What do you Charge for Drone Service

Mike Nevins · Feb 4, 2018

I think one of the hardest things to do in a new industry like Drones, is establishing pricing. With virtually no data to go by, where do you start? I know all about the cost v. what you should charge but you still have to be competitive. And it will vary by industry and location, i.e.,:
1. Real-Estate
2. Construction
3. Inspections
4. Agriculture
5. Golf Courses

Just trying to get a sense of what others have done and why they came to the pricing they did. I know, lots of variables but something is better than nothing... Ideas. Lets hear what you did...

BigAl07 · Feb 5, 2018

Mike,

while you may get some answers to your questions pricing can be a very personal topic. Some people will not discuss their exact pricing while others could feed you a line of BS simply to be mean. Also what works for me in Western NC may or may not work for you in Colorado.

Have you sat down and built a complete and detailed business plan? The BP is one of the single most important parts of the pie if you want your business to have a leg up on the competition. We spent a few months (not constant but it took a long time) to build and tweak our BP. IMHO I feel like it helped us to be where we are today and saved us a TON of $$. From the BP you'll learn your area, your market(VERY important), you'll build a marketing plan, learn your competition, and you'll learn how to price your projects so you're getting paid and hopefully not leaving $$ on the table.

Also on the topic of a BP here is a link to a conversation going about this same topic:
Why is the real estate industry so chintzy?

Mike Nevins · Feb 5, 2018

BigAl07 said:
Mike,

while you may get some answers to your questions pricing can be a very personal topic. Some people will not discuss their exact pricing while others could feed you a line of BS simply to be mean. Also what works for me in Western NC may or may not work for you in Colorado.

Have you sat down and built a complete and detailed business plan? The BP is one of the single most important parts of the pie if you want your business to have a leg up on the competition. We spent a few months (not constant but it took a long time) to build and tweak our BP. IMHO I feel like it helped us to be where we are today and saved us a TON of $$. From the BP you'll learn your area, your market(VERY important), you'll build a marketing plan, learn your competition, and you'll learn how to price your projects so you're getting paid and hopefully not leaving $$ on the table.

Also on the topic of a BP here is a link to a conversation going about this same topic:
Why is the real estate industry so chintzy?

I agree with your assessment. However, one of the hardest things in starting a new business, especially a new industry business like Drones, the BP has no starting place for determining pricing. MountainSky Aerial will be my 12th company I have started from scratch since 1977 and its the same thing; Being able to determine pricing is key and very difficult to establish. I'm not looking for silver bullets, but rather what others are doing in their respective markets. It won't be hard and fast, but does have value especially for those that have never started a business of any kind. I also realize that some may not want to share because it might hamper their efforts or is a competitive issue, but I look at this forum as a resource to help the industry as a whole. At my age, I would rather help others in whatever way that I can rather than to keep it to myself. You may be right, but none the less, it will be interesting to see how other embrace this discussion. Thanks for your input.

BigAl07 · Feb 5, 2018

Mike Nevins said:
I agree with your assessment. However, one of the hardest things in starting a new business, especially a new industry business like Drones, the BP has no starting place for determining pricing. MountainSky Aerial will be my 12th company I have started from scratch since 1977 and its the same thing; Being able to determine pricing is key and very difficult to establish. I'm not looking for silver bullets, but rather what others are doing in their respective markets. It won't be hard and fast, but does have value especially for those that have never started a business of any kind. I also realize that some may not want to share because it might hamper their efforts or is a competitive issue, but I look at this forum as a resource to help the industry as a whole. At my age, I would rather help others in whatever way that I can rather than to keep it to myself. You may be right, but none the less, it will be interesting to see how other embrace this discussion. Thanks for your input.

I understand your point of view, but with all due respect I just don't happen to agree with it. This is my 7th business from scratch and the 5th time we built a detailed BP from scratch. #1 & #2 should have also had a BP (well they did but they were one page reports and really I'd now call those a Business Plan Cover Page) but live and learn.

If I told you my hourly rate was $500/hr and you used that as your starting point you might go broke trying to hone your rates in. While I fully understand you wanting to get "National Rates" they are little to no use for your own pricing. The only pricing that matters are the prices your competitors (those who are busy AND profitable) are charging there locally. That's part of the business plan. Through developing it you actually get your competitors rates but you also figure out what you have to make in order to be a business and not an expensive hobby. Then when you have a figure you can sleep on you put it out there to the market and see how it's taken. If you get an avalanche of business your prices are too low. If you get no calls at all your prices are too high. Over the course of a year (maybe more depending on other factors such as weather and the economy) you should be able to tweak pricing and find your sweet spot. Either that or you realize your market is saturated with cheap operators who don't know how to run a business and you either try to wait them out or pick another revenue stream. Hopefully it won't come to this but I know of a few Start Up sUAS Companies who did exactly that.

Also your profits will improve as your skills (business, flying, editing, and promoting/marketing skills) improve. We are a lot more profitable today than we were 4 years ago even thought we have a lot more expenses now.

Mike Nevins · Feb 5, 2018

BigAl07 said:
I understand your point of view, but with all due respect I just don't happen to agree with it. This is my 7th business from scratch and the 5th time we built a detailed BP from scratch. #1 & #2 should have also had a BP (well they did but they were one page reports and really I'd now call those a Business Plan Cover Page) but live and learn.

If I told you my hourly rate was $500/hr and you used that as your starting point you might go broke trying to hone your rates in. While I fully understand you wanting to get "National Rates" they are little to no use for your own pricing. The only pricing that matters are the prices your competitors (those who are busy AND profitable) are charging there locally. That's part of the business plan. Through developing it you actually get your competitors rates but you also figure out what you have to make in order to be a business and not an expensive hobby. Then when you have a figure you can sleep on you put it out there to the market and see how it's taken. If you get an avalanche of business your prices are too low. If you get no calls at all your prices are too high. Over the course of a year (maybe more depending on other factors such as weather and the economy) you should be able to tweak pricing and find your sweet spot. Either that or you realize your market is saturated with cheap operators who don't know how to run a business and you either try to wait them out or pick another revenue stream. Hopefully it won't come to this but I know of a few Start Up sUAS Companies who did exactly that.

Also your profits will improve as your skills (business, flying, editing, and promoting/marketing skills) improve. We are a lot more profitable today than we were 4 years ago even thought we have a lot more expenses now.

Hmmm. I'm not wanting to be contentious here.You have shared your view and that's great. Now lets see what others have to share.

aerialimagery · Feb 5, 2018

I would like to branch out and do more "technical" drone work such as roof inspections, construction progress, mapping, etc., but for now, I am doing picturesque images of industrial facilities, and other large complexes. These would be photos they would use on their websites or for wall hangings. I have done this kind of work for many years from airplanes and helicopters. My rates from manned aircraft usually ranged from $700 to $1,000 and included images taken from various angles and the client got them all and all rights.

I'm only doing still photos for now. I'm not comfortable with video yet and am concerned about getting the jello effect at times. (I use a P4P+).

I've been all over the place in my pricing using a drone, ranging from $100 to $900, but I'm striving to work within the following guidelines: For a smaller facility the price is around $350 for photography from all angles. A larger facility would be priced at $450 to $550 for photography from all angles. If they want the property also broken down with close ups of individual areas or buildings, the price would be $700 and up, depending upon how many separate areas there are to photograph. If their budget is small, I will do photography from just one side for about $250. In all cases photographs are taken from various angles and the client has many images from which to choose. I would happily do $100 jobs, however, if I had lots and lots of them, but my experience has been that they can be just as hard to get as the higher-priced jobs and can be just as spread out, so I might as well go after the higher priced work.

I would like to emphasize that I have been a professional photographer for years and that I do not believe someone without photography experience who buys a drone would be able to provide the same quality. For me the drone is just a platform as was an airplane or helicopter.

Geo_in_KS · Feb 5, 2018

I'm only just now beginning to explore pricing as I haven't booked any work yet. But I have to agree with Al completely.
If someone lives in, say Long Island NY and is doing photos of million + homes for realtors at $2000/hr and I say, ok I should charge about that. I would be laughed at.
So far Ive researched anyone doing aerial/drone photography within about 100 miles of me. There are 9 companies. Most wouldn't state any pricing, one had a complete list of what they would do and for how much. I'm going to use that as a base and likely start a little low (because I'm inexperienced).
So I'm offering that up as to how Ive decided to approach your question on pricing in my area.

RNCotton · Feb 5, 2018

I'm currently not doing any personal commercial flying ... I just fly for the department. But, I've seen in the Memphis area, $90 for real-estate and $125/hr for general aerial photography / coverage.

Geo_in_KS · Feb 5, 2018

Thats probably another factor (or really several factors). How complicated you want to start out and how you want to charge. Like others have mentioned, there is travel time/cost, your time, equipment time, etc. The companies Ive seen that wont list any pricing on their sites; I assume they will quote some or all of that. Then there are the ones who say something along the lines of:
Real estate photography
20 minutes flight time
up to 25 still photos
$250
(simply an example, not taken from anywhere)

Geo_in_KS · Feb 5, 2018

BigAl07 said:
I understand your point of view, but with all due respect I just don't happen to agree with it. This is my 7th business from scratch and the 5th time we built a detailed BP from scratch. #1 & #2 should have also had a BP (well they did but they were one page reports and really I'd now call those a Business Plan Cover Page) but live and learn.

If I told you my hourly rate was $500/hr and you used that as your starting point you might go broke trying to hone your rates in. While I fully understand you wanting to get "National Rates" they are little to no use for your own pricing. The only pricing that matters are the prices your competitors (those who are busy AND profitable) are charging there locally. That's part of the business plan. Through developing it you actually get your competitors rates but you also figure out what you have to make in order to be a business and not an expensive hobby. Then when you have a figure you can sleep on you put it out there to the market and see how it's taken. If you get an avalanche of business your prices are too low. If you get no calls at all your prices are too high. Over the course of a year (maybe more depending on other factors such as weather and the economy) you should be able to tweak pricing and find your sweet spot. Either that or you realize your market is saturated with cheap operators who don't know how to run a business and you either try to wait them out or pick another revenue stream. Hopefully it won't come to this but I know of a few Start Up sUAS Companies who did exactly that.

Also your profits will improve as your skills (business, flying, editing, and promoting/marketing skills) improve. We are a lot more profitable today than we were 4 years ago even thought we have a lot more expenses now.

Al,
Total newbie question here, but other than the obvious "having a plan", isnt a formal business plan mainly to obtain financing, investors, etc? Im just asking because you mentioned more than one page.
And I can see sitting down and planning out, I want to do x,y,z and see where it goes in a year. And then there is, offer _____services to the community, establish presence in a location where it doesnt currently exist, initial investment will be $x with a planned revenue of _____, etc etc.

BigAl07 · Feb 5, 2018

Geo_in_KS said:
Al,
Total newbie question here, but other than the obvious "having a plan", isnt a formal business plan mainly to obtain financing, investors, etc? Im just asking because you mentioned more than one page.
And I can see sitting down and planning out, I want to do x,y,z and see where it goes in a year. And then there is, offer _____services to the community, establish presence in a location where it doesnt currently exist, initial investment will be $x with a planned revenue of _____, etc etc.

We all started at ground zero so your question is completely relevant.

Our last business plan was probably 30+ pages. While they are usually required if you're looking to get Corp financing they are a great idea for any new business. During the process of building the BP you learn about your whole business in a very personal way. You learn your local market inside and out. You learn about advertising and you build an advertising campaign. Finances are a very important part of it and not just for start up but for next year, the next year and 5 years down the road. You also learn about your competition and what they are charging. Through this process you'll answer so many questions that you didn't even know you had and you'll walk away with a very intimate understanding of what your company should look like today and the next few years.

You can get a BP template online that most anyone can do in a couple of evenings (and that's what my first 2 were) but IMHO those fall very short to what I would call a detailed and developed BP. A through and detailed BP can take several months to finish and it's a lot of work. My wife and I developed ours in evenings and weekends while each working 2 other jobs.

It's called a Business Plan because it helps guide you well into your business. Not just getting started but it gives you a general road map of how your business "should" look in the next few years in terms of Minimums. Hopefully if you're good at it you'll exceed all those projections and need to update the BP next year to project out the new #'s.

I'll go on record stating we did not build our BP for financing purposes. We boot strapped our startup with no outside investors what so ever. While the business doesn't have flashy corp cars or top of the line aircraft (yet) we started with some savings and "borrowed" from ourselves and paid ourselves interest. Today the business is debt free, very profitable, and able to buy new equipment at a moment's notice without getting a loan.

aerialimagery · Feb 5, 2018

A business plan is a great thing to do, but the topic is about what people charge for their services. I've shared what I charge. I would be interested to know what others charge, regardless of where they are located.

Cruziness · Feb 6, 2018

I was VERY tempted to start this very topic, but considered it qwasi-taboo and somewhat personal.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one curious. I have read the complaints about 'cheap drone, low-ballers' out there, so this is a good topic to get a baseline of what price point to charge...granted, it's really relative to the services rendered and the quality of those services rendered.

As far as my input, I am still new and currently building my BP. I had it in mind to charge what RNCotten mentioned - $90-125/hr depending on the type of job performed.

Mike Nevins · Feb 6, 2018

I am glad to see some responses to the "Pricing" issue. These experiences DO help other decide on what to charge for their services. Like most would agree that what the Miami market would be able to bare is in stark contrast with when Montrose Colorado would charge. I spent a good deal of time looking at markets that were of about the same size like area to determine my prices. This was a component of that research that included what my actual costs were. It provided a starting point for me, not over priced, not under priced for a particular vertical like Real Estate. I list all my pricing for Real Estate on my web site. Anyone is welcome to go and take a look.

For construction, agriculture, Golf Turf Management and inspection, I do not list prices because there are too many variables to consider. I quote based on project and actual costs related to the work. I do explain that for agriculture for example (Food crops), the price can range from $ 4.00 per ac, to $ 8.00 per ac. Again, it all depends on the specifics of the job. But hey, if you can get away with charging $ 500.00 an hour go for it.

AerialZ · Feb 7, 2018

In regards to RE work - specifically aerial photography only, I wouldn't charge anything less than $200 per property for processed photos unless you have extended a volume pricing discount to the Broker/Agent that guarantees more work. Video is a different animal, especially for newer operators. You should be in the ballpark of tripling that charge until you are efficient in post production (where most of your time will be spent.)

Dejan Smaic · Feb 10, 2018

Pricing is always a sensitive topic among professionals. However, because the industry is relatively new, pricing is across teh board, any where from beer money to $400 to $1,000/day, sometimes more, depending on the gig. IMHO, it's a legit question deserving a honest answer in an effort to keep the industry from racing to the bottom with Bubba Bob and his acrobatic Walmart drone from stealing work just to get his work published for beer nuts. It's happened in the photography industry, and coming to the aerial UAS services industry now.

Dan Grandmaison · Feb 10, 2018

Mike Nevins said:
I think one of the hardest things to do in a new industry like Drones, is establishing pricing. With virtually no data to go by, where do you start? I know all about the cost v. what you should charge but you still have to be competitive. And it will vary by industry and location, i.e.,:
1. Real-Estate
2. Construction
3. Inspections
4. Agriculture
5. Golf Courses

Just trying to get a sense of what others have done and why they came to the pricing they did. I know, lots of variables but something is better than nothing... Ideas. Lets hear what you did...

Hi Mike...Dan Grandmaison in Duluth, MN I do real estate photography of homes for the Realtors and hotels. My flat rate is $270 and I go up and around and down which takes about 12 minutes (stills only). Nobody has complained. Then I charge for the interiors and exteriors from ground level which is $295. So Drone and house total is pretty good for alot ot fun.

Dan Grandmaison · Feb 10, 2018

Dejan Smaic said:
Pricing is always a sensitive topic among professionals. However, because the industry is relatively new, pricing is across teh board, any where from beer money to $400 to $1,000/day, sometimes more, depending on the gig. IMHO, it's a legit question deserving a honest answer in an effort to keep the industry from racing to the bottom with Bubba Bob and his acrobatic Walmart drone from stealing work just to get his work published for beer nuts. It's happened in the photography industry, and coming to the aerial UAS services industry now.

Hi Dejan...Dan Grandmaison in Duluth, MN You are correct about the photography business going down in the price market. Everybody thinks they are a photographer with their cell phones. I was a commercial photographer all my life (I'm 75 now) and nobody goes to a studio for photography anymore. But I think the Drone market is ready for the pickin right now and will be until it is over saturated and the price once again falls. Happy flying.

Gregg Smith · Feb 10, 2018

As others have indicated the variables are too great to price as a whole. I will say that we typically charge per day or 1/2 day versus an hourly rate. We provide full video production services and not just aerial filming. We’ve decided to price our offerings on the higher side and focus our efforts on clients that can afford to pay for it. Example we’re not shooting $300K properties that can only afford $100-300 for video and photos. We would work with more pricy $1M+ homes that would have a larger marketing budget or businesses that have larger budgets. That way you can price accordingly and you provide them with high quality work that is affordable for them and profitable for you. You have to offer quality work of course, but if you do, customers should realize the value through faster closings, more sales, etc...