I am a screen printer, and currently use a small contract embroidery company (a man who uses a Tajima in his house). I want to bring the embroidery in house so I can build up more clients and sales which will also supplement screen printing clients.
I am looking for a single head Tajima, but not sure if I want to buy it cash, finance, or lease. Lease makes sense since I will have an opportunity to get out of it if need be.
Did most of you finance, cash, or lease your machines? If lease, what company did you lease from and why? Thanks for your input!
I lease my SWF. I ended up going through the leasing company that Mesa Distributors works with because the bank where I have both my personal and business accounts would not even give me info on equipment leasing because I had not, at that point, been in business for 2 years. They would not even look at my business plan, banking history, or credit report...but, they did try everything they could to try to talk me into a home equity loan to buy the equipment.
My decision to lease was based on the fact that I wanted to keep as much cash in hand as possible, and advice from my accountant.
I agree that you should talk to your accountant.
Two other things: knowing now, what I did not know then, I would not be afraid to consider a used machine. I would also advise that you spend some time on-line researching software, looking a t demos, and getting pricing. I'm happy with my SWF, but not with my Sierra Embroidery Office software.
We paid cash for ours but there is another option if you have it available. With our credit cards, we get monthly checks with fixed interest rates of anywhere from 2% to 9% for the life of the loan. This is a far less expensive way to borrow money on an equipment purchase. On top of that, if you fall on hard times and don't pay the bill, you still will have the machine. With a lease, you will have to give it up.
We looked at the leasing and it didn't make sense for us. I thought it was too expensive.
We are leasing but be aware that there are leases that you cannot get out of if you want to. We have this type of lease with our DTG. Just double check before you sign the papers.
Finance or Cash?! 
