Starting of a drone business

[BD0G]

Develop a business plan
Choose what area you will specialize in
Weddings , Real Estate Photography, Home Roof and Gutter inspections , Topographical Mapping ,etc.

Skip the purchase of the kids toy as you can pickup the skills needed to become proficient with a drone that helps you fly accurately. (onboard GPS, Compasses, automated modes of flight , etc)

Spend the money on at least the Mavic Pro series.
Smaller and more portable. Longer battery life
The Phantom 4 is huge and cumbersome and the camera is better in some respects , but its a huge trade off in terms of portability

Bad battery life? Huh? Not really considering DJI is the only way to go for Prosumer drones

Yes, The Mavic Pro has a "fly more" kit that comes with 3 batteries . Each battery averages approximately 20 minutes of flight time depending on environmental factors. So thats about an hour or so of flight time. You can also purchase additional batteries if needed.

You will need to register the Drone with the FAA for 5 bucks and get your FAA Registration Number that will be attached to your drone(s)

Then you will need to take the Part 107 exam and pass it. Test fee is approximately $150.00 and study materials can be found online for free if you really search hard. If not then there are paid courses that one can complete online or in-person.
The Part 107 will allow you to be compensated for any work that you perform or data/ pictures / video that you provide to a client. Without the Part 107 at a minimum you will be breaking the law.

I dont know about "mastering" the drone (I have over 100 hours of flight and do not consider myself a master) I still cant do a very good descending perfectly concentric downward vortex ring at a consistent speed while yawing the gimbal. LOL
To become somewhat proficient and having great hand to eye coordination and dexterity I would wager that you could reach that level in less than 15 hours or total flight time.

 

[Mavic Pro Platinum]

Develop a business plan
Choose what area you will specialize in
Weddings , Real Estate Photography, Home Roof and Gutter inspections , Topographical Mapping ,etc.

Skip the purchase of the kids toy as you can pickup the skills needed to become proficient with a drone that helps you fly accurately. (onboard GPS, Compasses, automated modes of flight , etc)

Spend the money on at least the Mavic Pro series.
Smaller and more portable. Longer battery life
The Phantom 4 is huge and cumbersome and the camera is better in some respects , but its a huge trade off in terms of portability

Bad battery life? Huh? Not really considering DJI is the only way to go for Prosumer drones

Yes, The Mavic Pro has a "fly more" kit that comes with 3 batteries . Each battery averages approximately 20 minutes of flight time depending on environmental factors. So thats about an hour or so of flight time. You can also purchase additional batteries if needed.

You will need to register the Drone with the FAA for 5 bucks and get your FAA Registration Number that will be attached to your drone(s)

Then you will need to take the Part 107 exam and pass it. Test fee is approximately $150.00 and study materials can be found online for free if you really search hard. If not then there are paid courses that one can complete online or in-person.
The Part 107 will allow you to be compensated for any work that you perform or data/ pictures / video that you provide to a client. Without the Part 107 at a minimum you will be breaking the law.

I dont know about "mastering" the drone (I have over 100 hours of flight and do not consider myself a master) I still cant do a very good descending perfectly concentric downward vortex ring at a consistent speed while yawing the gimbal. LOL
To become somewhat proficient and having great hand to eye coordination and dexterity I would wager that you could reach that level in less than 15 hours or total flight time.

That is a great idea and the best way to start a business!

 

[Decal Josh]

Not only do you need to learn how to fly and get your 107, but you also need to ask yourself what type of business you plan to take on and chose the right equipment for the tasks at hand.

Personally, if I paid someone to survey my property and they showed up with a consumer toy such as a Spark or a Mavic, I would laugh and demand my money back. (no need to get angry this is purely MY opinion based on MY three years of experience)

Earlier this year, the little town I live in flooded and they hired a “professional” drone pilot to photograph the area. The pilot chose his Mavic and every single picture was blurry, blown out and washed out. Paid some guy $600 for a dozen or so shots and they thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I personally took to the sky with my Mavic and gave one of my pictures to the city. Guess which one was published in the local paper?

Do your homework, learn from mistakes and be the best out there because there will be competition. Oh, and customer service and satisfaction is also pretty darn important.

Good luck to you!

 

[DanMan32]

He won't need to obtain 107. He's in the UK so USA laws don't apply. The currency reference was the clue.

There are similar laws and regs in UK however.

Smaller, cheaper quads would be fine for honing skills, but they probably won't do well for the proposed business application.
I'm not sure even the Air would suffice.

 

[DougBlueSkies]

You'll need your pfco if you are going to use it for paid work... costs about a grand, then insurance.

And don’t forget the £250 a year for the pleasure of ‘buying’ your yearly permission fee

 

[DougBlueSkies]

Thanks I like the look of the DJI Phantom 4 pro but it’s a little expensive to learn with can you think of one like that with a similar controller only cheaper

Most haven’t a clue what they’re talking about. Buy yourself a ‘SymaX5’ cost around £30 on Amazon. You can fly this indoors and out. I added a couple of 2p coins as extra ballast when flying outside, to help stablise in the wind. Practise flying circuits and figure 8’s. When you can achieve this with this machine, flying anything from dji will be a breeze and most importantly you will have confidence. That goes with this advice, it’s not a race, smooth and steady wins the day. Best of luck

 

[Tommyc9494]

And don’t forget the £250 a year for the pleasure of ‘buying’ your yearly permission fee

Sorry mate I don’t get you what’s the permission fee about and why lol

 

[Tommyc9494]

Develop a business plan
Choose what area you will specialize in
Weddings , Real Estate Photography, Home Roof and Gutter inspections , Topographical Mapping ,etc.

Skip the purchase of the kids toy as you can pickup the skills needed to become proficient with a drone that helps you fly accurately. (onboard GPS, Compasses, automated modes of flight , etc)

Spend the money on at least the Mavic Pro series.
Smaller and more portable. Longer battery life
The Phantom 4 is huge and cumbersome and the camera is better in some respects , but its a huge trade off in terms of portability

Bad battery life? Huh? Not really considering DJI is the only way to go for Prosumer drones

Yes, The Mavic Pro has a "fly more" kit that comes with 3 batteries . Each battery averages approximately 20 minutes of flight time depending on environmental factors. So thats about an hour or so of flight time. You can also purchase additional batteries if needed.

You will need to register the Drone with the FAA for 5 bucks and get your FAA Registration Number that will be attached to your drone(s)

Then you will need to take the Part 107 exam and pass it. Test fee is approximately $150.00 and study materials can be found online for free if you really search hard. If not then there are paid courses that one can complete online or in-person.
The Part 107 will allow you to be compensated for any work that you perform or data/ pictures / video that you provide to a client. Without the Part 107 at a minimum you will be breaking the law.

I dont know about "mastering" the drone (I have over 100 hours of flight and do not consider myself a master) I still cant do a very good descending perfectly concentric downward vortex ring at a consistent speed while yawing the gimbal. LOL
To become somewhat proficient and having great hand to eye coordination and dexterity I would wager that you could reach that level in less than 15 hours or total flight time.

That’s the idea mate I plan to start a business plan in the next couple of days. I just wanted to ask a few things before I started. I’m hoping to go along the lines of roof and gutter inspections on houses and hopefully commercial premises and then eventually i want to do a course on mapping for agriculture and building

 

[Aussie Oldtimer]

I recommend that you biy a good model not a toy. If you get a cheap one, you wont be happy with it and then you will have to sell it.

I've never flown before but just take things carefully and learn how to operate it. Slow and steady makes for good videos. Learn to make small movements of camera and machine otherwise your vids will be jerky and people wont want to look at them

Re the business aspects, its very difficult to make a living in any sort of photography these days so don’t expect to retire in a year

 

[twoheadlines]

In a word: train, then train some more. When you have done that, train again.
Practicing to fly using a "cheapie" is okay, but in the end all you will be good at is "practicing at flying a 2bit toy".
Get yourself the real "McCoy" and learn to fly it, until you can fly forwards, backwards, and sideways without thinking about the orientation of you to the aircraft and vice, versa. Wouldn't recommend trying to fly upside down though - that will end badly! There are very few full size helo's with that capability and maybe even fewer pilots capable of performing such a manoeuvre, and I suspect absolutely NO drones with such capability.
When you have got a really good handle on the flying - I am suggesting perhaps 30 plus hours of training in semi-controlled conditions, then maybe you can start to think about flying and doing things with the camera in your likely "real world conditions". Before you even begin to seriously put yourself out there as a professional UAV videographer, you will also need to have a good grasp of the rules you will be flying under, and, whether being licensed is mandatory or not in your country, state, province, county or neighbourhood, demonstrate to your potential customer base that you are serious about the quality of services you will be offering them by getting yourself certified.
After you have got yourself into a position of being proficient in all areas of flying a UAV as well as taking aerial photos or video, you might also need to have a better than average grasp of post production; unless you are going to contract that out.
For every hour you might spend "in the air", I suggest there is probably good value to be had from at least an equal number of hours watching all sorts of info' about UAVs and videography on YouTube. There are maybe hundreds of hours of free video to be watched - some might only offer pretty average advice, some will be excellent tutorial type material - but all of it will help to increase your body of knowledge about flying UAVs.
I guess the rest is down to you, and how serious you really want to be about setting up a business operation based around flying a UAV and aerial videography.
Good luck. And don't be frightened to pull back, if your business idea turns out to be a hurdle too far - you'll still have a great hobby.

Edit: A requirement to be a qualified surveyor in order to obtain a video of an area of land, objects or buildings will be determined by the law in your country. As I said, know the rules you will be flying under. For the most part "ignorance" is not an excuse, and I would think in most jurisdictions making such a claim would likely carry a heavy penalty in law, and probably cost you your business, and the shirt off your back. That said, software packages such as DroneDeploy (Powerful Drone & UAV Mapping Software | DroneDeploy) could be argued to be one of the leading software platforms for accurate, high res' UAV mapping with a wide customisation capability to suit many different business applications. I'm sure DroneDeploy won't be the only software package available either.

Edit: A further note to update my argument of it being unlikely any drones would be capable of flying upside down. It seems some of the 'speed', 'racing' breed of UAV do have the capability of upside down flight. The few vid's I have watched show some very fast, very agile little birds going through some amazing aerobatic moves. So, there you go. For my part I'm happy keeping both my DJI drones flying in "conventional" orientation.

 

[bushie]

If you are doing inspections forget manual flying. Get a program such as DroneHarmony and learn how to program it. It will fly accurate, repeatable missions with smooth turns and no gaps in your coverage. Can use Precision Mapper to produce the orthomap and GIS software to plot it up.

 

[Tbert632]

Cheers guys I don’t suppose you could shed any light on the other questions I asked in particular the one about doing drone surveys

 

[Meta4]

Hi everyone I’m new to the site and could do with some advice. After searching the internet for business ideas I came across a site suggesting that drone business are becoming more and more popular . I’m a complete newbie to drones Iv always though they where cool but never enough to buy one.

There are way too many people hoping to make money out of their drones and not enough clients that need your product.
The barrier to entry is very low, many potential clients now buy their own drone and create their own images or you'll find you're competing with some who will work for peanuts.
In that situation, to win a job, you lose.
In my part of the world, real estate provided an income stream ... for a while.
But I haven't had a call from any agents for the last two years.
They all do their own now or their interior photographers have added a drone to their kit.

Before thinking business, you need to get some experience and have a feel for what you can do and what service you might be able to provide clients.

The idea of a cheap "trainer drone" is commonly suggested in forums but they really aren't much help.
Any cheap toy is going to be much harder to fly than a good DJI product and the time you'd waste learning to handle it would be better spent learning how a real drone is programmed and how to use it in a variety of situations.

It only takes about 5 minutes to learn to fly a DJI drone, they almost fly themselves.
But there are 100 things that could go wrong and it takes time learning what those things are and how to make sure they don't happen to you.

Surveys?
Probably .. in most locations you can't put yourself up as a surveyor without appropriate qualifications.
You may be able to do mapping without getting into trouble but you are a long way from that at the moment.
Check in your area to get details.

 

[DavidJL39]

We dont have registration here in the UK until Nov 2019, dont fall for the fake registration sites.

My understanding is that in the UK you do already need to be registered ( and qualified) if you are using the drone for any commercial use, such as doing a Survey,

 

[dannybgoode]

Here's the big one though - to do surveys a) you'll need your PfCO from the CAA - this will cost you around £1600 and b) there are loads of companies offering drone services now so you'll be competing with them. You've then got insurance (£300+), travel, marketing, maintenance, computers, drones (you'll need at least 2 - having to cancel a job because your one and only drone is out of action would be damaging to your reputation) etc.

Sure it's possible to start a business and offer aerial surveys etc but the start-up cost will be significant and there will be reasonable ongoing costs too.

My advice would be to do a business plan first before paying out for any equipment. If the numbers work, go for it. Not trying to be negative but having looked at this myself it is not as straightforward as just buying a drone and letting the money roll in.

 

[MavicMikeMinh]

Sorry for being a bit blunt, but "Finding drones cool" is not a sufficient basis to start a business.

Answers to your questions:
1- In the UK, you will hardly get any surveying assignments without becoming a RICS member (for non UK readers: this is the UK surveyors professional association).
2- Learning to fly properly has never harmed anybody, I jumped into it with a Mavic and still learn every day, won't use mine for biz though.
3- Flight time of over 20 mins per battery is pretty excellent, no ? How long can property survey last?
4- To use it commercially you do need a PfCO - Permission for Commercial Operation (permission, not a licence). A previous poster got this wrong.

The investment for the drone(s) is the least of your worries if you want a successful biz. Start with a decent business plan. This requires detailed research. No figures plugged out from thin air. In this plan, spend 12 mins on the type of drone you'll buy and 1200 mins on the sections of finance, marketing, selling, tax, VAT, insurance, IT, backup, website, car leasing, office rent, competition analysis, how to survive a period without orders, working +14 hrs every day, no holidays or free days for the first 4 years at least etc. etc.


Or, you could just use a drone as a hobby. A lot easier and cheaper.

 

[dannybgoode]

Sorry for being a bit blunt, but "Finding drones cool" is not a sufficient basis to start a business.

Answers to your questions:
1- In the UK, you will hardly get any surveying assignments without becoming a RICS member (for non UK readers: this is the UK surveyors professional association). A previous poster got this wrong.
2- Learning to fly properly has never harmed anybody, I jumped into it with a Mavic and still learn every day, won't use mine for biz though.
3- Flight time of over 20 mins per battery is pretty excellent, no ? How long can property survey last?
4- To use it commercially you do need a PfCO - Permission for Commercial Operation (permission, not a licence).

The investment for the drone(s) is the least of your worries if you want a successful biz. Start with a decent business plan. This requires detailed research. No figures plugged out from thin air. In this plan, spend 12 mins on the type of drone you'll buy and 1200 mins on the sections of finance, marketing, selling, tax, VAT, insurance, IT, backup, website, car leasing, office rent, competition analysis, how to survive a period without orders, working +14 hrs every day, no holidays or free days for the first 4 years at least etc. etc.


Or, you could just use a drone as a hobby. A lot easier and cheaper.

I am in the middle of quoting someone for their professional indemnity insurance for doing rail surveys by drone (admittedly as well as other terrestrial rail surveys but it is the drones that have limited the markets willing to put up the capacity). Best price on the table so far is £45k + tax. You're last paragraph is absolutely spot on

 

[drakkor]

Buy a cheap kids toy to learn to fly. I started with a Syma X5
You can crash it a lot and it keeps on flying. Then when you can fly and don't crash buy something more expensive.

That's why I ALWAYS suggest my friends to do, when they see my fly and want to get a drone as well. Always practice on a smaller cheaper quad you can crash without much expenses, before to fly the expensive gear.

 

[DrRobin]

Hi,

Reading this thread I am reminded of another business story currently in the UK news, Seabourne Freight.

The U.K. Government let a contract for ferry companies to provide additional ferry services in case of a no deal brexit. Seabourne Freight won the contract despite owning no ferries, have no experience of running a ferry service, have no or little staff, proposing to operate out of a harbour which is not deep enough and then they copied their T&Cs from a fast food delivery company. Not surprising they are getting ridiculed in the press.

They do however have one big advantage, they have a big contract from the UK government.

Why do I mention this, well it highlights very well what you need to run a successful business,

A skill or trade,
Equipment,
Qualifications,
Customers,
Marketing and advertising,
Billing and accounting.

Apart from any qualifications to fly your drone or produce survey reports you will need to

register with HMRC and pay tax on any income,
Take out professional indemnity insurance,
Have business insurance on your car to travel to site,
Market yourself,
Research what others charge,
Get some letterhead and business cards,
Prepare end of year accounts or fill in a tax return,
etc, etc, etc.

The list is endless and all the while you are racking up costs, with little or no income.

You need to consider your target market, it is almost certainly not a house owner, they would go to a roofing or survey company and are unlikely to pay you a reasonable sum of money to fly a drone over their house, they would probably just buy one of their own.

A survey company, estate agent or roofing contractor would be a better bet, you could probably just fly the drone and take the pictures and let them carry the cost of producing the report and finding the customers, but then you will earn a lot less. Still it is a lot less risky.

Either way you need to have a decent drone, be a very good pilot and know what to video and what to look for. A video flying along the gutter isn't going to tell anyone very much.

Sorry to be so negative but I don't want you to waste a lot of time and money. Much better to buy a Mavic Air, get a few hundred flying hours under your belt as a hobby and then see if there is a business opportunity.

 

[DougBlueSkies]

Sorry mate I don’t get you what’s the permission fee about and why lol

Your annual payment to the CAA for the PfCO.
Best of luck