so ive been flying for about two years now, started with a mini 2 and now im on a mavic 3 pro, got my part 107 last spring and ive done maybe a dozen small paid gigs - mostly real estate and one construction progress shoot. nothing crazy but people seem to like my work and ive had a few repeat clients already.

the thing is my day job is pretty soul crushing and ive been thinking more and more about whether i could actually do this full time or at least make it a solid side income. i live in a mid sized city, not a huge market but theres definitely real estate activity and some local businesses. i guess my question is - is the market as saturated as people say or is there still room if you actually put in the work and learn to edit well and treat clients like adults

not looking for some magic answer just curious what people who've made the jump actually experienced in the first year or two

honestly i think the "its too saturated" thing gets repeated so much that people just accept it without really testing it. yeah there are a lot of guys with drones now but the number of guys who show up on time, communicate properly, deliver edits that dont look like a youtube tutorial from 2018, and actually invoice professionally is way smaller than you'd think. ive been doing this full time for about four years and my biggest source of new clients is literally just referrals from people who got burned by someone cheaper who flaked or delivered garbage.

first year was rough ngl, i kept my part time bartending job for like 8 months just to have something coming in. but by month ten or so it started clicking. real estate got me stable recurring work and then i started branching into event coverage and some infrastructure inspection stuff which pays significantly better per day. if you can get into the inspection side - powerlines, cell towers, roofing for insurance - thats where the real money is, though you need more certs and some companies want specific drone experience on top of 107.

just dont quit your job on day one lol. build the pipeline first.

im kind of in the same boat as you so cant give you the "ive made it" answer but what i did was just start reaching out to real estate agents directly with a small portfolio and offered a discounted rate to build up reviews and referrals. got two agents who now call me pretty regularly and that alone covers my gear costs and then some. not quitting my job yet but it feels more real than it did a year ago