General pricing guidelines

[Flynt Smathers]

Esteemed collegues,

I was hoping someone could give me a general pricing guideline for providing photos and short video clips approx 30seconds long. No edititng, but buttery smooth transitions. I know I most likely overvalue my own work and I imagine geography has place a role, but sound off if you're inclinded... say 10 pics and 3 short clips, what should I charge? What do you charge? What types of packages do you offer?

 

[BigAl07]

Pricing is a very personal and very regional topic. What works in my region may be CRAZY in the next state. Part of having a solid business foundation is doing a strong and comprehensive Business Plan and I don't mean the 3 page template you get from Google. Our Business Plan took several months to develop and it has been worth it's weight in GOLD many times over. The process teaches you so much about your business, your local industry, your COMPETITION, and allows your to develop a very accurate pricing matrix that should get you going on the right track and not be out of sync with your local industry standards.

The only "reasonable" way to price it is to know what it "costs" for you to operate the drone for an hour, how much travel costs you for X # of miles, how much you need to make per hour of editing (video and photo), and figure out what is costs to run your business for a year.

You'll want to factor equipment, wages, insurance, random expenses (software annual fees etc) and every way money can leave you over the course of a year. Then factor in how much you NEED ( I didn't say want) per day and work your formula backwards.

We have a basic job price, half day price, full day price, and then custom pricing for things that fall outside of our normal operations.

 

[WVDronePilot]

Esteemed collegues,

I was hoping someone could give me a general pricing guideline for providing photos and short video clips approx 30seconds long. No edititng, but buttery smooth transitions. I know I most likely overvalue my own work and I imagine geography has place a role, but sound off if you're inclinded... say 10 pics and 3 short clips, what should I charge? What do you charge? What types of packages do you offer?

@BigA107 is correct. But one way to get a "feel" for what your competition is charging is to check their websites. Do a search for other drone companies and sometiems they list their rates.

But generally speaking to answer your question... "What value are you bringing to the customer?" is much better than "What is my time worth?"

I've done jobs and charged multiple thousands. And I've done jobs gratis. A large company won't mess with a guy charging $50 for pics and video (perceived value) while a real estate agent for example can't pay $400 for drone pictures... again pereived value.

I post my real estate rates on my website because it is low hanging fruit and easy for agents to see while my commercial rates are all per job quotes.

I wish you the best!

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

Pricing our services is a tricky and personal thing, you don't want to go too low or you undermine your abilities and other pilots in the industry. If you go too high well the client laughs at you and someone else gets the job.

When I was out flying from day to day, I often calculated my price based on how much of my time it took away from my family.

I calculated an hourly rate for travel, a rate for preflight, the flight, and for post operations.

But, remember your time is worth something. Don't undervalue your skills but also don't get ridiculous. Nobody in this industry is starting out without a special niche and making 100k a year. Setting reasonable expectations and then accounting for the special skills we have and the equipment is a must. We too often forget that our equipment is costly and that our skills have value. We get offered little pesky jobs that offer ridiculously low rates and figure... $50 for two hours work, 3 miles from my house, and think "why not?" Sadly this teaches those highering pilots that they can travel anywhere and $50 will get you all that you need. Also, the industry is full of pilots that dream of big things and will take those $50 jobs all day.

So now that I have gone back and forth a few times. Good luck and try to figure it out and if you get to a real number let us know. This probably one of the most asked questions. Look for a niche market and feel confident in what you charge, everything else is just noise.

Mike D