so ive been doing drone work on the side for about two years now, mostly real estate shoots and the occasional construction progress stuff for a local contractor. i have my part 107 and a decent setup (mavic 3 pro, some ND filters, decent editing workflow) and honestly the side income has been pretty solid but nothing crazy.

my day job is fine but i kind of hate it and ive been seriously thinking about just pulling the trigger and going full time freelance. the thing is i dont really know anyone whos done it successfully and i keep reading conflicting stuff online — some people say the market is totally saturated, others say if you specialize youre fine. i do live in a mid-size city, not like a major metro but not rural either.

has anyone actually made the jump? like genuinely replaced a full time income doing drone work? i feel like im close to being able to do it but im scared to commit and then have it fall apart after 3 months

yeah i made the jump about four years ago and honestly it took about 8 months before i felt like it was actually stable. the first few months were really nerve wracking. real estate alone probably wont cut it unless you're absolutely grinding volume, the margins are thin and clients are flaky. what saved me was picking up a few recurring contracts — one with a solar inspection company and one with a local engineering firm doing site surveys. that recurring stuff is where the real money is, one-off shoots are fine but you cant build a business on them.

the saturation thing is real but its mostly at the bottom. if you can do something more technical or get into a niche thats not just pretty aerials youll be in much better shape. mapping, inspection, anything that requires data processing — thats where the rates actually hold up.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually so ill be following this thread. i did my first paid job last month (small landscaping company wanted aerial photos of a few properties) and it went really well but i have no idea how to find consistent clients. did you just cold email people at the start or how did you even get your first real estate contacts