Our readers would like to know more about your business and how you got to where you are. Yeah, so The Drone Ranger we were founded last spring, 2021. We’re based here in the Shelbyville/Louisville, Kentucky area and we do drone services. So what does that mean? Most people think of photos and videos and stuff, but we solve problems. We have a tool that we use, which is the drone to perform these services and do all kinds of things like inspections, data collection, we do a little bit of mapping and we use this tool, which is the drone to solve problems as well as post pretty pictures and videos and stuff like that. So that’s kind of a general overview of what we do, I guess. What geographic areas do you serve? So we’re right now serving mainly the Louisville and Lexington areas. We have some clients in the Nashville area and some in the Indianapolis area. So we do travel a little bit, but it’s mainly the greater Louisville/Lexington areas. What was it that made you start this business? So, a little bit about me, my background is actually in fixed-wing aviation. I went to Eastern Kentucky University and majored in their professional flight program. I’ve always been an aviation geek, been around aviation and drones was always something kind of on the back of my mind that I thought would be cool, but I never really had time for it while I was in school and flight training and stuff like that. So after I graduated, I started flying fixed-wing airplane full time. And then my drone business was just kind of on the side. But over the summer and the fall, I just kind of realized that I’m more interested in drones. I love what they offer. I love solving problems and coming up with those solutions and meeting new clients and running a business and all the things that might drone business provided me. And because I have that aviation background, I feel like I bring a lot more to the table than most drone operators. I’m very comfortable with aviation lingo, airspace requirements, FAA regulations, all those things because of my aviation background I’m very comfortable and I bring a lot to the table when it comes to my business. Have you always had this spirit of entrepreneurship? I feel like yes and no. My dad and my father-in-law are both entrepreneurs and successful at it. And so I feel like I get a lot from them, but going to school, wasn’t really a thing until afterwards. So kind of, yes and no, but I really am kind of an old blazer at heart. I like to be adventurous in a lot of different things and I enjoy business. And that’s really what an entrepreneur is. It’s a trailblazer for a business. For those people that are listening in that are would-be entrepreneurs, or just starting out what lessons have you learned and what wisdom can you share with them? Yeah, so I think whatever, whatever your business is, whatever your niche is in your area, the spirit of entrepreneurship I think, is summed up in two words, hard work. I think that that’s the most important thing that I saw from my dad growing up, and from what I’ve seen in this time, growing my business is hard. Work covers a lot of other things that you may not be as proficient and being an entrepreneur and growing a business means that you are, really, really good at a lot of different things. You have to be an accountant, you have to market your business then for me, I have to be a drone pilot. I have to do everything that’s in that realm. So I have to be good at a lot of different things. And just because you don’t know how to do something doesn’t mean that you can’t figure it out. And so how you figure that out is hard work. And so anybody that’s starting a business, I think don’t get discouraged. If, if it’s not working out, if it’s not exactly how you thought it should be just stick with it and be diligent and work hard. Who would you say Nathan is your ideal customer? Who would be your perfect customer? Somebody who’s interested in drones for sure. A lot of people have some prior knowledge, whether good or bad. When it comes to drones there’s a whole privacy and security debate. And so some people come with these opinions already. And that’s totally cool. We all have that about certain things and part of what we do is inform the public of this new asset. That is a drone. They’re still fairly new to a lot of these industries. And so education is a huge piece of what we do. Keeping our clients informed with up-to-date news is important. And so the ideal client would be interested and open to learning new things, open to maybe doing things a certain way. They say humans are against change. Whether it’s the right move or the wrong move, we’re inherently like to keep the status quo. And so a good client would be somebody that says, ”Hey, I’m interested in this. And I’m open to learning about what you do. I’m open to spending the time to figure out what it is that you do”. And other than that if you have those things we can work with you. Aside from social media, how has the internet played a role in your business as more and more people are jumping online to seek out information about products and services? Huge, I mean, huge for drone businesses, you can’t be successful without a website or news outlet. And for a lot of businesses in general, I mean, probably all of them, you got to have a website, you have to have an online presence just because that’s the easiest way to reach people. Before the internet, you had to go and talk to people. But with the internet and the web, it does it on its own. So the website is absolutely huge. And the internet as a whole is absolutely huge. And then that, along with the socials, Facebook and Instagram has just been vital. If you had to look six months to a year or five years into the future, where would you like to see your business be? We want to be the premier drone services provider in the greater Louisville and Lexington area. That’s our goal. And we don’t feel like that’s too crazy. We definitely think it’s doable in a couple of years, if not sooner. We believe there’s a niche in this community. There are a lot of providers but there’s not a lot that market the right way and who have the background that we have. We bring a lot to the table in terms of safety and experience and critical thinking and thinking on the spot. So we offer professional-grade services with a small business customer service type of field. How important is it for you to reach these goals? Vital. I mean growing a small business, you have to have long-term goals. You have to have short term goals, you have to have weekly goals almost, and so that’s how you measure the success of your business. And without those goals, you don’t know where you are. You could be doing really well. You could be not where you want to be. So it’s incredibly important to meet these goals. And that’s why here at The Drone Ranger, we, we work hard. We don’t really clock out it’s not really an option to just turn it off for the night because you got to be ready to pounce on an opportunity or to respond to a client or a review or something like that. Because that’s just part of what we do. What are you doing right now, Nathan, in your business to get you to that goal? Yeah. So, like I said, before, being diligent and working hard. I kind of said this before, but you can’t really clock out. You just have to be ready to go and I’m opportunistic by nature. And so I really enjoy getting texts from clients and getting contacted and being able to respond quickly because I see a need I see somebody, a client, a person, a company that has a need, and I’m somebody that can help them solve that need. And so why wouldn’t I just, as a human, want to help that person or that business and yeah, this is business. And so there’s the whole aspect of making money, but ultimately for me, it’s about providing a service that solves problems the field needs. Is there anything you can share with listeners and those watching in terms of any promotions or any process that you go through in terms of vetting your clients? Yeah, through our social media, we have all of our contact information on our social media. And so when you click that you will either call or email me. And after I get your initial message I will give you a callback and we will get a better idea of what it is that you need. Drone services range from a couple of photos with some light editing to full-on, professional videos with high-quality resolution and so those are just totally different needs so it requires a phone call to get on the same page and get an idea of what you want. And for a lot of our clients, they already have an image of what they want in their heads. And so part of my job is to take what you have in your head and put that into a video with my expertise and my experience and create the best video photo collection of data that I can and that’s what I’ll present to you at the end of the day. As far as promotions go we have loyalty discounts. So if you use us for a certain period, a certain number of times in a given month we offer you promotions and discounts with that. So we take it case by case because pricing is just so fluid with what we serve. It’s not a one size fits. Every client is different and every client has a unique quote after they contact us and they talk to me. That’s part of what we figure out. Nathan, it’s been a pleasure. Is there anything else you’d like to add before we wrap up? Yeah. Thank you for having me on here. I appreciate Louisville Business Review for doing this for me. I think I’d encourage a lot of companies and businesses and individuals that use drone services to double-check with their provider, with their drone pilot, just because right now there’s a lot of unlicensed unprofessional drone pilots out there that are performing these services illegally. And it’s as simple as, ”Hey, so and so can you show me your part 107 commercial license that’s issued by the FAA”. That’s required to perform these services, for these businesses and if they don’t have that, if they can’t show that, then I would definitely advise you to look elsewhere for your services because you don’t want that to fall on you and the FAA is definitely an agency that you don’t want to mess around with. So I just advise businesses and companies to just ensure that they’re using a qualified professional. So once again thank for having me. Thanks for having us on here. If anybody listening and watching has any questions, you can find us at thedronerangerky.com and we’ll talk to you. Thanks.