Despite the summer quickly approaching, it’s not always easy staying busy as a commercial drone pilot. That’s why it’s important to always refine your skills as both a pilot and a drone business proprietor.
You probably fly for profit because you have a passion for flying. From that perspective, not flying your drone does not sound like a whole lot of fun. But it can be rewarding if that time on the ground is spent wisely.
Here are some simple ways to fill that precious time on the ground.
Setting Challenging Goals Will Help You Grow Your Drone Business
It’s difficult to get where you want to be if you don’t know where you’re going. Setting goals can be one of the easiest, yet most rewarding things you can do with your time as an operator of any business, let alone one as dynamic as commercial UAS operations.
Find Your Niche Within the Drone Business
The Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none challenge is very real for those in any field that is advancing as quickly as the UAS industry. You can mitigate the danger that comes with trying to do too much – and consequently accomplishing very little – by finding something you are passionate about within the framework of flying.
Whether it’s creating maps, filming action videos or printing and selling aerial landscape photos, it’s important to go through a bunch of drone business ideas and find a specialty and become great at it.
Generate Leads for Your Drone Business
Cold calling often gives salespeople nightmares, but each commercial UAS pilot has to face this reality at some point. Generating one’s own leads can be taxing to say the least, but it doesn’t have to be tedious.
Going to professional networking events, visiting businesses that can benefit from your services and even taking a blind shot in the dark via phone can prove vastly rewarding. Equipping yourself with some basic knowledge can also enable you to use digital mediums such as online ads and email marketing in order to generate leads for your drone business.
Learn the Nuances of the Drone Business
Simply put, there is just too much going on in the UAS industry to keep up with, and that means that savvy drone business owners need to work hard to gain every advantage possible. Courses of any type, especially those offered by Drone U, can be of significant help in launching or sustaining your career as a commercial drone pilot.
Check Your Equipment
Nothing’s worse than getting a request for a proposed job and not having the equipment to get it done. Do yourself a favor when you’re not flying and check your UAS for its regular maintenance as recommended by the manufacturer. In addition, make sure you have all the tools needed for any potential job that comes up.
Michael Jones is an FAA-licensed commercial UAS operator and chief pilot of California Aerial Media based in San Diego, California. With 20-plus flight hours in single-engine manned aircraft and hundreds more logged in UAS, aviation is one of his true passions. In addition, he is an award-winning author whose work has been featured on sites such as Yahoo!, MapQuest, About.com and Vox Media among many other publications.
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