$65 all I can say is WOW!!!
after you point out all the well reasoned examples of the intricacies of pricing and mention "what is your time etc worth" you give an example of shooting a 200 acre job for $65 - WOW...
Our birds don't even lift off the ground for less than $350 then post production charges and if detailed video with call outs, fancy grading, titles in 4K is called for the price goes up proportionately...
We would never risk a $1,800 Mavic or $6,000
I2 for $65 - that just blows me away... even drontebase or whatever they are called pay you $150 (I think)...
I totally agree with S White... Early on when we were establishing our business we thought the real estate market would enable us to get started... soon however we realized that they are phenomenally cheap... and "I have someone who does all our drone work" to which I reply "gauging by the quality it looks like a kid" - "yes my son does it for us for $50/house" - "you do realize that your son needs a Part 107 certification from the FAA to engage in commercial drone work, right" "yeah but this is just a house, he does it in his spare time, it's not a business" "And you do realize that the pilot AND the client are liable for fines up to $11,000 each, right" "thank you for that now get out" - not worth my time or headache working with these people.
Like S White, we do do some real estate but we have come up with a "Package Contract" where the price per residence is substantially below our published rates, but they have to buy (and pay for) a package of 5-10-15 homes... and we guarantee a shoot and deliverable within a week of the request. One of our junior pilots will fly/grade it and keep 80% our company keeps just 20% as a referral fee. This gives the client a cheaper product and gives our junior pilot (we only have one right now) more practice and our company more exposure. (This contract stipulates for homes up to 300k, over that and a standard rate applies)
We like to have contracts for long term projects. Most of our work is construction inspections, documentation for archival purposes and so the principals on the mainland can follow along with the progress... also the engineers, architects, landscape architects etc can keep track. We normally provide: Weekly Stills, Bi-monthly video, bi-monthly Panorama, monthly orthomosaic. depending on the size of the project this can run from $20k - $45k / yr
We have never advertised and our revenues keep climbing - good service, quality - professionally produced images & video, and a willingness to achieve the clients goals serves you well.
Placing 1st in the HawaiiCon 2020 drone video festival didn't hurt either.
Likewise if you can get footage on your localTV that helps in establishing credibility...
A great web site is also paramount. With plenty of examples... we are visual creatures... we like to "see what we are paying for"
When I was traveling around the world consulting at SCUBA resorts and Dive Shops... the first thing I did when an owner was complaining about the competition undercutting him/her - was RAISE their prices... this seems contradictory, but the trend to lower your prices just gets you into a price war until all go under... by raising your prices you are saying my "services" "products" are WORTH that... all we want is "good value" "worth" sell benefits/quality not price...
Ok, it's stopped raining so heading out to mark an inundated lava lots' 4 corners up on Fissure 8 here in Hawaii... seen in the video above... (to record 4 corners $350 - we tried a drop mechanism to drop chalk bags but it proved to hazardous, any slight movement causes the dangling chalk bag to gyrate and whirl around puling the drone all over the place and making it impossible to pilot - if it had worked it was going to be $650)
Aloha all, and safe flying.