Commercial gigs/jobs

[ASI_Flyboy]

Hello All,

I'm plotting the course for my journey into commercial drones and was wondering where most of the gigs/jobs/asks you get come from? Also, do most people reach out to you or are you reaching out to individual businesses/people?

• Ag
• Construction
• Energy
• Media
• Mapping
• Real Estate
• Other

Thanks for the input!

 

[Grumpy]

Check this out

 

[ASI_Flyboy]

Check this out

Thanks for this, definitely will need to have a solid business plan in place and luckily I'm not quitting my job!

Fortunately, I'm looking to incorporate drones into an already existing company and customer base which will help mitigate some risks. We're also looking into developing software for drones to integrate with their business systems so we're trying to do a little more than video/picture capturing.

 

[Grumpy]

Sounds like you have a good handle on it. Best of luck.

 

[chleonard1]

My service direction is similar, I am already active in developing and writing "bridging programs" for advanced integration of systems, software and hardware for specific operations by companies. You'll find it will take a lot of experience, other then flying, and a great team of individuals that you can work with to accomplish the endeavor. Good luck!

 

[NMcDonald]

This. All of this. I started my own training and consulting business back in 2009. It took a couple years to gain traction. With being a paid drone pilot offering services, it's going to take just about that long, if not longer.

This guy's video should be required viewing for every one who thinks they can start a drone services business. Use your own money, decide what niche you're going to specialize in, get insurance, use a solid contract, start with your current network, build slowly.

 

[R.Perry]

I think of the drone as just another tool to do my job. I have a home inspection business, I bought my phantom to do roof inspections and it worked well for that. Since I was working with realtors I started getting requests to do aerial photography and some interior work. That got me a job offer to do construction documentation and that is a money maker. I don't do home inspections but still do the reports (grandson took over the inspections)
As for real estate, realtors are too cheap so I do not do real estate photography unless they are willing to pay well, and in most cases they aren't.

Take what you know, and find a way to incorporate the drone into that knowledge or business.

 

[ASI_Flyboy]

My service direction is similar, I am already active in developing and writing "bridging programs" for advanced integration of systems, software and hardware for specific operations by companies. You'll find it will take a lot of experience, other then flying, and a great team of individuals that you can work with to accomplish the endeavor. Good luck!

For your bridging programs, is the data you are using to integrate based off of the video/pictures being analyzed or are you actually integrating with the drone and flying it via software and then pulling the data that way? We are waiting for DJI to release its API on Microsoft this fall, so wondering what your method of integrating looks like.

 

[ASI_Flyboy]

I think of the drone as just another tool to do my job. I have a home inspection business, I bought my phantom to do roof inspections and it worked well for that. Since I was working with realtors I started getting requests to do aerial photography and some interior work. That got me a job offer to do construction documentation and that is a money maker. I don't do home inspections but still do the reports (grandson took over the inspections)
As for real estate, realtors are too cheap so I do not do real estate photography unless they are willing to pay well, and in most cases they aren't.

Take what you know, and find a way to incorporate the drone into that knowledge or business.

That's exactly how we see it as well, another tool for business. We're actually a family business as well. In our area we have agriculture, manufacturing, construction, etc. and we see drones as a tool that they will/are using and we're trying to leverage our development skills to integrate the two.