Hi Aaron,

Welcome to the Forum!! For £500 all you're going to get is a Chinese 3020 from eBay which has an area of 300mm x 200mm. It will cut wood 18mm deep but taking lots of light cuts as it uses unsupported rails which flex if you try to do too much. If it's a company she's setting up then you'll need a sturdy machine (and I'll bet once you've researched it a larger machine as you'll think of more and more things to cut on it!!) and £500 will not buy you much. As a miniumu for a good solid DIY machine you build for her I'd suggest a minimum of £1500....sorry!

It's hard to say what software you'll need but as a minimum a program that can take pictures/drawings and convert them to DXF files for cutting, then a cam package to convert the DXF files into machine code. There are free programs out there such as Inkscape (for drawing and exporting as DXF's) and CAD/CAM packages such as Fusion 360. If you're cutting out letters then I'm sure engraving/V carving etc will be on the cards and a program that will do that will also be needed such as Cut 2D, Vetric and the like.

Have a look on the forum, all these questions have been asked before so the answers are out there, there are loads of build logs you can see what's involved and if you ask and listen then the people on here are really knowledgeable and helpful