so after about 8 months of flying recreationally and getting my part 107 i finally got someone to actually pay me for drone work. local real estate agency, pretty standard stuff, exterior shots of a few listings and some video for their social. wasnt a huge job, like $300 for the whole thing, but still ? first real money.

anyway i went in pretty confident and honestly some of it went fine but there were a few things that tripped me up that nobody really warned me about. the biggest one was the client changing what they wanted on the day. i had a shot list agreed on via email, showed up, and she basically wanted to add like 4 more angles including one that required me to fly over the neighbor's property. had to explain why i couldnt just do that on the spot and she seemed a bit annoyed even though i was being totally professional about it.

also the editing turnaround thing ? i said i'd have it done in 2 days and that was way too ambitious given i had a full time job that week. ended up being 3.5 days and she noticed. not a huge deal but i felt bad about it.

if anyones just starting out with client work i guess my main thing would be ? get everything in writing before you show up, even for small jobs, and be really conservative with your turnaround estimates. double whatever you think it'll take honestly.

congrats on the first paid job, that's genuinely the hardest one to land because you dont have anything to show yet. the shot list thing you mentioned is so real. i started doing a pre-shoot questionnaire i send clients like a week before and it forces them to think through what they actually want. still get surprises on the day but way less often.

the neighbor's airspace thing comes up constantly in real estate. some clients genuinely think you can just point the camera wherever. i now have a quick little explanation i give at the start of every job about what i legally can and cant do, kind of preemptive so its not awkward later. takes maybe 2 minutes and saves a lot of weird moments.

$300 for a first gig is honestly decent, some people do their first few jobs basically for free just to get portfolio stuff so you're ahead of the curve there.

oh man the turnaround thing got me too on my second job. i way underestimated how long color grading the video would take especially since i was still learning premiere at the time. now i just say 5 business days for everything even if i think i can do it faster, then if i deliver early they're happy and if something comes up i have breathing room. nobody has ever complained that 5 days is too long tbh