What makes a successful drone entrepreneur?

What Makes a Successful Drone Entrepreneur?

What is the key to being a successful drone entrepreneur?

The drone industry is growing and becoming more competitive by the day. What separates the successful drone entrepreneur from others that aren’t able to get their business off the ground (ahem! excuse the pun)? I intend to analyze some variables to see if any one thing is the key to starting and thriving with in the drone pilot business today. I will discuss the roles of mindset, funding, education, social media and marketing and hustle.

What is success?

The dictionary.com defines success as:


Success can mean different things for everyone…

According to this study, these entrepreneurs defined success as “to be able to spend your life in your own way” – Lori Cheek, founder and CEO of Cheekd, or “thinking of an idea and turning it into a profitable company” – Chris Gronkowski, owner of Everything Decorated , or “being happy with who I am, and liking myself” – Ethan Nyholm, co-founder STM Goods.

Richard Branson has said of success that “It’s a common misconception that money is every entrepreneur’s metric for success. It’s not, and nor should it be. I’ve never gone into business to make money.” he goes on to say, “The simple fact is, if you do good and have fun, the money will come.”

What is the key factor?


According tho this article on entrepreneur.com suggests that “An entrepreneur doesn’t need an MBA to be successful but there is a certain mindset an entrepreneur must cultivate to grow, understand and lead their business.” It then states that delegating responsibility, having a thirst for knowledge and a willingness to take risks is the usual stepping stone to entrepreneurial success.

Learning from failure, delegation, remaining teachable and following you instincts are all key skills that you will need to be a  success as a drone entrepreneur.

Can You Learn Entrepreneurship Or Are People Born With It? This article states that anyone can learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. However, it states that having natural leadership is essential for a successful entrepreneur. It also says “Not everyone can be a good entrepreneur just like not everyone can be a good actor. Nothing can turn a follower into a leader.”


Without a doubt, having money is an advantage when you are starting any business. However, in this day and age of crowdfunding and micro-loans is it possible to set up a business when you yourself have no money.

For a drone business you need start-up capital to buy your drone, set yourself up a website, costs associated with starting any new business. But you probably won’t need a bricks and mortar store front.

So, if you wanted to buy a professional drone you could be looking as high as $6000. Or you could be looking as low as $700 for an acceptable quality 4K camera drone.

As new businesses go, that’s a pretty low startup cost. With that, you could earn money as soon as you can get clients. If you took a loan, or credit card for $1000 for a Phantom 4 drone you could potentially make that back very quickly.

As a result, your drone would be an asset (makes you money) rather than a liability (costs you money)


To be a commercial UAS pilot in the United States, you have to pass an FAA certification process. Which, while difficult, is not unattainable for most people. A drone entrepreneur does not need formal education. Although, you can go to UAV pilot school where they teach you more information than you need to just pass the UAS exam. Why not take our sample question exam to see how you do?

If you want to be a specialized UAV pilot there are degree courses that you can explore specifically.

However, it is possible to legally open up your own business without having to go to college. Just by learning regulations and rules and how to read a space and aviation maps, all of which are made available by the FAA on their website.

Social media and marketing?

In this day and age, social media and inbound marketing is a key component of opening up your business.

We have to learn how to use this system to generate leads for our businesses. The new generation spends less time at business meetings and networking events and spends more time interacting on Facebook and Twitter and whatever new social media websites are up-and-coming.

But, to be a successful drone entrepreneur, is it necessary? Well…Yes!

Whether you use social media to generate leads, or just to expand your community, you must have social share buttons on your website and you will allocate some of your day to social media (not too much!).


What is the hustle mentality?” This article then explains that working smart, not hard and being creative to overcome inevitable obstacles are at the centre of being a modern entrepreneurial “hustler”.

They say the more hustle you put into it the more successful you will become …

However, Jonathan Goodman in this article puts forward his anti-hustle stance. Simply put, he says “all that happens when you’re hustling is that you make a bunch of silly social media posts that you haphazardly publish with no strategy in mind. I believe that if people chilled out more, thought more, and got bored more often, they’d come up with more eloquent solutions to their problems.”



(In order of importance)

First of all, Mindset seems to be the key in a successful drone entrepreneur. With leadership skills, a positive and creative problem-solving mindset, and a never-ending thirst for knowledge, the sky is the limit in the drone pilot business.

Also, remaining teachable and dedicated to learning is especially important. Social media marketing, accounting, tax strategies, business management are part of being an entrepreneur.

While the ability to hustle when you need to get things done is very important, it seems like working smart, not hard and using creative problem-solving will pay the biggest dividends. The key is to not spread yourself too thin!

Being social networking savvy and tweeting to grow your business seems to be an advantage. Furthermore, it is essential for any drone entrepreneur to have web presence.

Finally, whether someone has money going into a project, or has to raise the funds by being creative, doesn’t seem to matter when it comes to making a successful drone business.

The take-away message…

Success can be measured by multiple methods. It depends on your own definition of the word. If your personal goals are philanthropic, to have a healthy work/life balance or to amass great wealth. Success is measured by you and you alone.

Donald Trump has made himself extremely wealthy and powerful by being an aggressive negotiator, hungry and extremely driven to make as much money as he can.

Oprah Winfrey believes in the philanthropic approach to success, she says that “Phenomenal success is found in the second order effect of wanting to better the lives of others.”

Richard Branson, as stated before, believes in treating people well and having fun in the workplace and releasing products that help people.

Whoever you emulate, as a successful drone entrepreneur you should definitely ask others for help. Emulate people who you respect. Join a networking group in your area or online in forums. Try to find someone who has a business philosophy that you want and ask them questions.

Become the entrepreneur that you want to be, not the one that you think people should be.

Did this help you? Do you have an opinion on the topics that I discussed? Want to leave a comment? Disagree with any of my remarks?

Please leave comments and share!

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