I got an email yesterday asking if I'd reccomend an SWF embroidery machine for a business...
The answer in short is YES! There are several ways to go when setting up an embroidery business but the single most important decision is in buying your machine. While a business can be started and even run for a while with a home machine, I wouldn't recommend it. Home machines just are NOT designed for the type of day-in-and-day-out use required for an embroidery business. Comercial machines ARE designed for that type of use.
When buying commercial machines you have several good choices. They are Tajima, Barudan, Brother, SWF, and a few others too. These machines are heavy-duty and will allow your business to earn money you simply could not do with a home machine.
The only exception would be the Brother PR600 (or PR600-2) machine OR the Babylock equivalents called the EMP6 (or BMP6) machines which are a "crossover" serving the home market but are sturdy enough to also use for a business. The disadvantage to the PR600/EMP6 machines is the limit of 6 thread colors but 80% of all designs sewn for a business are 6 or less colors.
