Regardless of what you've heard about "saturated", I still think you should follow your dreams and create a business plan. Stick to the plan. Give yourself time now to practice, build up skills, market your business. You will SLOWLY build up clientele. By the time you retire, you should be up on step with a steady customer base.
I will tell you that customers like to try out other/new longarmers. So, don't be surprised once word gets around that you are in business.
As a business person, it's always good to find your niche in the market and get your name out there. That niche could be as simple as your friendly personality or your quick turnaround time. Advertising is expensive, but spending money on a Facebook page, paying for a blurb in the local longarm newsletters or even in the local advertising newspaper, creating cute business cards and trifold to hand out to potential customers. You have to get your name and face out there. It's who you know that gets the word of mouth moving around. Make quilts and put them in the local fair. Create quilts and DONATE them to charity fundraisers. Donating quilts to fundraisers gets your name out there as a business person. Attend guild meetings or other craft groups and hand out your cards and trifolds. Talk to local shops about displaying your information. Eventually when you can afford it, buy a domain name and create a web site. Customers like to look at your site on the internet. Be creative-- think out of the box on your advertising angles. You'll be surprised that even in a saturated market, you can find your place. Follow your dreams.
The number of quilters with longarms and mid-arms has risen like crazy in the past four years in my area. If you can spend the five to seven years left to sharpening your skills while taking a few customers here and there, go for it. It hasn't impacted my business, but I do primarily custom and have little competition. My quilts come from those who save the big ones and the special ones for me---I do 4 per month and sometimes struggle to get them done. Mine is a different situation so if you are able to analyse the competition, see if you can figure out a niche market. Are there lots of overall/e2e quilters so you'll be competing with them? Are there Modern quilters looking for a kindred-spirit longarmer? Is the custom market fully covered? Also, would you be happy to purchase a used machine to start out and upgrade to a new w/computer later? Please remember as well, the longarmer who advised you only has her best interests at heart---not yours. Though her advice may be spot-on, don't be deterred until you do some more research.
Jan E. reacted to quiltmonkey in How is your quilting business?
