First Post - Intro

Wing · Friday at 2:44 PM

Hey Everyone -

Breaking the ice.
Part 107 certified recently, and about to dive into starting the business.
The next question is though.. what niche or direction. Mapping most likely, although I have little knowledge in Construction... for now. But willing to branch out as business dictates.
Then its what deals I can find for Black Friday. Unless someone has a good online spot that sells used? I'll be looking that up. Also have a drone repair shop about 45 minutes away.
Interesting time to be starting a business with drones with this potential DJI ban lingering, trust me my brain let's me know that.
But here is where I am. Glad I'm here
W

GFields · Friday at 2:45 PM

Greetings from Birmingham Alabama USA, welcome to the forum! We look forward to hearing from you!

I have a Mavic 2 Zoom and an Air 2s for sale.

adm_geomatics · Friday at 4:44 PM

GFields said:
Greetings from Birmingham Alabama USA, welcome to the forum! We look forward to hearing from you!

I have a Mavic 2 Zoom and an Air 2s for sale.

@Wing Welcome to the life! The Air 2S is a good starter bird. Pair that with an Emlid RS2/2+/3 for ground control and you can get some pretty good results whether you are mapping small properties or just modeling. If your area has a free RTK network this is a no-brainer. If you are ready to spend some money and get something like the Mavic 3 Enterprise and go RTK/PPK I would recommend getting the 3T (thermal). It has the same camera as the Enterprise but having thermal is a good market to get into before it gets too saturated. Either way you are still going to want to look into a GNSS receiver for control. Don't worry about construction experience for right now. Learn as much as you can about control datums and Surveying practices. Otherwise just go take pictures of houses and properties and build from there.

Wing · Monday at 1:09 PM

@GFields Thanks! I will keep those 2 on my mind, leaning towards the Air 2s
@adm_geomatics Thanks friend. Sounds like exactly what I'll be doing in the meantime. I had to google a couple of the things you mentioned (GNSS, RTK True Network, Emlid).. thanks for the information. I love the route of Thermal - Part of me wants to risk it and go for it, but seems a bit reach for now. For Control datums and surveying.. any online stuff you'd recommend? About to Youtube it

adm_geomatics · Monday at 5:19 PM

Wing said:
@GFields Thanks! I will keep those 2 on my mind, leaning towards the Air 2s
@adm_geomatics Thanks friend. Sounds like exactly what I'll be doing in the meantime. I had to google a couple of the things you mentioned (GNSS, RTK True Network, Emlid).. thanks for the information. I love the route of Thermal - Part of me wants to risk it and go for it, but seems a bit reach for now. For Control datums and surveying.. any online stuff you'd recommend? About to Youtube it

Here's a decent overview of terminologies and how maps are positioned that's not too painful.

jaja6009 · 2024-11-12T16:04:27-0500

You need to write out a full business plan. I don't have the time to explain it all but a good resource is:

Write your business plan | U.S. Small Business Administration

www.sba.gov

You really need to know what works in your area as far as pricing, competition, if there is even a market for your services and for mapping your state laws on surveying.
Otherwise you could overlook important aspects of your business.

adm_geomatics · 2024-11-12T18:47:16-0500

jaja6009 said:
You need to write out a full business plan. I don't have the time to explain it all but a good resource is:

Write your business plan | U.S. Small Business Administration

www.sba.gov

You really need to know what works in your area as far as pricing, competition, if there is even a market for your services and for mapping your state laws on surveying.
Otherwise you could overlook important aspects of your business.

It's probably pretty difficult to draft a business plan when you don't even know what all the tool does and little to nothing about the industries you're serving. That's where 75% of operators are.