so ive been flying for about two years now, got my part 107 last spring and ive been doing a few small gigs here and there - mostly real estate stuff for a friend who does listings in our area. pays alright but its not consistent and honestly i spend more time chasing invoices than actually flying.

im at a point where i kind of want to try doing this more seriously but everyone i talk to either says theres tons of work out there or that the market is completely saturated and nobody pays decent rates anymore. feels like i get a completely different answer depending on who i ask. i have a mini 4 pro and an air 3 so gear isnt really the issue, i can deliver solid 4k footage and do basic edits in premiere.

what i dont know is like... how do you actually find clients that arent just trying to pay you $50 for a half day of work. is it networking, cold emailing, getting on those platforms like Dronebase or whatever they're called now. curious if anyone here actually makes a real living off this or if its mostly a side income situation for most people.

honest answer - it depends a lot on your market and what niche you go after. real estate is probably the most crowded because everyone starts there, the margins are pretty thin and clients have seen enough to know they can lowball you. where i started making actual money was pivoting toward construction progress documentation and insurance inspections. those clients have budgets, they have repeat work, and they dont really care about cinematic movement or color grading, they just want accurate consistent footage delivered on time. less glamorous but way more sustainable. cold emailing general contractors and project managers got me my first three ongoing contracts and honestly that pipeline still works if you put effort into it.

im kind of in the same boat as you so not sure i have great advice lol but i did sign up for Workful and a couple of the drone marketplace apps and got maybe two jobs in four months so dont count on those too much. the one thing that actually helped me was just posting process videos on instagram, not the final polished stuff but like showing up to a job, the setup, what the flight looks like. got a message from a local solar company off that who needed panel inspection footage and that turned into a small recurring thing. still figuring it out tbh