so ive been doing drone work on the side for about two years now, mostly real estate and the occasional wedding video, and im starting to wonder if its actually possible to make a full living off this or if im just kidding myself. i have my part 107 and a pretty decent kit, mini 4 pro and an air 3, nothing crazy but enough to get the job done for most clients.

the thing is my day job is burning me out and i keep looking at my weekend shoots and thinking like... i genuinely enjoy this. but rent doesnt pay itself and i have no idea how to scale from picking up maybe 2-3 gigs a month to something that actually covers my bills. does anyone here do this full time? and if so how long did it take before you werent terrified every month about making ends meet

went full time about 3 years ago after doing exactly what you're doing. honestly the biggest thing nobody tells you is that the flying is maybe 20% of the actual job — the rest is invoicing, chasing clients, editing, responding to emails at 11pm, all that fun stuff. the money can absolutely be there but real estate alone probably wont cut it unless you're in a really hot market or have a ton of volume. i started picking up construction progress shoots and insurance work and that changed everything for me, way more consistent than weddings or real estate which can dry up fast.

took me probably 18 months before i stopped feeling like i was one slow month away from disaster. not gonna sugarcoat it.

not full time yet but following this thread because im in the same exact situation lol. curious what people think about platforms like Dronebase or Zeitview for getting consistent gigs while youre building your own client base — ive heard mixed things