine in the world won’t meet your production requirements.

Alternately, why not schedule that order for 120 jackets—with a 70,000 stitch fullback design—on the twelve-head and use your four-head for the shirts? Most operators can hoop four shirts straight and tight in three minutes . . . and you will have 87 minutes (at the same 800 spm) to get those next 12 jackets hooped perfectly.

It’s more than just figuring out the number of runs; it’s determining what the operator can handle, which is based on numbers: the number of hoops you have for the job, the number of stitches in the design, the number of minutes it takes to run, and the number of minutes you have to get ready for the next run. If the operator is still hooping while the machine sits idle, waiting for the next round of loaded hoops, production time is being lost and you are not using your machines to maximum advantage.

Using your education

As I’ve written here before, the rule of thumb for appropriate production on a single-head is jobs of 1-12 units. A two head bumps that up to 13-72 units. The four-head gets you into the beefy category, easily handling 73-144 units profitably. The six-head moves you to jobs of 73-300 units.

Four- and six-heads can really ramp up your production, along with a single head or two adding names (personalization) while the larger machines pump out the jacket backs, tote-bag designs or complex corporate logos.

A few of these larger machines and you will be in the game of wholesale production— wholesale being where you produce goods for resale that bring you, the production house, a healthy share of the profit. This is when you’ll be in a position to offer a discount for volume, but not the high quantity pricing of the contract house.

This is also where many embroiderers come face-to-face with a decision that really molds their future. Moving from a single to the first four- or six-head keeps the shop small enough for one person to handle alone. But when you grow again and add wholesale capabilities, you have to think about working 24/7 or embrace the paperwork and requirements of employees.

The 12-head, a monster machine capable of efficiently stitching jobs of 300-plus units, puts you on the road to serious production work. With this kind of capability you can court larger corporate jobs and serious wholesale production. If you have kept all your machines along the way to this point, you are approaching the world of contract-embroidery capability where employees are a necessity, round-the-clock shifts are a reality, and commitment is unavoidable if success is your goal.

Doing your homework

You can begin with a single head and contract out your larger jobs, but sooner or later you may choose to grow and bring more and more of the work in-house. The most basic decision will always be what size of machine to buy. It is more important than the make of machine, but never more important than buying from a company that will support you and your growing business.

Learn all you can, then study the market; then study your market. This may be a longterm project, growing slowly as you learn where you are going. You also need to study your dreams and match them to the reality of how fast and in which direction your business is expanding.

To help you with that homework, I have written a pair of books (learn more at HelenHart.com) about professional embroidery, one about the business, the other about the stitching. I wrote them to help with the education that is so important in the business of embroidery. Whatever direction you are growing, whatever your goal, I wish you success. And if these books help you, I will have reached my goal.

Don’t lose sight of continuing to use a contract house to allow you to take in more than you can stitch so that you are always growing into your expansion. It is a lot easier to purchase a new machine and hire a new operator when goods are waiting to be stitched.

Reprinted from Printwear Magazine - January 2006 ©2006 National Business Media, Inc. all rights reserved