Once you get experienced and develope a client base you will be able to have a good business.
I do find that more people have gotten machines so there is more long arm avaiability.... but it is still hard to find someone to do other that pantograph work. Good Custom work is hard to come by and then a long back log. I have a top that I got on the list for custom back in March for quilting in October.
The rates in my area for typical Pantograph work are all about .015 per square inch.. some offer free thread or some other value of about 10 to 15 dollars. Back log for this kind of work is anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months depending on the quilter. Some LQS have machines and a few have only a week of backlog, but they will not do custom work only pantograph, edge to edge. Occasionally they will send out an e- mail ... a no lines no waitng for long arm work ... typically in January ..after everone has rushed to finish a quilt for Christmas.
Once someone likes and has confidence in the person doing the longarm work , particularly custom , they will stay with that person.
I have paid over $600 for custom work on a full size quilt. It is understandable that a good business can not do all custom , there should be a balance of "computerized production work" and custom or the amount of time standing and bending will get tiresome.
All of the longarm people I have worked with agree that having the computerized system is great for production pantograph work... imagine doing several just stipple quilting , quilts one after another .... without the computer system....boring!
All of the longarm people I have worked with tell me ... they wish they had more time for their own sewing/quilting.