so ive been flying for about two years now, mostly just hobby stuff and a few favors for friends like shooting their backyard weddings and one real estate thing that a buddy asked me to do for free. people keep telling me I should charge for this and honestly the footage has been pretty decent so I started looking into it more seriously.

the problem is I have no idea where to even begin with making it legit. like do I need an LLC right away or can I just operate as a sole proprietor for a while and see if it takes off? and the insurance thing is stressing me out ? I looked at a couple options and the prices vary wildly and I dont really understand what coverage I actually need versus what's just upselling.

also pricing. I genuinely have no clue what to charge. the free jobs I did were maybe 2-3 hours of flying plus editing and if I add all that time up I was basically working for nothing. how do people figure out their rates without either scaring clients away or totally underselling themselves

any advice from people who actually went through this would be huge, im not looking for a full business plan just some honest experience from the community

been there man, I went through almost exactly this about three years ago. honestly the LLC thing matters less at the start than people think ? sole proprietor is fine to get going, you just report it on your personal taxes. the bigger thing is getting your Part 107 if you dont have it already because without that you technically cant get paid for any of this and no legit insurance will cover you anyway.

for insurance I use Skywatch, its pay-per-use which worked well when I was starting and jobs were sporadic. once you're doing it more regularly something like Thimble or a dedicated aviation hull policy makes more sense. expect to pay somewhere in the $500-1200 a year range for a decent annual policy once you're established.

pricing was the thing I screwed up the worst early on. I undercharged so badly on my first few real jobs that I basically trained those clients to expect low rates and it was a nightmare to raise them later. look at what others in your area charge, for real estate a basic package around $150-250 per property is pretty standard depending on your market, more for video deliverables. dont forget to factor in drive time, editing, and the fact that your gear depreciates.

im kind of in the same boat so following this thread. one thing I did was just look up local competitors on google and see if any of them had pricing on their websites, a lot dont but some do and it at least gives you a ballpark. also I asked in a local photography group and got some helpful responses from people doing similar work