You’ve bought your fancy new drones and all of their equipment, you’ve earned your Part 107 remote pilot certificate, and you’ve picked on a niche in which you believe you can profit. What is the next step in starting your own drone-based service business?

At this stage, we recommend taking a step back and analyzing your future moves. Who are the clients you intend to target? What are your deliverables going to be? How would you sell your products and services? Creating a well-thought-out, detailed business plan is an excellent method to ensure that you are constantly on track to meet your business objectives.

What exactly is a business plan, and why do I need one?

A business plan is exactly what its name implies: a plan for starting and running your firm. A business plan does not have a single template or a set duration. Long business plans have been abandoned in recent years in favor of leaner and more brief ones, which are easier to follow. It is even possible to compose your entire company strategy on a single page.

Your business plan is a brief statement that describes your firm, the types of services you offer, the milestones you hope to reach at various stages, how you intend to sell your services, and your financial objectives.

It is equally crucial to examine and revise your company plan on a frequent basis. You may need to check on forthcoming milestones to see if you are on schedule to reach them, or if you have any marketing tactics that you have yet to implement. A business plan is essentially a ‘yardstick’ against which you want to assess your company’s success.

If you need to obtain a loan to start your business, a business plan becomes even more vital. Most financial institutions will want, among other documents, a business plan as proof that your business has a chance of success and that you can repay the loan you are looking for.

What should my drone business plan consist of?

As previously said, there is no hard and fast rule about what you must include in your business plan. You may add your own sections or substitute others for those provided here.

1. Executive summary

An executive summary should include all of your business plan’s most critical aspects so that a reader may get the gist of what the plan says without having to read the entire document. The executive summary should include the name of the firm, the kind of the services it provides, a list of the management team members, the clients your company is targeting, and the organization’s long-term financial goals.

This part should be kept to a minimum of 300 words. To define your company’s financial goals more clearly, utilize a single figure.

2. Overview of the Company

This section contains further information about the company, who owns it, and how and why it was founded. It is prudent to present a good explanation for the company’s formation at this point. Does it meet a critical need in an industry or society? What are the company owner’s qualifications that make them a suitable fit for this type of business?

In this section, some business plans also lay down the company’s initial expenditures and where the cash will come from. It is common practice to separate beginning costs into three categories for ease of understanding: expenses, assets, and investments. These do not have to be exact numbers. Forecasted values will suffice.

If you are looking for loan capital, make a note in this part of how much of the initial costs will be covered by a loan. Banks and other financial institutions will value a self-funded firm more than one where the majority of the early costs are financed by a loan.

3. Service information

This section outlines the type of drone-based service you want to provide. You should have settled on this before developing a business plan, but you will need to elaborate on it here. Drone photography, cinematography, mapping, inspection, and real estate advertising are the most prevalent possibilities.

Whatever niche you choose, you must offer as much detail as possible. Will you provide on-site services or simply sell your products in an online marketplace? Will you give post-processing survey data? Do you provide 3D models, NDVI maps, or thermal maps as deliverables?

4. Marketing strategy

The marketing plan is one of the most complicated components of your business plan because it will necessitate extensive research. In this area, you must demonstrate that the services you are providing will meet a large market demand. To do so, you’ll need to examine how the drone-based service market has performed in your area over the last few months or years. You can conduct market research to see how potential clients feel about the services you want to provide. If there is a gap between present demand and the quantity of service providers, you might say you have a market opportunity.

You must also identify your potential clients. Will you cater to individuals or corporations? Is there a particular industrial sector where your service is in high demand? OR do you have clients who are willing to pay more for your services? A pilot conducting drone-based surveys, for example, may find more clients in the construction industry, but the limited clientele in the oil and gas industry may be willing to pay higher fees.

At this point, you must establish a fee for your services. It is entirely up to you whether you want to charge per job, per day, or per hour. Simply ensure that the rate you disclosed is consistent with the financial goals and milestones you specified in the latter sections of this company plan.

Finally, you must address the most crucial question underlying every marketing strategy: how will you contact your clients? Are you planning to create a professional website? Will you pay for social media advertisements? What about going to conferences and making cold calls? Different clientele demand different approaches, therefore having a thorough understanding of the clients you intend to target will be extremely beneficial in constructing this section. You can also look at what your competitors are doing to see what works and what doesn’t.

5. List of milestones

A milestone is essentially a goal that you set for your company. You can establish numerous milestones at regular periods of time, such as every three or six months. You can also define your goals based on the number of sales or the amount of money earned.

A milestone does not even have to be a numerical value. In the early stages of your business, you can set a marketing milestone: how many clients you’ve contacted, how many have answered, and how many have presented possible jobs.

We recommend following the SMART approach when creating your goals: they must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. With clearly defined milestones, you can see how well your firm is doing and whether you need to step up to increase its success.

6. Members of the company and stakeholders

If your company is a sole proprietorship, this section is unnecessary. However, if your organization has numerous employees, you must specify each person’s tasks and responsibilities. You can also detail how these team members will be compensated. Do they receive a set percentage of the profits from each project? Or will they be paid on a regular basis?

7. Make a financial plan.

Finally, the financial plan outlines how you intend to create profit based on your projected sales. The statistics you mentioned in previous sections, such as startup expenditures, personnel salaries, milestones, and loans, must be factored into the financial strategy. Make a list of recurring expenses, such as the cost of website hosting, annual insurance premiums, office renting, and other business expenses.

Remember to make a list of all your assets, including your drone and its different accessories. Of course, every item loses value over time, so take the time to determine the useful life of each piece of equipment you own.

There are numerous methods to convey your company’s financial plan, and we are unlikely to be qualified to offer guidance on this subject. You must offer monthly and annual profit estimates, a break-even analysis, and a cash-flow diagram at the very least.

Reviewing your business plan

It is just as vital to evaluate and revise your business strategy as it is to create it. Plans are created to be modified, as the adage goes. Many things can happen, especially in the initial few months of your firm, that will force you to revise your business plan.

1. Monitoring milestones

Goals are vital, but they are meaningless unless they are tied to actual performance. By comparing real data to goals on a regular basis, you can determine whether your company is on the correct course or if drastic changes are required.

Do you need to step up your marketing efforts? Contracts are being performed, and payments are being received on schedule. If you are failing to meet your targets, you may need to reconsider the types of clients you are pursuing.

2. Keeping your financial strategy up to date

A financial plan that estimates profit over a year can swiftly change due to a variety of reasons. Did you fail to secure a client within your first three months in business? Did you incur unplanned costs as a result of equipment failure? Are your loan’s actual interest rates higher than you anticipated?

By implementing the amended figures into your financial plan, you may get a more accurate view of how the company is functioning. Perhaps you will have to wait a bit longer to make a profit, or you may be able to enhance your performance by renegotiating the terms of the loan. By evaluating your company strategy on a regular basis, you can spot these issues and quickly devise a remedy.

Starting a business is both exhilarating and terrifying, especially if it is based on a hobby like drone flight. As long as you have the abilities and there is a demand for the service you provide, your business idea should not fail. A drone business, however, requires more than just piloting talent and desire to flourish.

The best thing you can do before starting your drone business is to create a clear and realistic business strategy. You will have a better understanding of how successful your business idea could be if you take a close look at the market, list down your startup costs and recurring expenses, and define performance-based targets. It’s cliché, but the adage “those who fail to plan, plan to fail” has a lot of truth to it.