Hi all,
I have just purchased 6 months commercial insurance and started advertising services with my drone. I am doing this all totally solo so would appreciate any advice from those who have been in a similar position. I am currently self advertising using social media, but plan to create a 60 second video to catch peoples attention and covering some of the uses I can think of for a drone.
Currently my thoughts are usage for inspections / surveys, estate agency matters, lost/missing things/creatures and special occasions. One of the main issues I envisage is file transfer if peple want large files, I have dropbox as an option but that s limited to 2GB. I guess memory sticks may be the answer there. I don’t see many adverts for drone pilots so I wonder whether this will be a total flop or could take off. Nice pun!
Hi a possible good place to start might be google drone photography or video in your location and see the kind of thing that established businesses are shooting
From my experience clients want images of new biuld properties such as business parks or warehouses
Also shot shots done in urban areas
Can I also suggest you buy a small external hard drive for your computer so that you can store everything in one place
Good luck
Thanks, luckily I already have seperate drives and around 1.5TB of storage (soon to be 3) so storage should be ok. I am just not that savvy with transferring it via email but will find out soon enough. I also have no idea of charges, I was thinking like 50 quid call out plus 25 per hour but friends who are thinking of doing similar are saying thats way too low.
Hiya,
When I’ve done commercial work I use ‘Wetransfer’ unless the client requests otherwise. That way you always have the original copy of your work and can retouch any footage if needed by your client. I think one the best tips for starting out is to try and get a website up and running (guilty here too). When I look at others that seems to be key element. Regullar YouTube updates, and Drone Safe Register is good place to promote yourself… I can’t claim to be a guru yet but these are my thoughts. Wishing you every success.
Thanks. I would consider signing up to the likes of drone safe but I think I would need a few bites first, shelling out a few hundred quid at the start feels a bit much but maybe that’s what I need to do to get it started.
And they’re correct! Wedding photographers charge at least 4x that per hour. Don’t charge by the hour anyway, charge by the package. There are plenty of people out there willing to make a buck on the side, so you have to be REALLY good at what you do, and offer something a little different from the rest. Rather than file transfer, think about adding the cost of a micro SD card to every job that you can post out?
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Double that and you’re nearer the mark, but still cheap.
Factor in travelling, editing. Tax and insurance otherwise you’re just hitting minimum wage.
If you’re doing a roof survey ask what roofers are charging per hour, and work on that.
As a self employed person myself, all be it in a completely different industry, he wont have to worry for a little while as the personal allowance is £12,500 before HMRC start taxing you. However if he is already employed in another job full time I’m not sure how that works out as I’ve never done both at the same time.
At his considered rate it’s gonna be a long long while 
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Im a high rate tax payer and in my existing second job I am hammered.
Speak to a reputable accountant, you may be surprised. 
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Just for what it’s worth. I know someone who uploads all their stuff to YouTube and then sends links. It’s private and nearly all download managers will take the video directly from it - it can then be deleted. It’s like a company will have a fat internet connection anyway so downloading won’t be an issue.
When i started professional photography many years ago… the society photographer who taught me stuff beyond operating a camera told me off regarding my pricing: …
‘you’re thinking like an amateur!’
and he was right…
you won’t be respected for being cheap whatever you produce … sad to say
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Thanks all.
All greatly received, just about to post my first advert attempt in the vids section.
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Right.
I have made a new one and taken on board all the above. I think it is better. I may still tweak, but I can at least post this one up on the local ad pages tomorow as it is advertisement day. Further critique welcomed.
I have a Google business set up now too which may help.
To add, it days it is still processing up to HD, and I have changed the thumbnail so rather than the image above it is my end page with contact details.
