15th Anniversary | All Access | 89
they had to offer. The distributor explained
how the machines worked and told him
how easy it was to use them at home.
Steve leased his very first embroidery
machine that day for a small fee of
$24,000. That didn’t include any software,
hoops, or accessories, and it had a screen
that looked like the face of a calculator.
Once the machine arrived, Steve and his
mom began giving home demonstrations
and taking orders left and right for stock
designs. Almost immediately they began
getting swamped with requests for
custom designs and logos. Seeing a great
opportunity, Steve then told his mother,
“I am going to create our designs. I am
going to digitize!” So, after another visit to
the salesman from whom he bought the
machine, and going over all the options
for digitizing, Steve signed another lease
to become the proud owner of $50,000
worth of digitizing software. Sounds crazy
doesn’t it? Do you know what you do
when you spend $50,000 on software?
You spend every waking hour learning
how to use it, and that’s what he did
Seeing a great
opportunity, Steve
then told his mother,
“I am going to create
our designs. I am
going to digitize!”
over the next few months until he finally
created his first design and charged for his
services.
Luckily, there weren’t a lot of digitizers
back then. Steve had no idea what he was
doing. But he was young and, whenever
a job came in, he would stay up all night
learning how to do it. He took every class,
went to every trade show, and spent every
minute digitizing over the next two years.
Over the next several years, Steve
worked with several licensing clients