got approached by one of those drone-as-a-service type companies, they basically have a network of pilots and dispatch jobs to whoever is closest or available. the pay per job doesnt sound amazing but they said theres consistent volume and you dont have to do any of your own sales which is the part i hate.

trying to figure out if this is worth it or if im better off just grinding through building my own client base. ive been freelancing on my own for about a year and the money when i get jobs is good but its streaky, some months are great and then ill go three weeks with nothing lined up and it stresses me out.

has anyone worked with one of these dispatch-style companies, curious what the actual experience is like day to day

worked with one of the bigger ones for almost two years. the volume thing is real, i was getting pretty consistent work especially during busy seasons, but the rates are genuinely low and they take a cut that adds up fast. also some of the job briefs they send over are vague and when something goes wrong or a client is unhappy it can get weird because youre kind of caught in the middle between the platform and whoever actually hired them.

i used it as like a floor basically, kept my own clients as the main thing and filled gaps with the platform jobs. that worked pretty well. wouldnt want it to be my only thing though, the margins just arent there for that.

the streaky income thing is so real, that was me for the first 18 months. what actually helped me more than anything was just picking two or three industries and becoming the person those people call, like i focused hard on roofing inspections and now i get referrals constantly from insurance adjusters who i never even directly marketed to. takes time but the consistency gets a lot better once youre not just whoever shows up on google.

not saying dont try the dispatch company, might be worth doing both for a bit and seeing how it feels