hello, I just had a question about how this works. I have been thinking about adding an embriodery machine to my business but just doing my homework...Can someone just give me a picture of something they want or something I can design in Flexi Sign Pro and send that to the digitalizer? Also, is there away I can do simple text without having it digitalized? Thanks, Nick
most digitizers can make a design from a jpeg. I know the SWF software has a truetype font converter. I will allow you to sew all true type fonts. .... JB
really? The font converter sounds like a nice thing to have. How do you determine your cost for digitalizing to the customer? I know a lot of people charge $6 per 1000 stitches but how do you really know how many stitches something is? Do you have to get a qoute from the digitalizer and get back to the customer? Also is there some software you buy that has some random images all ready to cut?
I agree with Binki on farming it out until you can support your own machine with work comming in. I have several people use me for theiir orders The local shop that gets most of the school work from the 2 districts has me do their hats. I smile and take his money. I figure who cares who gets credit as long as a make the cash. ... JB
I agree...oursource your digitizing until you're comfortable with doing it yourself. And, you can learn alot just by watching the designs sew out.
I always suggest sending the same design to 3 digitizers, and then compare the results. This will help you choose a digitizer.
Some digitizers use size and number of colors to determine price (rather than stitch count). This can make it a little bit easier to give your customer a quick bid. Still, in the beginning I would give a range, rather than a firm number -- "$50 - $65 for this design".
I send all my digitizing to EmbroideryDesigns.com. I pass the actual cost along to the customer -- that's the only thing I do not make a profit on.
I agree with Binki on farming it out until you can support your own machine with work comming in. I have several people use me for theiir orders The local shop that gets most of the school work from the 2 districts has me do their hats. I smile and take his money. I figure who cares who gets credit as long as a make the cash. ... JB
I feel the same way...there is a trophy shop right across the street from me, and he sells embroidery jobs now and them -- then he brings it to me to do the embroidery. I actually make more money on those jobs because I haven't spent any time selling the job, sourcing and ordering shirts, etc.
Most embroidery software packages come with stock fonts. You could use those fonts for some lettering but in many cases a skilled digitizer can do better work especially with small text. I haven't used the TTF converter in the SWF software but I have used the converter in Pulse software. It works with some fonts but in many cases the quality can't match a digitized font.
question about design work 
