Debbie Piper
We sat down with Women to Women Network member Debbie Piper of RAP Drone Services, and here's what she had to say…
Who are your clients and prospective clients?
The drone industry is exploding with opportunity and we find ourselves serving a wide range of clients, but our niche has primarily focused on:
Realtors
Property Management Companies
Construction Companies
Mining Operations
Property developers
How do you help your clients/customers?
We customize packages of various imagery for many types of businesses and can change that imagery to suit the advertising market targeted. We focus on our customer's end goals and tailor each job to best showcase their property or business.
For example, we provide our realtor clients with still photography, aerial photography, aerial videography, and 360° virtual tours of the property listing. Realtors find value in virtual tours that walk prospective homebuyers through a house while imagining themselves living in it.
Property management companies hire us for the same services as realtors but on a much larger scale. Our variety of services provides them the tools to showcase their properties for advertising and leasing.
Often construction companies require progression scans of land development or builds. We provide these on various schedules to document the progress of the construction or development project.
Mining operations are required to provide an accurate accounting of their inventory for tax purposes. We offer drone scans 3-4 times per year for each site. We save mining companies the labor hours and risks associated with people climbing on and around stockpiles to take measurements which is excellent for their safety and bottom line.
Housing developers use our 2D/3D scans for advertising land to their prospective clients. For the developer, to have the ability to show builders the land with 2D/3D scans in a conference room versus mucking through mud and weather saves time and money.
What brought you to this line of work?
My husband has nurtured a love for photography since he was a freshman in high school. He enjoyed hunting, skiing, and in general, the outdoors and took his camera everywhere he went. Scenics were his favorite form of photography, so he was thrilled with moving to Italy while serving in the military, but managing his film negatives and photographs with limited storage and wall space was an issue for me.
As the extrovert in our relationship and as a solution to my storage dilemma, I entered a military Chiefs' Wives Bazaar and discovered a cottage industry. As I began selling my husband’s work to other military families also stationed in the area, we were asked if we took family portraits. Of course, I said, "Sure, we can do that." After picking my husband's jaw up off the ground, we ordered a lighting system, and our new business was up and running!
We started with scenic, and family portraiture, then added weddings and senior portraits, etc. Since 1991, our photographic interests and business has evolved with technological changes, the needs of the community we live in, and the resources available to us. With the advancement in digital technology, our business grew immensely to include real estate photo packages, business advertising, and much more. Drone videography, scans, and still images are an avenue we added about four years ago.
Because of the current demand for drone services, we primarily focus on serving realtors, property management and developers, construction companies, business advertising imagery, and 2D/3D scans for mining accountability and progression of builds/development.
What brings you joy?
Our business has created the ability for my husband and me to work together for 31 of our 34 years. That is a joy for me; we genuinely do work well as a team. I also really enjoy meeting new people.
A contract from a large company is wonderful, but working with small businesses and entrepreneurs that believed quality imagery and the tools to represent their business was out of reach is truly fulfilling.
What defines you and your business?
Personability and customization. Businesses have described us as easy to work with, prompt, time-efficient with deliverables, professional, and competitively priced.
What's the most important thing you want people to know about you and your business?
Our work is guaranteed and customizable. If you don't love what you see, you are not obligated to purchase it. Each project is unique. We ask lots of questions about each project we photograph and create the product our clients have envisioned. There is no risk for our clients.