You’ll occasionally see the Brother Persona PRS100 embroidery machine compared to traditional commercial embroidery machines like the Avancé 1201C on a regular basis.
That’s because in the Brother Embroidery Machine line up, the PRS100 does have a few more “professional” style features than its home machine counterparts.
But let’s take a look at what an embroidery machine built for commercial, or even home-business use needs to have and where the Brother embroidery machine falls short.
What the Brother Persona PRS100 DOESN’T Have…
A Large Embroidery Field
The largest the Brother Persona PRS100 will embroidery is 8” x 8”, which is larger than most other consumer embroidery machines.
But MUCH smaller than a multi-needle commercial embroidery machine like the Avancé 1201C.
The 1201C, or example, has a an almost 8” x 14” embroidery field.
Why is that important?
Because you will have to say NO.
Any time you have to say NO to a client or potential customers, it motivates them to find someone who will say YES. If you own the Brother embroidery machine, the single needle PRS100 for example, you will not be able to effectively embroidery a jacket back design. An adult sized jacket, like this Port Authority ½ zip soft shell, might have a back area that is 26” x 32”. And this is exactly the kind of jacket that a sports team might use as warm up wear, or a business might provide for employees.
An 8” x 8” design would look like a postage stamp on this jacket! A 64 square inch design on an 832 square inch garment is just way too small.
A 12-needle commercial embroidery machine like the 1201C will at least give you a reasonable 112” of design space. And the larger 1501C 15 needle version will do an astonishing 21” x 14” or 4.5 times the design size at the Brother embroidery machine.
If they have a table runner or blanket and are wanting a design proportional to the size of the item, then they would have to go elsewhere.
Because you can’t charge as much.
A small embroidery field is just a missed PROFIT opportunity.
Most embroidery businesses charge for work, at least in part, based on how many stitches in the design.
The Brother Persona PRS100 has an available stitch area of 64 sq. inches.
The Avance 1201C allows you to create a 112 sq. inch design – that’s almost TWICE as large!
You may be able to chard over $100 for a full jacket back with a commercial embroidery machine vs. the Brother PRS100 single needle.
And don’t forget embroidered Patches
Another situation that a bigger embroidery field can make you money is with custom patches.
You can sew out over 4x the number of small patches at once with a larger embroidery area: 4x the name badges, 4x the military patches, and more.
One Needle Embroidery Machines vs 12 Needles
There’s a reason that when you walk into a professional embroidery business, you do not see a 6 or 7 needle machine sitting in the corner. And especially not a SINGLE needle. It’s always a 12 or 15 needle unit.
Here’s why you want a multi-needle embroidery machine:
When you are in the embroidery business, you’ll be doing different jobs every day. And those jobs will be for different customers.
On Monday you might do an order for dozen warm up jackets for a school. School mascot large on the back and a name on the left chest.
Tuesday your embroidery business might get an order for a local landscaper for custom hats for the employees out in the field. And they’ve got a 3-color logo.
Then on Thursday, maybe it’s bridal gifts and table runners with metallic thread.
Each one of these customers will not only have DIFFERENT colors in their designs, but each design will also have more than one!
Imagine how long it’s going to take for each design, and between designs, to stop sewing, change the colors thread on the Brother Persona PRS100 for every single design. Even with the clever way they allow you change from one color to the next it’s still a lot of time.
Professionals just don’t have the time for that, and neither will you! Especially since with some popular specialty threads like Metallic, you may need to adjust the tension every time you switch.
The beauty of a multi-needle embroidery machine is that you can:
- Keep all of your customer’s colors on the machine and ready to sew
- Take advantage of the auto color changes in your design to NOT stand on top of the machine waiting to switch
- Avoid re-tensioning the machine when you go from one thread color to the next
Time is vitally important to you and your business
It takes about 12 minutes for a ColDesi left chest logo to sew out on an Avancé 1201C 12 needle embroidery machine. It’s SIX colors.
If you were to do that on a Brother embroidery machine like the Persona PRS100 that would likely take you about 25 minutes because you’d have to change threads 6 times. On every shirt.
While the Avancé is sewing out the ColDesi logo, you could be answering emails, placing orders, talking to customers – everything you need to do to grow your business.
And you’d produce about 5 shirts an hour instead of 2.
If you were going to make $12/shirt in profit on each – that’s the difference between $60 and hour with the pro machine and $24 without.
All Day Embroidery
Brother has been building fancy home sewing machines for years. They’re very good at it.
But commercial use is different.
If you’re coming from the home sewing world, even if you’re a dedicated hobbyist, how many hours are you running the machine every day? How many days per week?
Unless you’re in the middle of a big family holiday gift run, you’re not running the machine 8 hours at a time. Probably not even 3 or 4.
There’s no way you’re keeping up that pace 4-7 days per week.
And home sewing machine makers like Brother know that. So they build their machines so they run great for a few hours a week for home hobbyists.
Commercial embroidery machines are just built differently.
The components in a commercial embroidery machine are just more robust.
They must be to stand up to the hours of use over the years of operation.
The Boat Analogy
Think about the difference between a boat you might use for fishing on the occasional weekend and a commercial fishing vessel.
With the weekender boat, a small motor with a small gas tank is fine. You’ve got a few oars in case you run out of gas anyway.
You don’t need a deep hull or a long anchor chain because you’re staying shallow water close to short.
If you were going into the fishing BUSINESS, or even trying to just feed your family with the fish you caught, that boat would look very different.
You’ll want something that you use for longer – that goes farther out. You’ll need something that can handle deeper water. And the capability to catch and store more and bigger fish.
The home-sewing boat vs the commercial embroidery boat. Get it?
That’s the difference between commercial vs. home sewing machines.
2 More things to Compare – Brother Persona PRS100 vs Commercial Embroidery Machine
#1: What do the machines come with?
That commercial fishing boat comes with a lot more stuff than the weekender. Because you NEED more things and better-quality things to get the job done.
When you’re doing a 24-piece embroidery job order, you will need 2 of every hoop size because you make money when the machine is running, not when you’re hooping!
Any commercial shop will have the next blank garment hooped and waiting while the first one sews.
Commercial embroidery machines come with 6, 8, or even a dozen hoops – 2 in each size.
The Brother Persona PRS100 normally comes with 4 – but according to Brother’s website the only officially included accessories are a USB cable and a 1-year warranty. So technically it can come with none.
Speaking of warranty, the Avance line of commercial embroidery machines comes with a 5 year warranty.
#2: What is the training and support like?
The good people in your local sewing center are not in the embroidery business. Not the way you are!
You can get training, frequently, from your local sewing center where you bought your PRS100.
But 95% of their customers are doing craft projects. So they have never had to train people to do the basics that you’ll do every day when dealing with customers.
You may learn how to monogram a small pillow or plush toy, but no one at the sew and vac is training you on digitizing designs or managing a 36 piece order.
And the same goes for technical support. It sounds like a great comfort to know that you have local support, but in reality that support just can’t support what YOU need. Which includes fast response time, video support and technicians that understand your machine and business completely.
Conversely, a machine like the Avancé 1201C comes with online training classes and real PROFESSIONAL technical support. By people that have been in or supported businesses for decades.
Embroidery Business Resources
If you’re trying to decide between the Brother Persona PRS100 and a commercial multi-needle machine like the Avancé 1201C or 1501C, here are a few good places to start learning:
- Get pricing on blank garments and accessories in the Wholesale Apparel section of Colmanandcompany.com
- Read this How to Start an Embroidery Business Guide – it starts BEFORE you choose your machine
- The Custom Apparel Podcast did a great episode on How to Avoid Mistakes when starting an Embroidery business too!
- Embroidery Machine Comparison Article – this one goes through some of the best machines available and compares.
