Elgin drone video, photo business riding industry's rapid growth
It began as a flight of fancy for Dan Isaacson, and in only two years it soared into a business that's on track to hit seven-digit revenues by year's end.
Isaacson is CEO of CAVU Videos, a drone photography and video business that has been riding the phenomenal growth tide of the drone industry. The Elgin resident has benefitted from the huge demand for drone photography in such industries as real estate and hospitality/events, as well as in the law field.
Since starting the business in 2013, his one-man operation has grown into a 47-person business with nine locations in seven states, and plans are in the works for new locations in Alabama, Mississippi and Puerto Rico. CAVU has also grown by providing third-party services for other companies, most recently signing on to do work with Rosemont-based real estate photography company VHT. VHT provides professional real estate photo services for companies like Century 21 Real Estate.
With the VHT contract in hand, Isaacson estimates CAVU - which made around $50,000 in revenues in 2014 - could tip the $1 million revenue mark in 2015.
Not a bad deal for someone who got into drone photography by taking pictures of tourists at a white-water rafting business in Oregon in 2013, where he was working with a friend.
"I saw a '60 Minutes' report on drones and saw that was the future," Isaacson said. "We did drone selfies for the tourists on the river, and after a while we had a Realtor come up and ask us to take a picture of their listings.
"After about the tenth one in a month, we said, 'yeah ... for $50,'" he added.
Seeing the business potential, he convinced his wife to let him buy a second drone and they moved back to his hometown of Elgin, where he started CAVU, working with local real estate agents.
"(The second drone) paid for itself in three days," he said. "That's when we thought we might have something here."
Using primarily word-of-mouth and Facebook advertising to get his message out, Isaacson 's business literally took off. As the demand increased, he recruited friends to help out, training them how to fly the drones and how to handle them safely.
One of the keys to CAVU's success was finding a price point that, as Isaacson puts it, "you don't have to think about."
"We realize nobody will want to pay $1,000, but they'll start at $35," he said.
That $35 point is a base and works upward based on the value of the home. The average price, he noted, is around $155 for a video that runs about one minute.
"We didn't want there to be a situation where, when they heard the price, they had to think about it," he said.
For more information, go to www.cavuvideos.com