Starting a new business - some advice and a request for help

[vaguelyfamiliar]

I've been an IT consultant for the last 20 years or so and, with an approaching 50th birthday and forthcoming changes to legislation around contractors, feel it's time for a change. For the past 3 years or so, I've increasingly got involved in drone flying, undertaking training and receiving my PfCO (permission for commercial flight operations) from the CAA. My plan is to finish my current contract at the end of the year and focus on building an aerial surveying, mapping and thermal imaging business.

I've been lucky in so far as this has been a hobby until now and I've been able to indulge in my passion so have all of the kit, including several professional and enterprise drones (Inspire 2 and M210 RTK v2 for those interested), high resolution cameras for stills and video, thermal imaging and NDVI (agricultural and crop health) sensors. We (my wife and I) are currently undergoing certifications in thermography and multispectral analysis which will be complete by early January. We have savings to live on for around 12-18 months so the business doesn't need to be earning a squillion pounds within the first week.

So in short, we have the passion, the equipment, the knowledge and certifications to execute the business. What we don't have is a really clear idea of how to get the business off the ground (sorry), which is where I'm hoping you guys can give me some pointers.

We will be offering the following services

• Aerial Surveys and mapping (2D and 3D) - using the RTK equipped drones we can achieve ~2cm accuracy
• Thermal imaging surveys
• Crop health and agricultural surveys
• Building and roof inspections
• Construction site progress and materials reporting

I'm planning on starting as much of the groundwork as possible over the course of the next three or four months, but due to work commitments, I'm mainly limited to evenings and weekends. My problem, as I mentioned above, is that although we have one small business selling online and via eBay alongside the consulting, neither has ever needed any real effort in terms of gaining customers other than listing on eBay and creating a Facebook page, or in the case of the consulting side, speaking with recruiters.

I am currently putting the website together and plan on using google ad words as a starting point as well as creating a new profile on LinkedIn, other than that I'm stuck - any suggestions? Whilst we do have a budget for marketing, it's not huge and would need to be spent wisely.

In addition to the above, our certifications will require us to submit approximately 90 hours (each) of relevant experience (the surveys, the interpretation of the results and report generation) etc. so my second question is: are there any owners of land/farms and/or buildings where, in exchange for survey results (full reports for thermographic, 2D & 3D models, digital surface models etc. where appropriate) and aerial photography of said land/buildings, the owner would grant permission to fly and survey. The outputs from the survey would be used to create our portfolio of work for accreditation purposes and would be anonymised before submission. - I can provide a couple of examples of the output if needed.

We're based in Hertfordshire but happy to travel over weekends, we'd generally need to be on site for two to three hours but don't necessarily need the owner to be present. If you can help please drop me a PM

[Mr Overheads]

I would have thought plenty of work in the Solar PV sector as the UK commits to Carbon Neutral by 2050

[vaguelyfamiliar]

Mr Overheads said:

I would have thought plenty of work in the Solar PV sector as the UK commits to Carbon Neutral by 2050

Agree, and it's one of the areas we'll be focussing further training on next year as there are additional ISO accreditation required if we want to do it properly.

[Equus]

If it weren't for the fact that you state you're based in Hertfordshire, I'd have assumed that you were a friend of mine (from Wiltshire), posting under another name... he set up an almost identical business, offering identical services (among others).

Suffice it to say that, based on his experience, don't expect it to be easy... the ship sailed some time ago on drone-based services as a boom sector.

[AJB88]

Equus said:

Suffice it to say that, based on his experience, don't expect it to be easy... the ship sailed some time ago on drone-based services as a boom sector.

Exactly my thoughts.

[vaguelyfamiliar]

In a way, I suppose it's similar to the tech contractor boom of the late 90s/early 2000s where every man and his dog jumped on the contractor bandwagon - I was a little late to that one as well - I'm hoping, as with my tech career, that hard work and reliability will allow me to carve out a small piece of the pie for myself. Worst case (luckily) for me would be that in 12 -18 months I jump back on to the IT train with nothing more than a little dented pride.

[Equus]

vaguelyfamiliar said:

I'm hoping, as with my tech career, that hard work and reliability will allow me to carve out a small piece of the pie for myself.

For it's worth, my aforementioned friend is now doing a degree Construction Surveying, with the intention of becoming a Chartered Surveyor.

Virtually everyone he touted for work with for the services on your list expected him to have some sort of construction knowledge and qualification, so that they could be assured that he knew what it was he was actually looking at (ie. what to focus on, and why).

[Insurancejon]

as an aside, you can use the thermal imaging for looking for electrical wiring hot spots in commercial premises and renewable energy....insurance companies love it

[MadProfessor]

I have absolutely no idea about drones or your potential services but, to me, you're starting with the solution (your services) instead of the problem (your customer).

Identify a pain point for potential customers. Ensure it's large (i.e. painful). Explain how you remove the pain and that's your value proposition. Clear marketing around a solid value proposition can see you outcompete even in a crowded market.

The previous poster gave a potential problem in the insurance industry.

[JuniorD]

Seems like drone services is following "property developer", "personal trainer" etc. as the next big thing

[ecksjay]

Insurancejon said:

as an aside, you can use the thermal imaging for looking for electrical wiring hot spots in commercial premises and renewable energy....insurance companies love it

Yep, albeit this is generally an internal exercise looking at switchgear etc, so a drone is a little overkill for this purpose.

As mentioned above, I work for some (the majority) of the leading building consultancies/surveyors in the UK and whilst some to use drones, generally the majority of access is via cherry pickers. This is because the surveyors need to physically see the structures, thus they can guide the operator where they need. With drones this is a little more difficult, as you often need to look at / photograph everything given the surveyor is unable to see it in real time with their own eyes. Some of the more specialist surveyors have also started up their own drone divisions internally, in an effort to keep control of these costs.

That being said, I have seen it used for more unusual structures where cherry pickers cannot get to. I.e particularly high structures, unsafe ground or something like that. It can work very well but the costs are being driven down through competition. Cherry pickers can be got to site for about 300quid so if the access is available then this is generally the most cost effective option. If you are able to actually do the building surveying elements as mentioned above then this could help, but the only problem there is that you're then treading on the toes of the big consultancies/surveying firms, meaning that they probably wouldn't want to use you because you could in theory steal the client (following Equus' comment).

I could probably put you in touch with many people that would consider using a drone but there are quite a few established guys in the sector that do regular presentations/CPD stuff to the RICS and other similar organisations, meaning they're pretty well established given they sponser some of the corporate events.

Happy to discuss over PM if you require as i live and breath building consultancy so know most of the top brass in the industry in some way or another.

[surveyor]

At least by going for the expensive kit you are not competing with the wedding photographers etc.

I’m not a great believer in the drone business as a thing in itself. It needs to be an add-on to what you already do.

I work for a firm of surveyors who advise landlords of telecom sites. I am often up and down on rooftops. I’ve tried the drone route and it had issues.

For mapping surveys leaves and trees are a major problem. In urban areas the current rules are very restrictive without additional and expensive safety cases.

The rules are likely to change again next year, maybe making it easier for non pfco operators to join the bun fight.

I’m wary.

[vaguelyfamiliar]

Thank you for the responses, there are some great points made and given me a lot to consider

Insurancejon said:

as an aside, you can use the thermal imaging for looking for electrical wiring hot spots in commercial premises and renewable energy....insurance companies love it

Thank you, we have planned to include ground based TI in to our repertoire and researching equipment at the moment, my problem is how to get in front of insurance or other clients to showcase our services

MadProfessor said:

I have absolutely no idea about drones or your potential services but, to me, you're starting with the solution (your services) instead of the problem (your customer).

A great point, and you are absolutely correct - this is mainly due to me having and enjoying (most) of the kit from a hobby perspective and a burning desire to get out of IT

surveyor said:

At least by going for the expensive kit you are not competing with the wedding photographers etc.

I’m not a great believer in the drone business as a thing in itself. It needs to be an add-on to what you already do.

I work for a firm of surveyors who advise landlords of telecom sites. I am often up and down on rooftops. I’ve tried the drone route and it had issues.

For mapping surveys leaves and trees are a major problem. In urban areas the current rules are very restrictive without additional and expensive safety cases.

The rules are likely to change again next year, maybe making it easier for non pfco operators to join the bun fight.

Thank you, I took a deliberate decision to avoid the wedding type route following an enquiry I had a few months ago where getting to a point that flight could be undertaken legally was challenging and my quote was received with a "No thanks, Dave at the pub has a drone and he'll do it for £20" type response

I am currently working to put together a reduced distance safety case to try and mitigate some of the urban issues, but you are absolutely right there are a number of scenarios where drones are not the answer, before considering the impact of the great British weather.

In terms of the rules, I've not seen anything from the CAA indicating that the rules are going to be relaxed for non pfco holders, I would expect the opposite to be the case. That's my weekend research sorted.

ecksjay said:

I could probably put you in touch with many people that would consider using a drone but there are quite a few established guys in the sector that do regular presentations/CPD stuff to the RICS and other similar organisations, meaning they're pretty well established given they sponser some of the corporate events.

Happy to discuss over PM if you require as i live and breath building consultancy so know most of the top brass in the industry in some way or another.

That's very kind, thank you, I'll drop you a PM over the weekend

Equus said:

vaguelyfamiliar said:

I'm hoping, as with my tech career, that hard work and reliability will allow me to carve out a small piece of the pie for myself.

For it's worth, my aforementioned friend is now doing a degree Construction Surveying, with the intention of becoming a Chartered Surveyor.

Virtually everyone he touted for work with for the services on your list expected him to have some sort of construction knowledge and qualification, so that they could be assured that he knew what it was he was actually looking at (ie. what to focus on, and why).

More food for thought, thank you - direct construction qualification is going to be an issue, although my wife has some experience in this field, though more from an environmental perspective.

[500 Miles]

Have you thought about targeting high end house builders - people like Octagon who build large houses on reasonable plots. Often buyers are from outside the UK and are looking for something more than just a few agency pics.

Happy to volunteer a plot of land that I’m in the process of buying if it helps, hopefully completes in a few weeks.