Critical UAV Business Questions

[jdwarren]

Hey all!

Now that I have passed my 107 and have my LLC. I am finishing up my website and building my portfolio.

I have a few critical questions that I would love to hear your opinions/answers on.. thank you in advance and best wishes to you!

1)

• How do you take payments?
• When do they pay?
• How do I create a receipt?

2)

• Do your clients sign a contract?
• What should I include in the contract?

3)

• Do I keep my water mark on pictures/video I give to my clients?

4)

• How do you give the customer the final product? (youtube, google drive, etc.)
• Do you downsize to 1080p for final product or keep @ 4K?

5)

• Copyright- anything I need to know?
• Do I keep the rights to the image or should my customers claim it as theirs,
• Can I still show it of on my portfolio (assuming I give them the rights to the image)

6)

• Taxation: Since I am selling my drone work as service, not product, I do not have to charge tax in FL?
• If I sell a canvas print, I have to charge tax?

Thank you all for your input. It is greatly appreciated!

 

[BVRES]

Hi JDWarren!

Every state has different laws, I'm sure, but:

1) I take payments by check and usually demand full payment upon receipt of the final product/service. As for receipts, you can use an Excel form or an old-school pad and carbon paper.

2) I do not yet have clients sign a contract, though I probably should. However, I mostly shoot real estate and work with reputable agents on job-by-job basis.

3) Absolutely.

4) I use my own YouTube account which the realtors can link to from whatever websites they use. Typically, I upload the edited video in 4k and leave well enough alone.

5) I never really worry about rights since the video is linked to my YouTube channel and contains my watermark

6) I do not know FL law, but yes, you should be selling the service and not the video. As for taxes, I am not sure as FL laws are different from MI laws.

I hope this helps! I am not saying you should follow my example, but what I do works for my small, part-time, side business.