At that time, I happened to know the drone. At the moment I saw it, I was convinced that “This will certainly be the same business model as the automotive industry” and I managed to raise the money that was running out to buy a drone, which was the beginning of my drone business. I bought the DJI Phantom 2, but of course I don’t have any business know-how. At that time, the only solution was aerial photography in Japan, and I just started it after a fashion.
At first, nobody looked at me. Needless to say, even if a company that had been in the automobile maintenance business for some time said that it had started the aerial photography business with a fresh start, it had no track record, so it was not easy to get a job. However, my sales efforts have paid off and we are gradually starting to receive job requests.
Even so, since the era of radio-controlled helicopters, the place where shooting work has been done cannot win with either name recognition or technology. How can we differentiate ourselves from them? I struggled while running with tries and errors, and the goal I reached was “Safety is as important as anyone else”. Everyone says, “Safety First” but there are only a few who actually do that. Then our company should stick to it.
When a policy is decided, for some reason, self-confidence comes out. I didn’t make a lot of money, but I brazenly turned down what I thought was a dangerous flight. But maybe it was good that they were thorough. We have gradually succeeded in dealing with major companies, and have also been involved in infrastructure inspections using drones in the wake of the torrential rain in Kyushu and the eruption of Mt. Kusatsu Shirane, which were considered to be a national disaster.
Continued.