so ive been flying for about 3 years now, got my part 107 about 18 months ago and ive been picking up side work here and there ? mostly real estate, a couple of construction progress shoots, one wedding which i will never do again lol. my day job is in IT and honestly im pretty burnt out on it and keep looking at my drone income and wondering if i could just... do that instead.

the thing is i made roughly $14k last year from drone work on the side while working full time so i wasnt even really hustling for it. i know thats not a salary but it makes me think if i actually put real effort into marketing and building clients i could get somewhere. anyone here actually made the jump to full time freelance? would love to know how long it took before you felt financially stable because thats the part that scares me. also whether its mostly real estate work keeping you afloat or if youve found other niches worth going after

made the jump about two and a half years ago and honestly the first 6 months were rough, not gonna sugarcoat it. i had maybe 4 regular clients when i quit and thought that was enough but work dried up in winter and i was sweating a bit. what saved me was getting into inspection work ? towers and roofs mostly ? because that stuff doesnt care what season it is and the pay is way better per hour than real estate ever was. real estate is fine for volume but the margins are thin and agents will absolutely try to lowball you once they figure out youre hungry for work.

your $14k on the side is actually a decent sign because that happened without you really trying. id say spend the next 6 months before you quit aggressively building your client list and try to lock in at least 2 or 3 retainer-type arrangements before you pull the trigger. and have like 4-5 months of expenses saved. thats what i wish someone told me

not full time yet but following this thread closely because im in basically the exact same situation. the wedding thing though ? yeah i did one too and never again, way too much pressure for what they pay