Hello!

I’m a 17-year-old licensed drone pilot with a Part 107 certification, and I’ve been flying for a few years now. I consider myself decent at piloting and have experience editing videos/photos using Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop/Lightroom. I have a DJI Air 3, multiple social media accounts with some content, a website with my own domain, and I just received my own business cards to hand out.

I’m at a point where I need to figure out the next steps. Some people suggest I should start networking in person, but I’m not sure if that’s the best or only way to proceed. Also, the business side is a bit overwhelming—should I form an LLC? What should I know about handling taxes at this stage?

Any advice on how to move forward would be incredibly helpful.

Thank you in advance!

  • Last-Mathematician97@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Take some small business classes, you want to get a handle on it right away. Need to find what the level of interest is for your services too. Most young people that get a LLC never got to the point it is worth it & it costs money. Hopefully someone will chime in more about that. Good luck

  • WrittenCommissions@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Network in person. Google business hubs. Yes llc. Get cpa. Good business incubators. Talk to colleges about small business.

  • 126270@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    During Covid I did real estate drone work, quickly got underbid by younger startups, not unlike yourself.

    Very saturated, you and probably 45% of your school mates all have drones, some are licensed, most are not

    In the long run it comes down to post processing and networking… if you’re a people person, people will want to work with you. If you’re great at post processing, even better… If you’re not a people person and not a good networker - you’ll need to be an absolute next level amazing post processor - your end product will have to amaze them and the rest will hopefully follow

    I wish I had the link, but a very successful person in the field was describing how it took them 21/2 years of basically working 24x7 and more or less giving the product away at a loss most of the way along before he got to a point where his “brand” was sought after and he was able to start charging his true worth