I never thought about quilting till I went with a friend to check out a machine system and ended up ordering one myself. That started things rolling for me. Hadn't even made that many quilt either at that time. Then I got a robotic system for my little 9" machine, had lots of problems with it and was getting ready to ship it back when my dealer talked me out of it. Bad move on my part but it came out okay later. Upgraded the robotics with another brand so no loss in original setup. Then moved up to a stretched 18" machine. Finally moved up to a 26", 12' frame and upgraded robotic system. Now all this time I only quilt for myself as I never felt I was good enough to make it in business plus I just don't care for all the stress of worrying if I ruined someone's quilt. I have quilted a couple small quilts for some friends but oh the stress the I went thru while doing it. Though I use robotics all the time it can still go badly for you when things don't line up as you think they should, etc. I do mainly custom quilting on my quilts which are given out as gifts to folks that wouldn't know a bad quilt if it hit them in the face so I don't worry about it.
I can quilt when I feel like it, no time limit set for when I finally get it done. Only finished 1 quilt last year but have made up for it with 7 so far this year with 5 tops waiting to be quilted, 3 more in the planning stage. I can quilt in the middle of the night when I feel up to it. I like being able to schedule my quilting when I want instead of having to wait in line for someone else to do it for me. I do enjoy working up the quilting layout using ProQ Designer program. So many variations I can come up with and then decide which one I want to use at the end.
Just a few reasons why I have a quilt system of my own with no business ties.