How much do you charge!

[Trackerputnam]

I am always curious if I am charging enough or too much for jobs! I get plenty of work, just curious. what affects my charge is distance/gas/time. I am not concerned about what I am doing. I am thrilled someone pays me to do this. 10 to 30 miles from home, $150. 30 to 60, $175. Is that similar to what you all charge? I will charge more if editing involved!

 

[FLDave]

As for mileage part, start with your actual vehicle ALL expenses for the last 6 months and divide by the miles. That gives the basic costs. Now add in vehicle replacement costs. That's a good starting point. You're only charging an extra $25 for an extend trip of 30 miles (60 miles extra round trip): $0.41/mile. I suspect that's a losing money situation for your and taking away from profit.
You need to figure in the replacement cost of all equipment.
How much do you think you are worth for your time? Add that to your cost. Then add on profit.
Billable time would likely be $100-$200 per hour, and probably even higher.

 

[Trackerputnam]

As for mileage part, start with your actual vehicle ALL expenses for the last 6 months and divide by the miles. That gives the basic costs. Now add in vehicle replacement costs. That's a good starting point. You're only charging an extra $25 for an extend trip of 30 miles (60 miles extra round trip): $0.41/mile. I suspect that's a losing money situation for your and taking away from profit.
You need to figure in the replacement cost of all equipment.
How much do you think you are worth for your time? Add that to your cost. Then add on profit.
Billable time would likely be $100-$200 per hour, and probably even higher.

I am semi retired and know I don’t charge enough. But I don’t need this to live on either. I am likely as you say, going backwards!

 

[BigAl07]

I am semi retired and know I don’t charge enough. But I don’t need this to live on either. I am likely as you say, going backwards!

Just because you don't "need" the $$ doesn't mean you should dilute the industry.

If you'd like to dig into "How much to charge" a bit deeper go do a search on our sister forum

Commercial Drone Pilots Forum

Commercial Drone, UAV, UAS Industry Discussions

commercialdronepilots.com

 

[66427cobra]

You could always use the IRS rate of 62.5 cents per mile traveled for business. This what they allow as a deduction for operating costs (gas, insurance, repairs, depreciation, etc.) on your taxes. If you report your income, this is a direct dollar for dollar offset of the income you receive.

Even if you are retired and doing it for fun and to keep busy, you want to make sure these excursions don't end up costing you money.

 

[Cymruflyer]

I am semi retired and know I don’t charge enough. But I don’t need this to live on either. I am likely as you say, going backwards!

Think of it this way. I may enjoy doing what ever it is that you are semi-retired from. I may even like doing that job for free. However, let's say I approach your boss and offer to do your job at half the rate you are being paid, because I like doing that sort of work, for fun.

Suddenly your boss tells you he no longer needs your services, because he found someone to do it for less pay. How would you feel about that? By charging too little for jobs, you are taking away work from other people plus lowering the overall cost of doing such work and therefore, making this sort of business a less and less viable proposition for anyone to get into.

What if a new kid on the block decided to undercut you for drone work, and then someone undercut him? Before long drone owners would be paying clients just to let them fly around and film stuff for them. This is what you need to think about when pricing your work. If you are too low priced, the client will feel you do not value yourself and your ability and as soon as they perceive that, they will also not value you and start to ask you to do it for even less money than you are currently charging.

 

[retiredNH]

Think of it this way. I may enjoy doing what ever it is that you are semi-retired from. I may even like doing that job for free. However, let's say I approach your boss and offer to do your job at half the rate you are being paid, because I like doing that sort of work, for fun.

Suddenly your boss tells you he no longer needs your services, because he found someone to do it for less pay. How would you feel about that? By charging too little for jobs, you are taking away work from other people plus lowering the overall cost of doing such work and therefore, making this sort of business a less and less viable proposition for anyone to get into.

What if a new kid on the block decided to undercut you for drone work, and then someone undercut him? Before long drone owners would be paying clients just to let them fly around and film stuff for them. This is what you need to think about when pricing your work. If you are too low priced, the client will feel you do not value yourself and your ability and as soon as they perceive that, they will also not value you and start to ask you to do it for even less money than you are currently charging.

Not exactly a free market approach. This is exactly how competitive markets work, whether for labor, services or products.

Of course, in the real world things are a bit more complicated and political. I'm thinking, for example of closed shops, right to work laws and so forth. Following me?

 

[ben.boozer]

Free market or not, if you price yourself way below the competition you are saying you don’t value your work and your clients shouldn’t either. Seen photographers do this to themselves over and over again.

 

[retiredNH]

Free market or not, if you price yourself way below the competition you are saying you don’t value your work and your clients shouldn’t either. Seen photographers do this to themselves over and over again.

Total BS.

I'll also add that anyone with decent business experience knows that price is only one factor with regard to selection of products, services or vendors. In fact, I'd argue that price isn't even the most important factor, except for commodity products.

For folks like you that probably don't even know what a commodity product is, think of a product where all the offerings are the same. Even with commodity products, providers try to differentiate their offerings. Take milk at the grocery store, for example, and look at how many ways it's marketed.

 

[Cymruflyer]

Ben .boozer's statement is not total BS, it is absolutely correct, this goes on a lot in photography and as you can see, that it is going on in drone Photography. Especially since the attitude is that the person does not need the money so is offering the service for a lower price than the market can handle, just because it is fun for him.

You're retired it seems but I'm sure you would have a different opinion if someone had been going around your employer, when you did work, offering to do what you did for work at a much lower price, putting your livelihood and employment in possible jeopardy. And yes, we all know this is not possible to be done with many careers, but it is a possibility in some and one of those is drone photography.

And yes, we all know that this is different than a commodity, so no need to go on about that again.

 

[Robert Prior]

I may enjoy doing what ever it is that you are semi-retired from. I may even like doing that job for free. However, let's say I approach your boss and offer to do your job at half the rate you are being paid, because I like doing that sort of work, for fun.

Suddenly your boss tells you he no longer needs your services, because he found someone to do it for less pay.

And when you get bored and decide to do something else, his former boss is in the lurch…

Managing people who work because they want to, not because they need the paycheque, is trickier than it seems. Different motivations, different expectations. A lot of experienced managers screw up badly when they start managing volunteers.

 

[MarkSS]

I am always curious if I am charging enough or too much for jobs! I get plenty of work, just curious. what affects my charge is distance/gas/time. I am not concerned about what I am doing. I am thrilled someone pays me to do this. 10 to 30 miles from home, $150. 30 to 60, $175. Is that similar to what you all charge? I will charge more if editing involved!

I'm semi-retired, have Part 107 & recurrent, and would like to get some jobs doing this in the bay area. Any tips?

 

[Robert Prior]

what affects my charge is distance/gas/time

Insurance? Liability?

I don't know the laws you operate under, but up here liability insurance would be an absolute essential — both in case anything goes wrong while doing the job and in case the chap who hired you decided they didn't like your work and wanted compensation for a 'substandard' product.

 

[lookout]

The quad inspection jobs are close to being pizza delivery boys, if you are working for some other outfit. Most outfits get your car and your quad for free.

You might have a better chance working for yourself, giving you more allowance to charge what you want. There's also a chance that your nearest competition is somebody living close by to the inspection site.

The ease of obtaining a quad even a toy one might make it to where people do their own inspections.

 

[ben.boozer]

Ben .boozer's statement is not total BS, it is absolutely correct, this goes on a lot in photography and as you can see, that it is going on in drone Photography. Especially since the attitude is that the person does not need the money so is offering the service for a lower price than the market can handle, just because it is fun for him.

You're retired it seems but I'm sure you would have a different opinion if someone had been going around your employer, when you did work, offering to do what you did for work at a much lower price, putting your livelihood and employment in possible jeopardy. And yes, we all know this is not possible to be done with many careers, but it is a possibility in some and one of those is drone photography.

And yes, we all know that this is different than a commodity, so no need to go on about that again.

I’m speaking as a photographer with experience. If the quality of your work is desirable over others in your market, you can command better prices and good clients will pay. If your work is average, expect average prices. Pricing yourself too low devalues your work and it’s darn hard to raise prices in the future when you have been basically giving it away.

That’s why right now, it’s the really skilled or connected photographers that are continuing to make a profit while the masses are scrambling all over themselves cutting prices to attract customers who will nickel and dime them into pocket change.

I see all photography heading this way so it pays for your work to be far and above the quality of the competition.

 

[Cymruflyer]

As a photographer, I completely agree with you. The difference between a professional photographer and a large pizza today, is that a large pizza can still feed a family of four!

With the improvements in cameras in recent years, it has meant that just about anyone can pick up a camera and get a well exposed image that is in focus today. In the old days, you had to understand light and settings to get a correctly exposed image plus you had to properly focus the camera to get a sharp image. There was a lot to know about.

Today just because the camera does most of the work for a person, almost everyone thinks they are now professional photographers. And unfortunately, at least half the stupid public believe them. The other problem for today's real photographers, is educating the public as to what is and what is not a good photograph.

Yes, the great digital cameras of today can correctly focus and expose an image, but it cannot pose a group, compose a scene nor set up the lighting like a true professional photographer can do. I see these people all over the place on beaches and in parks, doing family photo sessions or senior shots or weddings, and for the most part, these people behind the cameras, are not photographer, they are Fauxtographers.

As a true professional you can see from their nonexistent posing abilities to their poor choice of light falling on their subjects to their choice of location and background in their scene, that these camera holders haven't got a clue as to what goes into creating a great photo. As long as they are low cost, the customers seem to be happy with the crap they are churning out.

If someone's mum was a crap cook but that is all they knew for food, they would think it's fine. Not until they get to taste a great dinner would they suddenly know the difference. And this is the problem in photography, only when they have had a really good family photo taken by a professional, for example, will they be able to recognize the difference between the mediocre, at best, crap they have been buying, compared to a beautiful family photo.

Unfortunately, very few other professions have been affected in this way, as has been photographers.

 

[OliveViewImages]

I am always curious if I am charging enough or too much for jobs! I get plenty of work, just curious. what affects my charge is distance/gas/time. I am not concerned about what I am doing. I am thrilled someone pays me to do this. 10 to 30 miles from home, $150. 30 to 60, $175. Is that similar to what you all charge? I will charge more if editing involved!

I generally charge $150 for jobs lasting up to 2 hours. That includes basic editing. I charge an additional $25/hour for any additional editing and will add a mileage surcharge of $35 for any travel beyond 50 miles round trip.

Hope that helps!

 

[Cymruflyer]

I generally charge $150 for jobs lasting up to 2 hours. That includes basic editing. I charge an additional $25/hour for any additional editing and will add a mileage surcharge of $35 for any travel beyond 50 miles round trip.

Hope that helps!

I think you are on the very low end of charges for drone photography.

 

[Swing4TheRing]

I’m at $295 for a basic in town shoot with video and photos. Half day rate is $795 and full day rate is $1395.

 

[edfrombama]

Good afternoon to all-

This is a very interesting discussion.
There's small chance I will ever need to know the going rate for drone photo services in my area, but since I do use drone photography in my work- outdoor magazine journalism stuff, I guess that the going rates of drone services is of some minor concern to me. My photo work is figured in to the payment I get from magazine, so there's no need for me to worry about billing for such work.
However, I have seen much the same situation as is being discussed in this thread in other lines of work- it's not just drone photography work. Fishing guides, ground-based photographer, any sort of private contractor who does skilled work is in the same situation. I've seen start-up folks come in to an area and undercut the standard work rates and I have seen this action cause a lot of anger and antagonism in the other professional.
I've seen folks get into a skilled activity just for the "fun" of it and take work away from other established folks. and I've seen some uncomfortable situations arise because of this.
so, when I am asked to do any sort of drone photography work- there are no other full or even part time professional in my part of the world, I make sure it is known I doing this work as a favor and no money is to be changed hands.

I have enough trouble already without possibly getting another drone shooter mad at me.

you all be safe and keep well- Ed