LAQ as a business 1 quilt a month
 

I have seen a deal where a person can finance a mid-arm/long arm for under the price/cost of quilting one quilt a month. At this time, it's not for me, but looking back, and would have ventured into this business. For those who have the talents and desire, that tells me that LAQ as a business is very viable!
What do you think?

In my opinion, the quilt would have to be very large, very custom quilted and might make a payment on the machine but there is so much more to the business than making payments on the machine.

And how many months/years would I be making payments on this machine?

Actually I sort of justified my longarm purchase in those terms. I've never sent out a quilt to be quilted, because I really want to do the whole job myself. However, if I were paying for my quilts to be longarmed, I figured that it would be an average of $200/quilt. And if I make an average of 1 quilt a month, that would mean my longarm would have paid for itself in less than 5 years. And that's without using it as a business.

It quite obviously depends entirely on the amount financed and the interest rate; it doesn't take the down payment into consideration or any other one-time expenses. For a mid-arm. it sounds entirely reasonable. For a top of the line longarm, maybe not so much.

I didn't get a long arm, but it was how I justified my upgraded sewing machine. I never finished quilts, because I didn't want to pay $200+ to get the quilted. I figured I would need to do X quilts to "pay" for the machine. I did that in the first year.

I think the problem with actually trying to make the money to pay for the machine, is that there is a learning curve. You can't expect to load a paying customer's quilt as your first quilt. It will take time to be able to do excellent work, and then you can start accepting payment for quilts. But if you want one anyway, taking in quilts is a good way to help make the payments. (In one of her books Karen McTavish mentions when she got her longarm she justified she could do a quilt a day, and wouldn't that be a great income. That assumption turned out to be totally not true.)

I do not know about quilting for others but it sure saves me from having to pay someone to quilt mine!

I bought a very reasonably priced 18" long arm at first, for myself and used it a year and had started quilting for customers. Then I upgraded to a 26" long arm and could justify that I could make the payments with the income I was getting from quilting for customers. I have now had mthis long arm for almost 2 years and have made the payments with the income I have from quilting for customers. But remember, when I got my first long arm, I had to make payments on my own until I was experienced enough to do quiting for others for income. I also work a full time job out of the home so I still have an income coming in, and that way my income from my customers can go towards my long arm machine payment.

Do not bet your life on paying for your machine by quilting for others. It depends on how many long and mid arm and fmq people there are in your area. Don't bet your bank account either because interest adds up. Do a lot of market research before making your decision.

I love LAQ but I definitely won't quit my day job! While I do get clients it is sporadic and even if I did have enough clients to keep me busy full time, I would not make near as much as I make working outside the home let alone for it to be my sole sorce of income. My LA was my investment for retirement. I feel it will make a nice supplemental income or at least enough to pay for fabric batting and thread.