ok so a guy at my kids soccer game found out i fly drones (i mentioned it casually, my fault lol) and he manages a mid-size construction company and now wants me to come out and do some kind of site mapping and progress documentation. said they need it done maybe twice a month. i do mostly hobby flying and some casual real estate shots for a friend who is a realtor but ive never done anything like this officially or charged for anything beyond like covering gas money.

i have a mini 4 pro and im part 107 certified. i dont have any mapping software set up or anything like that, i kind of assumed you needed a more serious drone for that kind of work? anyway i dont want to lowball myself but i also dont want to quote something ridiculous and lose the job. anyone done construction site work and have any ballpark on what this kind of thing goes for, and also is the mini 4 pro even gonna cut it for mapping or do i need to tell him i need some time to get set up properly

the mini 4 pro will probably be fine for basic progress documentation and orthomosaic stuff, especially if the site isnt massive. i use drone deploy with a p4 pro for most of my mapping work but ive seen people get decent results with minis for smaller sites. the bigger question is whether he actually needs proper mapping deliverables like point clouds and volume calculations or just wants overhead photos to show progress ? those are pretty different things and the price should reflect that. for twice a month site visits doing basic photo documentation i wouldnt go lower than $300-400 per visit depending on your area, and if he wants processed maps with software output that changes things. dont undersell just because youre new to this type of work, the part 107 and liability insurance situation matters to these guys more than they let on.

yeah id be upfront with him that youre getting set up for the mapping side rather than promising something you havent done yet. construction clients tend to be pretty reasonable about that in my experience as long as you seem like you know what youre doing generally. also make sure you have liability insurance before you commit to anything on a job site, some of them will actually ask for a certificate of insurance before they let you on the property and it protects you anyway. the good news is if this works out it could turn into a consistent thing which is honestly the dream with freelance work