Thinking of Stopping Doing Commercial Work

[spamgnome]

I've been doing some pretty basic Part 107 work for the past 5 or so years. It's 99% CRE (Commercial Real Estate) so the money is pretty bottom of the barrel. However, I enjoy doing these easy assignments. It gets me out of the house (I'm retired) and gives me an excuse to fly my Air 3S. Lately though, it looks like my next drone may be either MUCH more expensive or may not even be readily available. While I like doing these CRE jobs, I get the most enjoyment by using my drone on vacation. In other words, the risk of crashing my drone is now riskier given that I don't know if or for how much my next drone will be obtained. I don't really need the money from the work, so I'm considering not doing most of the projects going forward.
I'm posting this just to see how the rest of the community is thinking about this as time goes on. Obviously, if you do drone work full time and it's your living, that's a whole different animal. I might feel differently if these types of jobs paid 50% more, but the pricing actually seems to be going the other way.

 

[FLDave]

I've been doing some pretty basic Part 107 work for the past 5 or so years. It's 99% CRE (Commercial Real Estate) so the money is pretty bottom of the barrel. However, I enjoy doing these easy assignments. It gets me out of the house (I'm retired) and gives me an excuse to fly my Air 3S. Lately though, it looks like my next drone may be either MUCH more expensive or may not even be readily available. While I like doing these CRE jobs, I get the most enjoyment by using my drone on vacation. In other words, the risk of crashing my drone is now riskier given that I don't know if or for how much my next drone will be obtained. I don't really need the money from the work, so I'm considering not doing most of the projects going forward.
I'm posting this just to see how the rest of the community is thinking about this as time goes on. Obviously, if you do drone work full time and it's your living, that's a whole different animal. I might feel differently if these types of jobs paid 50% more, but the pricing actually seems to be going the other way.

As a business there are a lot of financial records to manage Is your small business making a profit? Have you been filing IRS annual income taxes to include your business? If not, they I'd say you don't have business in flying. On the other hand you could take advantage of the tax implications for business loss, even with the purchase of a new drone. The loss could be advantageous against your other taxable income for the year, assuming you file annually and owe some income tax.

 

[Felix le Chat]

I've been doing some pretty basic Part 107 work for the past 5 or so years. It's 99% CRE (Commercial Real Estate) so the money is pretty bottom of the barrel. However, I enjoy doing these easy assignments. It gets me out of the house (I'm retired) and gives me an excuse to fly my Air 3S. Lately though, it looks like my next drone may be either MUCH more expensive or may not even be readily available. While I like doing these CRE jobs, I get the most enjoyment by using my drone on vacation. In other words, the risk of crashing my drone is now riskier given that I don't know if or for how much my next drone will be obtained. I don't really need the money from the work, so I'm considering not doing most of the projects going forward.
I'm posting this just to see how the rest of the community is thinking about this as time goes on. Obviously, if you do drone work full time and it's your living, that's a whole different animal. I might feel differently if these types of jobs paid 50% more, but the pricing actually seems to be going the other way.

Finding something to do with your flying camera (other than cranking out formulaic video ads for cheapskate/ungrateful estate agencies) will keep you interested in using one of the most amazing technological developments of the early 21st century.

Find something that interests you and pursue it for your own profit (read: satisfaction).

There's plenty of subjects out there that are crying out for photographic documentation... especially the stuff that isn't likely to make it to the next century intact.

You already have the tools to do a professional level job: develop a passion and pursue it... you never know, it might lead you down a path that could put some dollars in your pocket at the same time.