Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to DaVaughn Coley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
DaVaughn, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?
The biggest challenge with profitability is continuously finding the new client in different fields that isn’t already populated by a bigger brand with the marketing and experience. Cold calling/emailing feels as if it’s a dead end at the end of the day hoping that your email doesn’t get sent to spam or hoping that when talking to someone they’ll even listen for a moment to hear what you can do and how that’d even help their business. Yet, all it takes is one to get you in the door to building rapport for referrals or just building your portfolio to expand your clientele.
DaVaughn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Being a veteran, there’s a lot of mentalities you learn from being in the military that transfer over. One being a phrase,“Embrace the suck”, meaning that yes it’s uncomfortable being in the situation you’re in but you’ll be fine make it apart of you. going through struggle builds a different type of mindset and tenacity to succeed. Which leads to another phrase, “You’re never out of the fight”, there’s always a way through just keep pushing until you find an opportunity to the brighter side of what it is you’re wanting. Whether it’s rebuilding relationships, building a business, life being the way life is you’re never out of the fight.
I actually got into the business because of my friend on Xbox. I was looking for a new job too and couldn’t find anything worth the trouble of transferring into and was getting down about possible being stuck in this cycle of clocking in and clocking out at a job I don’t like. He is a home insurance adjuster and told me about how he went to a conference and realized how drones were being used in that field and how the Goodwill Trade School was giving that class for free. I wasn’t really interested in the field to be honest but that mentality of never out of the fight, why not try that and see where it takes me in this fight of finding a way out of the current job field I’m in. After about a year of taking the prerequisite class that the Goodwill Trade School makes you take and the actual class to pass my Part 107 license test I was finally a certified pilot.
After passing my test I decided to open up my services to Videography and Photography, covering sports, construction, real estate; anything that you’d want a photo or video for I’d cover it. Being detail oriented and aiming for top quality made me push for multiple takes, different angles of approach, repetition until I felt that it was worth what the client would want. If I don’t feel good about it’s already in my mind that the client wouldn’t. Customer satisfaction will always be my goal and will always be what I’m most proud of. Being relentless for for their satisfaction of the product they are requesting will always be delivered.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I met my business partner in Greensboro, North Carolina back in 2016, she’s my wife. When I was still enlisted in the military I met her and we’ve been together ever since. When I spoke to her about starting in the drone field she supported me as I was working to get my license.
After, I got my license finding work was difficult to say the least. She is also a small business owner where she paints rocks at schools for kids birthdays, banners for parties and even murals. While I was struggling to find work I had the idea to fly the drone around her work to help boost her marketing and without a doubt it did. Now I do that as well for her business and working my own jobs.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Funding the business is never easy especially when starting. There’s different apps you need, licenses, equipment, let alone time being the most important. I waited until tax returns to buy my first drone and I’ve been using it ever since for all my jobs. I used the trial version of Dropbox for as long as I could until there was too many photos and videos that I had to upgrade meaning more I had to spend to keep up with the requirements of my business. Replacement parts for damages also is no small fee, luckily my wife likes to shop around for the best deals so that saves us some but still can be expensive. Starting a business will never be cheap and managing those expenses as you progress will only seem to get more and more expensive but when you figure out how to make everything stretch and be used in multiple way it’ll add up. A lot of business owners say you lose more money than you make for a long time normally some are lucky to make up that difference early so don’t get discouraged.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Deltaaerial.service
- Facebook: Delta Aerial Drone Services
