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1 How you can make money with a drone business

Did you know that you can make a whole career flying drones – and earn up to a six-figure salary?

Here we discuss the many ways to earn money as a professional drone pilot and the advantages drones offer to specific industries. We also tell you how you can get started in this growing and lucrative sector.

How you can make money with a drone business

Drones are on the rise in all industries, making work faster, smarter and safer.

One way to earn money flying drones is by working as a drone photographer, offering aerial photography and videography. The value of drone photography services was estimated at $617,6 million in 2023 and is expected to rise to nearly $3,5 billion by 2033.

Surveys, inspections, and other similar projects are among the most sought-after tasks for drone pilots. Whether it's for real estate, agriculture, or wedding photography, drone footage is in high demand – and with this demand comes a corresponding need for professional drone pilots.

Aerial surveying and mapping is already a major industry, but it is growing rapidly. The estimated value of this sector for 2023 was $617,6 million, and it is expected to reach almost $3,5 billion by 2033.

What are the best career opportunities with drones?

There are many career opportunities when it comes to drones.
If you do it as a side job, you can create content for:

Stock images (for websites like Getty and Shutterstock). While selling stock images might not sound particularly glamorous in the drone industry, keep in mind that this type of media is frequently used in films and television shows, making it potentially very profitable.
YouTube channels. Sponsorship and advertising can make YouTube channels lucrative if they have a sufficiently large audience. If you can get companies to use your content in their own media, this will bring even more visitors to your channel.
Weddings and other events.

You can also be employed as a drone pilot. Companies can hire you for:

Agriculture
Construction industry
Surveying and mapping
Infrastructure inspection
Mining
Forstwirtschaft
Real Estate Photography

Are you already a licensed professional drone pilot? Then you should look into opportunities to teach others how to safely fly drones. As the demand for drone pilots increases, so does the need for instructors.

Drones in agriculture

In agriculture, farmers used to have to manually go into the fields and measure the harvests at eye level. This was a laborious and time-consuming process – and no matter how skilled they were, without an aerial photograph, they could only obtain very little information.

That's not the case if you have a drone surveying your fields from above. The use of drones in agriculture is particularly noteworthy because of its technical nature.

Aerial photography allows you to identify problems affecting plant growth, spot weeds, and monitor growth progress. Specialized drones, such as the... Mavic 3. Multispectral imaging can measure how much sunlight plants receive and whether they have sufficient nutrients for growth. Farmers use this information to make informed decisions about crop management, such as determining where fertilizers or pesticides need to be applied. This reduces operating costs, improves crop quality, and increases yields.

Spray drones can even be programmed to apply materials directly on a farm.

Some of these materials could be:

desiccant
seeds
Pesticides
Fertilizer
weed killer
Fungicide

A drone can do more than just spray these substances onto plants – these machines can do so with precision and accuracy. Previously, when you applied seeds, fertilizers, and chemicals yourself, there was a risk of applying too little or too much. Applying too little results in suboptimal conditions, and the plants may be susceptible to insects, fungi, weeds, or other pests that can reduce the yield. On the other hand, applying too much can be just as harmful, as it creates large amounts of waste and compromises the quality of the harvest. With drones, everything is measured and balanced, allowing you to spray exactly the right amount at the right concentration. This is known as "smart spraying."

Drones for surveying and mapping

Drones have revolutionized the surveying and mapping industry with their ability to capture data from the air. Drone surveying is simply surveying conducted from the air using a drone. It provides vital information that enables informed decision-making – from construction site planning to the design and maintenance of infrastructure. Drones are superior to traditional surveying methods because they can quickly capture data from vantage points inaccessible to humans, eliminate the need for human personnel to physically access dangerous or difficult-to-reach locations, and collect comparable data in significantly less time.

Drone surveying can deliver a variety of results depending on the choice of data sensors and surveying software:

2D orthomosaic maps (Read our articles on the workflow for roof inspections using drones.)
3D orthomosaic maps
3D models
Thermal surveys
LiDAR
Multispectral maps

Drone solutions can perform surveys with varying degrees of accuracy. For high-precision applications, drones equipped with real-time kinematics (RTK) and post-processing kinematics (PPK) can achieve survey-level accuracy.

Drones in construction

In construction and project management, drone surveying can provide crucial data that works seamlessly with Building Information Modeling (BIM), thereby reducing errors, omissions, and rework in construction. BIM is a digital planning technology that allows contractors to track the progress of their projects, and drones are the perfect tool for repeatedly collecting accurate data for this system.

Drones are used in a variety of ways on construction sites:

data in real time
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
Digital planning technology
Monitoring of project progress
3D point clouds
Accurate digital models
Measurements of the stockpile volume
Aerial inspections

Drones are advantageous for construction companies before, during and after a job, as they offer an efficient and safe way to monitor construction sites and keep those involved informed about the current status of a project.

Pilots of drones for first responders

First responders use drone photography in disaster relief and search and rescue operations to create 3D maps, locate victims, and assess damage. A drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera allows for clear visualization of people even in fog, foliage, dust, or smoke. This makes it much easier for first responders to locate individuals in conditions where the human eye cannot. Furthermore, thermal imaging cameras can detect objects at much greater distances than other low-light technologies like night vision devices.

A first responder drone can also:

Create before/after maps of an area affected by a disaster.
To take photos and videos for news reporting and communication.
To assist firefighters in locating the source of fires.

Check if there are local units that could use a good drone pilot. The increasing demand for these types of drone pilot jobs means that if you can do the job, there are many first responders who would be happy to have you.

What drone training courses and certifications do you need?

All professional drone pilots require certification from the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (BAZL) or the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to obtain a remote aviation pilot's license. The cost of this certification is relatively low, typically around 100-150 Swiss francs.

You can take the exam either online or in person.

Specifically, this involves training in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Once you have passed the training, you will be a certified drone pilot.

How does one become a drone pilot?

While getting started isn't particularly expensive, you do need a minimum amount of equipment to make money with a drone – and you need more than just the drone itself.

Before you begin, you should think about the purchase:

video filter
Software for editing film material
The drone itself
Additional batteries
A BAZL license A1/A2/A3 ( Read more in this article )

So you are a certified drone pilot – now what?

Flying a drone is one thing, but ultimately it's about creating a product. If you're interested in photos and videos, you won't earn much with raw footage. If you want a chance to make a lot of money, you need to become an editing expert. That means you need to master the computer software required to create outstanding, professional-quality media.

If you want to create precise maps or 3D models of real estate or infrastructure, you need to use modeling software such as... DJI Familiarize yourself with Terra.

There are many online courses and even some university degrees that can make it easier for you to get started. But even the most comprehensive training cannot compensate for a lack of experience.

Consider whether you might want to dedicate some time to editing, either by working on your own projects or creating them for others. Photo and video editing is a profession in its own right, so don't expect to become a professional overnight. However, if you want to sell high-quality media to clients, you need to be at least competent enough to create something worth selling.

While programs like Apple iMovie or Google Photos are good starting points, you will later want to upgrade to more advanced software such as that from Adobe.

Which drones are best suited for private individuals?

The key to any drone photography or videography is camera quality: the better your media looks, the more valuable it is. This means that certain drones are better than others if you want to be a professional drone operator.

First of all, you need a drone that is suitable for your purposes. DJI is known as one of the leading manufacturers in the drone industry for good reason, and the model DJI Mavic The 3E is an excellent choice for anyone who wants to take aerial photographs. Its features include:

A wide-angle 4/3 CMOS, 20MP sensor
A mechanical shutter that reduces motion blur during surveillance flights.
0,7-second interval recordings for fast mapping
A 12 MP zoom camera in addition to the 56x hybrid zoom.
Approximately 45 minutes of flight time before recharging is required.

How much can I earn as a drone pilot?

Don't expect to earn a lot of money right at the start of your drone pilot career. Beginners (with less than a year of experience) earn an average of $20 per hour, depending on the employer. If you stick with it and gain more experience, the average wage rises to around CHF 27 per hour with 5-9 years of experience and CHF 36 with 10 or more years of experience, according to Payscale.

The average annual salary of a drone pilot is around CHF 50.000, but this figure depends on the type of drone work you perform – and also on where you perform it. A commercial drone pilot, for example, generally earns more than a professional pilot.

The quality of your photos also plays a role. Aerial photos can be worth between 75 and 200 CHF each. As with other forms of photography, it's not just the quality of your drone's camera that matters (although that's certainly helpful), but also your skill in taking photos. Videos, on the other hand, can be sold for 500 to 1.000 CHF. If you dedicate yourself to this full-time, you can earn around 2.000 to 3.000 CHF per week with sufficient experience. Including processing costs, you can earn up to 4.000 CHF or more per project.

The sky's the limit when it comes to drone career opportunities.

The profession of drone pilot is a potentially lucrative career – and one that can be exceptionally enjoyable and rewarding. However, you should expect to dedicate dozens of hours to study before becoming a certified commercial drone pilot, and many more to learning the intricacies of the industry you choose to specialize in. EASA and FOCA take drone operation very seriously, and you will need to demonstrate not only that you can properly control a drone, but also that you can do so safely and responsibly on every mission. If you can, you'll be preparing for one of the most exciting and versatile new career opportunities available today.

While you can start with an entry-level drone, it's highly unlikely to be sufficient for commercial use. If you're looking for a business drone with the necessary capabilities for commercial applications, you've come to the right place. Contact us. here.

How do you make money with a drone?