Drone Startup Business Ideas – Make Money Flying

Last Updated on October 25, 2017 by Tim

With all of the hype surrounding drones, quadcopters, and UAV’s it’s no wonder some amazing startup and business ideas are coming into play.

With a cheap, easy to maintain, and safe way to get some of the highest quality video shots that would otherwise be impossible to – it’s safe to say there a ton of high paying drone startups you can get into.

This article will go over some of the top drone startup ideas that can have you making money while flying your business through the sky.

5 Great Drone Startup Ideas

Real Estate Advertising

Drone real estate videos are captivating. Never before have the features of luxury homes been captured more beautifully than by a simple drone.

You need to be in the right location to make this work, but if you can network with agents and homeowners this can be a home run.

Startup equipment is simple in a drone that can take a few minute long videos and you can rake in thousands per ad.

Filming Sports Events

Just like with real estate videos, drones can produce sports even footage that was previously only being recorded with cable overhead cams or even higher up zeppelins. Drones give the flexibility to capture sports events from any angle, any height, and following at tremendous speed.

This is especially appealing to extreme sports where courses are often set up in remote locations, and vehicles/bikes/snowboards/skis are traveling at very fast speeds. Capture a skier racing an avalanche down the hill, or a biker shredding through the trails of a forest.

Wedding Videos

With weddings becoming more unique, more advanced, and always looking to make it the most memorable, recording a wedding by drone sounds like a perfect idea. Big swoops in and out, capturing moments up close and far away brings an element to wedding photography and videography never before seen.
Just headshots, group shots, and some candid moments? How about circling the entire venue from above before swooping down through the ceremony to capture the final moment. Talk about a selling point!

Wedding videography requires some experience and knowledge of weddings but after you get a few referrals you can make a killing during wedding season. Make sure to practice up on your flying to keep the video super smooth.

Resource Monitoring & Inspections

Pipelines, gas lines, satellites, and more are often placed in hard to reach locations and span even further distances. Being able to access and monitor those resources remotely without spending a lot of money sounds like a blessing to these multi-billion dollar industries. You don’t have to pay workers, maintain much equipment, just send the drone out and check on a resource/investment in 1080p.

Aerial Surveying

Surveyors are paid good money to observe topography, elevations, and do all kinds of inspections in areas that are sometimes remote and hard to reach. Eliminate the surveyor and provide all of the info they need with your trusty drone.

This business idea is probably the most challenging to get into as you may require some surveying and geological experience – but the pay will likely be the highest with repeat customers and big jobs.

Drone Startup Requirements

I was going to add requirements for each individual business idea, but there is quite a lot of crossover between them all so I’ll cover it here.

Obviously you’ll need a drone or quadcopter, equipped with a camera. Now depending on which of these ideas you’re interested you may need either a drone with higher camera capabilities for say the wedding photography, or a drone with more robust physical properties for search and rescue where it may enter extreme temperature regions, and also would require more substantial power and battery life.

Drone Safety & Regulations

There are always safety concerns, and even regulations to follow when it comes to flying drones so check within your locale. When flying a drone always be informed of the conditions in the area, as getting your drone caught in a storm or in weather it can’t handle could be dangerous to anyone around, and also damage your equipment.

Depending on where you live it may be required to license your drone. Looking up drone licensing laws in your area is important for your safety and the safety or those around you.

There is also drone insurance, if you want to protect your investment and continue to use it to make money then insuring your drone is a great idea.

Conclusion on the Best Drone Startup Business Ideas

Overall there are a ton of drone startup and business ideas just waiting to be capitalized on. Most of these ideas are either artistically focused, or more remote/dangerous jobs that would instead of risking an employee, simply be risking a drone.

Out of the listed ideas, wedding videos, real estate videos, and sports filming probably have the lowest barrier of entry and require a drone, camera, and a bit of marketing. Surveying, reporting, resource monitoring all will require a bit more expertise but have way more room for growth and higher income – judge accordingly!

To think of more great drone startup ideas, simply replace any job that requires a camera or video from difficult angles/positions and use a drone instead! As you grow your clientele, invest in more drones, more employees (pilots), advertise more, and most importantly – make more money flying.