Welcome, Commercial Drone Pilots!
Join our growing community today!
Sign up

Taking recreational drone flying to the next level

KB4MTO

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2021
Messages
8
Reaction score
8
Age
59
Hello everyone, my name is Hank and I am new to the forum. I have been flying Mavic Mini's for over a year. I also fly FPV CineWhoop's for cinematic videography, and FPV freestyle for fun. Recently I decided to create an LLC and start providing drone aerial services as a small business. I bought a Mavis 2 Pro this week, and I met today with a friend who is a business consultant. He is going to help me get my business off the ground.

I am excited to enter this new stage. I have an absolute passion for flying, regardless of the type of drone and regardless of the reason for flying. I'm not sure what areas I am going to provide, I'm in the middle of figuring that out now.

I am open to and appreciate any and all suggestions and advice from you guys. Y'all are the ones who are doing it and I want to join that group. I have never run my own business, nor have I flown commercially, even though I do have my 107.

Really glad to be here, and glad that dirkclod pointed me to this forum from the MavicPilots forum.
 
Welcome to CDP .
Look around and find what your interest is and let it rip .
0rojyyg-png.363
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mavikhan
Welcome to CDP .
Look around and find what your interest is and let it rip .
0rojyyg-png.363
Thanks for the tip and also thanks for pointing me to this forum. Not knowing anything about the commercial side of flying, I'm really glad this forum is here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dirkclod
Plenty on this topic already, so do a search of the group. Advice seems to fall into a number of categories - find a company to work with, build a significant number of flying hours (in the 100s), starting a drone business from scratch is difficult, don't give up the day job (drone work is likely to provide little more than pocket money), find a niche in your area that isn't covered, you'll need something more than a MM, don't spend money you don't have spare (build equipment as money allows), M2P is the best small option for photography (but is photography/videography a viable business in your area?).
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigAl07
Plenty on this topic already, so do a search of the group. Advice seems to fall into a number of categories - find a company to work with, build a significant number of flying hours (in the 100s), starting a drone business from scratch is difficult, don't give up the day job (drone work is likely to provide little more than pocket money), find a niche in your area that isn't covered, you'll need something more than a MM, don't spend money you don't have spare (build equipment as money allows), M2P is the best small option for photography (but is photography/videography a viable business in your area?).

Thanks Ajkm. I did purchase the Mavic 2 Pro as my drone for the business. I already have a Mavic Mini. I am employed as a full time employee, and am funding the business that way. I have no plans to quit my job anytime soon, but I want to build the business to a point where when I decide to retire, I can continue to work through my company.

Thanks for the advice, and the warnings to not quit my day job. Some folks might not think about that and it could get people in trouble.
 
  • Like
Reactions: R.Perry
Welcome to the forum :)

Great advice already given here (I just quickly browsed it so this may be a repeat) but the one biggest thing we've done that has made the most profound affect on our company (other than boot strapping it since day one) was taking the time to develop a very in-depth Business Plan. I'm not talkin about the 1-2 template you can get from Google searches... I'm talking about a large comprehensive Business Plan. We were sort-of already operating (hit & miss) when we got started on the BP for this business and we had to make some changes in our business because of the knowledge we gained in creating the BP. With a fully developed BP you'll learn so much about your market, your competition, your own business, and you're to accurately come up with a price matrix and marketing campaign all at the same time. A comprehensive BP takes time (we did ours with the help of a local college and had 6 Business Majors at our disposal and it took 6 months) but it's an INVESTMENT in your company.

If you want some assistance on anything Small Business related be sure to check out your local Community College. Most have a very helpful Small Business Center sector who offer a ton of FREE help and guidance. This FREE support does NOT include building your Business Plan but they can help guide you and give you a ton of resources.

Side Note: Because of our Business Plan we determined our prices were TOO LOW and were able to significantly increase our prices which ironically also increased our amount of business.
 
Welcome to the forum :)

Great advice already given here (I just quickly browsed it so this may be a repeat) but the one biggest thing we've done that has made the most profound affect on our company (other than boot strapping it since day one) was taking the time to develop a very in-depth Business Plan. I'm not talkin about the 1-2 template you can get from Google searches... I'm talking about a large comprehensive Business Plan. We were sort-of already operating (hit & miss) when we got started on the BP for this business and we had to make some changes in our business because of the knowledge we gained in creating the BP. With a fully developed BP you'll learn so much about your market, your competition, your own business, and you're to accurately come up with a price matrix and marketing campaign all at the same time. A comprehensive BP takes time (we did ours with the help of a local college and had 6 Business Majors at our disposal and it took 6 months) but it's an INVESTMENT in your company.

If you want some assistance on anything Small Business related be sure to check out your local Community College. Most have a very helpful Small Business Center sector who offer a ton of FREE help and guidance. This FREE support does NOT include building your Business Plan but they can help guide you and give you a ton of resources.

Side Note: Because of our Business Plan we determined our prices were TOO LOW and were able to significantly increase our prices which ironically also increased our amount of business.

Thanks for the very detailed response. There is a lot of good info in here for me to look into. I have a good friend who is a business consultant. He has started a few companies, all of them successful. He is actually guiding me in the research stage right now, getting ideas of what my market looks like and what competition I have.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigAl07
Thanks for the very detailed response. There is a lot of good info in here for me to look into. I have a good friend who is a business consultant. He has started a few companies, all of them successful. He is actually guiding me in the research stage right now, getting ideas of what my market looks like and what competition I have.


Very good. As with most things of business, Knowledge is power and the more you have the stronger the foundation for your new business.

Good luck and SAFE Flights :)

Allen
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
4,278
Messages
37,606
Members
5,970
Latest member
parker