so ive been flying for about two years now, got my part 107 last spring and done a handful of paid gigs here and there — mostly real estate, one construction site job that came through a buddy. nothing crazy but enough to make me think maybe this could be a real thing.

my day job is fine but its not going anywhere and i keep thinking about whether i could actually replace that income doing drone work full time. i know the market is getting more saturated but i also feel like theres still room if you specialize? idk. has anyone actually made the jump and what did the first year look like honestly. not looking for the inspirational stuff just the real numbers and headaches

yeah i made the jump about three years ago and the honest answer is the first year was rough. i think i cleared maybe 28k which was a pretty big pay cut from what i was making in IT. the thing nobody tells you is that flying is maybe 20% of the actual job — the rest is chasing invoices, editing footage, updating your website, answering emails from clients who want to pay you in exposure lol. real estate was my bread and butter early on but those rates get beaten down hard in competitive markets, i was seeing guys doing full shoots for like 150 bucks which is just not sustainable. where i started actually making real money was inspection work, utilities and roofing specifically. the rates are better and theres less competition because you actually need to know what youre looking at. second year was around 60k and its grown since. so its doable but dont expect it to be quick

following this thread because im kind of in the same spot. just got my 107 a few months ago and doing small gigs on the side. curious what software people use for the business side of things too, like invoicing and contracts and all that