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Drone Business Overheads & Pricing Calculator
Drone Business Viability & Pricing Calculator

What do you really need to charge?

Adjust the assumptions to match your situation. This tool adds up your real overheads, accounts for holidays, sick days and weather, and shows whether your pricing can sustain a long-term career.

Tip: start with the suggested defaults, then tweak them to see how fragile low-priced drone work really is.

1 Currency & income goals

Choose your currency, then set the income you’d like the drone business to provide for you personally.

This symbol will be used for all amounts below.
What you’d like to take home from the business before your personal tax.
Margin on top of salary & overheads to keep the business healthy.

2 Time, holidays, sick days & weather

This section turns your year into realistic flying days and completed jobs, after holidays, sick time and bad weather.

Roughly 220 = 5 days/week with weekends off.
Days you choose not to work (annual leave).
Time lost to illness, family emergencies, etc.
Percentage of remaining days you can’t fly due to wind, rain, fog.
Days spent on business development, learning, admin, not flying.
Be honest – many days will only have one billable job.
Air time only, not including travel and editing.
Client cancellations, weather rebookings, jobs that never quite happen.
Used to calculate your true hourly rate.

3 Fixed annual & monthly overheads

These are costs you’ll pay whether or not you fly. Values below are realistic UK-style starting points – adjust to suit your situation.

Saving towards repairs and eventual upgrades.
All business-critical policies.
A2 CofC, GVC renewals, refresher courses, etc.
Editing, planning, CRM, cloud storage, etc.
Domain, hosting, SSL and email services.
Facebook/Google ads, printed materials, etc.
Business mobile and data package.
Accounts, tax returns, basic advice.
Servicing, insurance uplift, tyres – not per-job fuel.
Home office share, stationery, misc costs.
Networking, courses, paid advice to grow the business.
Anything else that recurs regardless of jobs.

4 Per-job variable costs & your planned price

These costs are linked directly to doing a job. We’ll compare what you need to charge vs what you plan to charge.

Fuel, parking, tolls specifically for the average job.
Batteries, media, PPE wear & tear, minor bits.
If you often need a second person on site.
e.g. paid access fees, permits on average.
What you think you can realistically charge per job.
Used to show how unsustainable low-ball pricing is.
All fields have suggested starting values – change them to match your own business and location.

5 Results: can this be a sustainable career?

These numbers combine everything above: holidays, sick days, weather, cancellations, overheads and your target income.

What you need to earn

Total annual overheads – All fixed and per-job business costs.
Required revenue per year – To cover costs, pay you, and hit your margin.
Effective flying days per year – After holidays, sick days, weather and admin days.
Completed jobs per year – After cancellations and no-shows.
Required price per job – To hit your income goal on this workload.
Required per flying hour – Revenue you need for each hour in the air.
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Reality check: your current pricing

Revenue at your price – Completed jobs × your planned price per job.
Net income before tax – What’s left after all business costs.
Shortfall vs target income – Negative = you’re not hitting your income goal.
Effective hourly rate (all work hours) – Net income ÷ total annual working hours.
Effective hourly rate (flying hours only) – Net income ÷ hours actually in the air.
If you charged the “cheap” rate – Shows how low-ball jobs are very unlikely to be a real career.
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Fill in your details and hit “Recalculate” to see how sustainable your pricing really is.
This calculator is intentionally conservative: it reminds pilots that drone work has real overheads, lost days and cancellations. Low-priced jobs might feel busy, but once you factor everything in, they often fail to provide a stable, long-term income.
Keen to grow your own drone busienss? Join the completely free "SMALL DRONE BUSINSS ADVICE AND IDEAS" facebook group.