Drones are extremely versatile devices that have important applications far beyond recreation. They play an essential role in many different industries and can perform aerial tasks that are dangerous for people to do personally. No matter what your industry is, there’s most likely a task that could be improved through the use of a drone. From aerial photography and filming to inspections and surveys, dones are incredibly useful for businesses.

The trick, however, is to select the drone that is right for your business based on your industry. Utility companies performing aerial surveys have different needs from film production companies needing to film a scene from the air. Ask yourself the following questions when choosing a drone to ensure you pick the right drone for your industry’s needs.

Do You Need a Drone?

Drones are popular for a lot of different reasons, including with individuals for recreational purposes. But when it comes to companies, it’s important to make sure that you actually need one before diving into purchasing one. They can cost a lot of money, especially when built for the specific needs of an industry rather than for individual recreational use. The average drone can cost anywhere from $500 to a couple thousand dollars. With that being said, drones aren’t an investment you want to take lightly.

How Can a Drone Help Your Company?

For many companies, a drone can help to drastically improve safety for employees because a drone can perform aerial inspections. You can eliminate the need to send employees into dangerous situations by sending a drone up instead. A drone will also have more flexibility in how close or far away it can get from its target when compared to a person. For example, when filming or photographing, a drone can shoot from multiple angles and a variety of distances which will be more difficult to achieve with a person.

Additionally, a drone could end up saving you money on the costs of aerial photography or surveillance. Before the advent of drone technology, many companies had to hire helicopters or small airplanes to conduct aerial surveys or inspections. Film companies had to hire aircraft to get aerial footage of scenes. Drones may cost money, but they can save you a significant amount of money in the long run.

What Are Your Company’s Needs?

Before starting your search for the right drone, you should take some time to think about exactly what your company needs drones for. How would you use any drones that you purchased? Clearly defining your company’s needs ahead of time will help to drive your drone search in the right direction. Not every drone is going to have the same capabilities and features, so knowing how you would need to use it will help you to select the drone that will best suit your company’s needs. There’s no sense if investing in a more expensive model or package only to not use any of those additional features you paid extra for. 

How Much Can You Spend?

The next step is to determine your budget. Keep in mind that in many cases, you get what you pay for, so you’ll need to think carefully about how much you can really spend on a drone. A drone is an investment that can ultimately save you a lot of money down the road. You should consider how much money you will either make or save on using the drone in the future and its potential ROI when determining how much you can afford to spend on purchasing a drone.

Keep in mind that the costs of buying a drone may go beyond the actual purchase price of the drone. You may need to invest in software that can connect with the drone so that files can be exported from it. You may also need to train an employee or hire someone in order to have staff dedicated to using the drone and processing its data. These are considerations you should think about and plan for before purchasing a drone.

What Is the Potential ROI?

The future ROI that a drone could bring to your company does play a major role in your budgeting concerns. While there is a cost to purchasing a drone, you can think of it more as an investment than an expenditure. For example, depending on your industry, you may be able to use a drone to conduct aerial surveys and inspections, eliminating the need to have an employee perform that task. You could end up saving money on employment costs while at the same time reducing the danger to employees.

There may be even more ways in which a drone could positively impact aspects of your business.

How Will the Drone Need to Capture Data?

Whether you’re using a drone for aerial photography or for inspections, the drone will record a lot of data that will need to be exported into your systems and databases afterwards. What type of files you need the end product to be and which systems you need the drone to be compatible with will help to determine what kind of drone that you need. A drone will need to be able to capture data in the way that you need, whether it’s high-resolution images, video, 3D point clouds, multispectral images, or something else.

What Software Will the Drone Need to Use?

All drones operate on computer software. Some drones may come with software already pre-installed. If this is the case, then you’ll want to make sure that the software any drone you may purchase is compatible with your systems and can capture data in the method that you need. Another option may be to use third-party software that you install yourself. However, you’ll need to be certain that the drone is compatible with that software.

What Hardware Will the Drone Need?

The hardware that your drone will need depends on your company’s industry and what your business’ needs are. Depending on what you need the drone to do, you may need to attach additional hardware to it, such as a high-definition camera. You’ll need to consider how much weight the drone will need to carry. You’ll also need to consider how long the drone will need to stay in the air before charging and how far away from its base station it can get while maintaining a connection to the controller.