not sure how to ask this without sounding naive but here goes. ive been doing drone stuff as a serious hobby for three years, got my 107, done a handful of paid gigs for friends and a couple small businesses. the work itself i love ? inspections, some film stuff, a bit of mapping for a construction company i know through my day job.

but lately ive been thinking more seriously about whether this is actually a career path. im in my early 30s and my current job is fine but its not what i want to do forever. the drone stuff lights me up in a way that my office job just doesnt. i guess im looking for real stories from people who actually made the leap, not like inspirational posts about following your passion or whatever ? im talking logistics. how did you get enough consistent work, did you specialize, did you have savings to fall back on, did it take years to feel stable. anything real would help

went full time about four years ago after doing it on the side for two. honestly the thing that made it work was specializing ? i picked utility and infrastructure inspection work pretty early on because the pay is better and the clients tend to be repeat business rather than one-off stuff. real estate and events are fine but theyre feast or famine in a way that makes budgeting hard.

the transition itself was rough for maybe 8 months. i had about 5 months of expenses saved which i thought was plenty and it was barely enough. would recommend more like 8-10 months if you can swing it. the work was there but invoices take forever to get paid sometimes, especially from bigger companies, and that cash flow gap almost broke me a couple times. im stable now and genuinely happy but i wont pretend the first year wasnt stressful as hell. if you have a specific niche in mind and youre already getting some paying work, those are actually good signs

this is a great thread, following because im kind of in the same position. i'll just add that ive heard mapping and survey work tends to pay the best per hour if you can get into that side of things, though the software learning curve is real. but yeah curious to hear more from people who actually did it full time