Bombs Away! Here Come The Drones
Written by CMG News Contributor, Doug Carleton
“Honey, what’s that humming outside? Oh, don’t worry, it’s just a drone delivering our pizza.” Splat! Just imagine the visuals spreading across the internet. Too delicious to contemplate. But after cleaning up the pizza, we are given another look into the future and what sort of opportunities might be created for some enterprising small business owners. The FAA recently released new and looser rules for flying over highly-populated areas opening whole new avenues for takeout food, packages, prescription drugs, and who knows what else. There are countless pieces and parts that will have to be put into place as drone companies begin to ramp up the push for licenses. The public is going to have to educate themselves on the benefits of drone delivery.
Package delivery may be the first of more widespread opportunities for some small businesses. Can what you sell transport into a package small enough for a drone to carry? Would the economic benefit of drone delivery for your package somehow be better than current methods? One way to get a look at what the benefits might be – unscientific, would be to write down everything you have been buying online since the beginning of the pandemic. Then ask 10 of your friends. If you sell something that could be carried by a drone, and you see that several of your friends are buying similar items, it might give you something to consider. One thing you can be sure about is that as the technology continues to develop, the weight-carrying capacity of drones still small enough to fly over highly-populated areas will continue to increase. So, if something might be feasible to deliver by drone, would your business model gain by adding a new dimension?
There might be a humming outside in your future.….minus the pizza.
This blog entry is a slightly edited excerpt from Doug Carleton's 'The Daily Life Of A Small Business Owner' series. Doug was a mentor with SCORE, Startup Virginia, and Lighthouse Labs, and has 25+ years of experience in small business finance including 12 years in SBA lending. To contact Doug directly, please email him at sbaloanspecialist@comcast.net.