so ive been flying for about two years now mostly just for fun, got my part 107 last spring and done a few jobs here and there for friends and a local real estate agent but nothing official. lately ive been thinking about actually setting this up properly as like a real business. LLC or sole prop, insurance, how to price jobs, how to find clients who arent just people i already know.

the real estate stuff has been going okay but its kind of inconsistent and i feel like im just waiting for someone to text me rather than actually running a business. i honestly dont even know if what im charging is anywhere close to right. been doing half day shoots for like $150-200 which feels low but i dont want to scare people off either.

anyone gone through this process and can tell me what actually matters vs what i overthought? especially curious about insurance because i have no idea what im doing there

okay so first thing ? $150-200 for a half day is definitely too low, youre basically losing money once you factor in drive time, editing, gear wear and battery cycles. most real estate guys around here charge $250-350 minimum for a standard photo package and thats on the lower end for markets that arent big cities. dont undersell yourself early on because its really hard to raise prices with existing clients later, learned that the hard way.

for the business structure side of things an LLC is worth it just for the liability separation, its not expensive to set up and gives you some peace of mind. as far as insurance goes look into Skywatch or Verifly if you only fly occasionally, they do pay per flight which can make sense when youre starting out. once youre doing more consistent volume something like a proper annual policy through a broker that specializes in aviation makes more sense. Global Aerospace and Avemco both come up a lot in conversations like this.

for clients honestly the best thing that worked for me was just reaching out directly to real estate brokerages not individual agents. the broker usually has a preferred vendor list and if you get on it you can get referrals across their whole office. takes a bit of persistence but way better than waiting for your phone to ring.

im kind of in the same boat so following this thread closely. one thing i did recently was just google what other drone photographers in my area were charging and it was kind of eye opening honestly. some people are way higher than i expected which made me feel better about bumping my prices up a little. havent taken the LLC step yet but people keep telling me to just do it already lol