Drone business
Discussion
Any advice please. I bought a DJI mavic 2 pro a few months ago as a toy but I'm considering using it as a sideline business. I've called a few estate agents but there doesn't seem the demand that I thought there might be. Is there much call for commercial work? Is there much demand for drone photography in general?
Target roofing surveys would be my shout.
I've done a couple recently with a Mavic Pro 2 for mates and both were happy.
They were being quoted up to £500 for a 'normal' roof survey which took me 10 mins using the drone.
Cheers,
Dougie.
p.s. Mavic Pro 2's are not toys - seriously impressive bits of kit.
I've done a couple recently with a Mavic Pro 2 for mates and both were happy.
They were being quoted up to £500 for a 'normal' roof survey which took me 10 mins using the drone.
Cheers,
Dougie.
p.s. Mavic Pro 2's are not toys - seriously impressive bits of kit.
Would you need the GVC to operate for estate agents with a >250g drone? In most cases (i.e. apart from country estates!) I can't see how you'd avoid flying close to other people.
Anyone can fly a Mini competently with 5 minutes of practice and the photos/video will be more than good enough for RightMove etc, and that doesn't require an expensive licence. I'd be surprised if most haven't cottoned on to that, the outlay is minimal (I bought the Mavic Mini Fly More combo from Argos for £249 a few weeks ago) and there would be no future costs for them.
Anyone can fly a Mini competently with 5 minutes of practice and the photos/video will be more than good enough for RightMove etc, and that doesn't require an expensive licence. I'd be surprised if most haven't cottoned on to that, the outlay is minimal (I bought the Mavic Mini Fly More combo from Argos for £249 a few weeks ago) and there would be no future costs for them.
Edited by ch37 on Wednesday 12th January 10:28
This is the problem - there's very capable <250g drones now that have far more relaxed rules about when/where you can fly them, and they're cheap and easy enough to fly that many people who need a camera in the air (for surveying, etc) have bought one.
Larger stuff like the Mavic Pro 2 in the A3 class is supposed to be over 50m from people and 150m from "residential, recreational, commercial and industrial areas" unless you have extra qualifications like GVC.
Actually getting people to pay enough to cover your time and insurance will be a bigger challenge on top.
Larger stuff like the Mavic Pro 2 in the A3 class is supposed to be over 50m from people and 150m from "residential, recreational, commercial and industrial areas" unless you have extra qualifications like GVC.
Actually getting people to pay enough to cover your time and insurance will be a bigger challenge on top.
sjg said:
Larger stuff like the Mavic Pro 2 in the A3 class is supposed to be over 50m from people and 150m from "residential, recreational, commercial and industrial areas" unless you have extra qualifications like GVC.
IIRC If you have GVC you will still need permission/be under the control of, people vehicles etc within 50m radius? Which makes flights within built up areas tricky!Most photographers and filmmakers will use a drone as part of their arsenal of kit, using it to add to what they already do for which it can be exceptionally useful.
Outside of this, there tends to exist two fields for which bespoke drone services are used; creative and survey.
Creative relates to filming anything from corporate stuff to Netflix content. For this you need to know both the drone and it's camera inside out, how to properly set it it and capture images to a specific brief and the direction on the day. You'll need a bank of batteries and most pros at this level will have a second drone as a spare. Day rates can be quite good. £500 minimum but I've seen £1,000 or more offered plus expenses. But the days are few and far between. Accessing the market requires you put together a decent showreel and is good to have a presence on somewhere like www.mandy.com. Beyond that, make yourself and your showreel known to local video companies, production houses and so on. For local / corporate type stuff you should be able to get a few enquiries and assignments. For the more sexy stuff, it's possible but only just. Very well served market and crews tend to be assembled with 'known' faces.
I know little about survey type work other than the fees are generally small and often not worth the effort - sideline hustle or not.
Best use of a sideline-hustle for a drone I've seen was a chap that advertised arial shots of interesting homes and business premises. This was in rural Essex. The offer was something like £90 a pop for which you got the digital image and a nicely printed and framed canvas. He'd advertise 'flight days' with 10 slots per day available. Assuming he booked those slots that's £900 a day. I'd hazard a guess that his costs were around the £400 mark so not bad for a hobby!
I got my first drone (also a Pro2) in 2020 and made one of my lockdown project learning how to use it. That resulted in this:
I put this together for no other purpose than finding out what to do and for the enjoyment of the process. It is by no means perfect yet, off the back it going up on You Tube I've had three nice professional assignments and the film itself has caught the attention of a professional film production company that may or may not be interested in taking it to the next level.
Usual caveat regarding licences and insurance apply!
HTH
Outside of this, there tends to exist two fields for which bespoke drone services are used; creative and survey.
Creative relates to filming anything from corporate stuff to Netflix content. For this you need to know both the drone and it's camera inside out, how to properly set it it and capture images to a specific brief and the direction on the day. You'll need a bank of batteries and most pros at this level will have a second drone as a spare. Day rates can be quite good. £500 minimum but I've seen £1,000 or more offered plus expenses. But the days are few and far between. Accessing the market requires you put together a decent showreel and is good to have a presence on somewhere like www.mandy.com. Beyond that, make yourself and your showreel known to local video companies, production houses and so on. For local / corporate type stuff you should be able to get a few enquiries and assignments. For the more sexy stuff, it's possible but only just. Very well served market and crews tend to be assembled with 'known' faces.
I know little about survey type work other than the fees are generally small and often not worth the effort - sideline hustle or not.
Best use of a sideline-hustle for a drone I've seen was a chap that advertised arial shots of interesting homes and business premises. This was in rural Essex. The offer was something like £90 a pop for which you got the digital image and a nicely printed and framed canvas. He'd advertise 'flight days' with 10 slots per day available. Assuming he booked those slots that's £900 a day. I'd hazard a guess that his costs were around the £400 mark so not bad for a hobby!
I got my first drone (also a Pro2) in 2020 and made one of my lockdown project learning how to use it. That resulted in this:
I put this together for no other purpose than finding out what to do and for the enjoyment of the process. It is by no means perfect yet, off the back it going up on You Tube I've had three nice professional assignments and the film itself has caught the attention of a professional film production company that may or may not be interested in taking it to the next level.
Usual caveat regarding licences and insurance apply!
HTH
Edited by StevieBee on Wednesday 12th January 13:53
It seems a regular thing that someone buys a drone, realises there's not much you can do with it once you've flown it around the garden a bit so maybe they can make some money out of it instead. Here's the same thread from last year.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
I think a lot of it is the same as people who think owning a camera makes them a photographer without actually understanding how much goes into it, not least the business aspect and getting people to part with their money.
Having said all that it is something I've been idly considering and my thought was to get all the relevant qualifications, develop flying and shooting skills with maybe an eye on editing as well. When happy with all the above drop a minimum of £10k on kit that would take me out of the reach of the hobbyists charging £100 for a days work.
I'm still not convinced it would work without a big pile of luck but like photography I think the whole space is saturated with folks with entry level kit working for peanuts because of 'exposure' and getting their foot into a door which is in fact firmly closed.
For surveying work it seems even harder as there is a lot of expensive software and fancy cameras that are required so the price just keeps going up. My day job is for a large consultancy and I was asked to look into drone surveys but the cost of getting set up was eye watering and they dropped the whole idea pretty sharpish.
It's also more than just flying around and collecting data, it's probably helpful if you can interpret that data rather than just sending it to someone else to sort out. I'm sure I recall another thread where someone mentioned they were getting various NDT qualifications and ultimately that would be the way to do it I think.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
I think a lot of it is the same as people who think owning a camera makes them a photographer without actually understanding how much goes into it, not least the business aspect and getting people to part with their money.
Having said all that it is something I've been idly considering and my thought was to get all the relevant qualifications, develop flying and shooting skills with maybe an eye on editing as well. When happy with all the above drop a minimum of £10k on kit that would take me out of the reach of the hobbyists charging £100 for a days work.
I'm still not convinced it would work without a big pile of luck but like photography I think the whole space is saturated with folks with entry level kit working for peanuts because of 'exposure' and getting their foot into a door which is in fact firmly closed.
For surveying work it seems even harder as there is a lot of expensive software and fancy cameras that are required so the price just keeps going up. My day job is for a large consultancy and I was asked to look into drone surveys but the cost of getting set up was eye watering and they dropped the whole idea pretty sharpish.
It's also more than just flying around and collecting data, it's probably helpful if you can interpret that data rather than just sending it to someone else to sort out. I'm sure I recall another thread where someone mentioned they were getting various NDT qualifications and ultimately that would be the way to do it I think.
Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff