Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Barth.
Hi Andrew, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Several years ago, I used to work in one of the Apple Retail stores. A place that carried other products besides Apple hero products, including high-end drones. One day I purchased a drone, and when I decided to fly it, a Real Estate Agent approached me and had told me I can make profits with that tool. First question, I had asked her was king what exactly? Her response was “I am a real estate agent and I have a property for sale. I will give you a shot by capturing some photos of it for me.”
After I had completed the shoot for her, her response was “These images are fantastic! Do you happen to do the inside of the house by chance?.” My response was that I had an iPhone. She later on told me it would be best advised to learn how to capture homes with a professional camera. So I ended up purchasing a professional camera, learning the ins and outs of it for years and mastering the trade of residential real estate photography.
This is something I still do today, but I want to turn this into a full-time business. I also noticed that residential real estate photography had become increasingly competitive based on the area that I live in so I had to start thinking outside of the box in an area of need where I can make my business very profitable and with continuous work.
I then got a contract to start shooting for a corporate funeral and cemetery operation company. After that, I found another niche in commercial shopping centers. The shopping center companies I work for are by far my biggest clients and they have given me a chance to start traveling the country earlier this year, where we have so far hit multiple wonderful cities and states catching some of the beautiful shopping destinations that they own and operate. This pretty much took my business to the next level and found it to be a very specific niche of photography, but also a huge need. My company is hired by these type of companies to tell a story about their shopping destinations across America. Large companies like grocery store brands, fast food, chains, and other retailers view these images and videos to see if it would be a good location to sign the lease and stay with them, and have it be easily accessible for their customers.
On top of that, we have worked in several other different types of operations to keep our company extremely busy such as crane operation and construction, as well as weddings and engagements.
What started out as a hobby for me, turned into a huge passion. Taking the leap of leaving a day job and turning this into a full-time business it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life and I would never look back.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In the beginning stages, it was quite rocky… I felt a little lost at first I knew that I had all of the tools and skill set to be successful, but I did not know how to successfully market myself. I was too focused in on just doing real estate photography for agents in the residential sector. I had a feeling as I saw it growing to be a competitive market. I needed to take another leap for my business to find something that would be extremely profitable and a very important need for their company.
This is where I got involved in working with construction companies, commercial real estate companies that oversee these shopping centers as well as the cemetery and funeral operation businesses. I did not give up though especially in slow months as when I really hit the sales hard. Emailed and tried calling everybody involved in some of these industries.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Above & Beyond Aerial Services LLC?
Our business started by solely operating drones, only capturing photo and video for various types of clients especially in the real estate sector. We also started out by capturing tons of engagement shoots. The biggest thing I’m most proud of is a company like this being recognized by a fortune 500 company in the commercial real estate world. They took a chance on our services to showcase rather large assets for the business and the results were outstanding. We really went above and beyond to make sure that these centers looked. They’re very best in the photos and videos.
Our goal is to make sure we provide the best quality work to any and all industries that may be in need of our services. We do not just stop at quality of our work but communication is also extremely important. I believe that if you are hiring somebody and you are paying them, the least they can do is be extremely responsive and communicative along the process. I can say I’m also most proud that when I talk about this business to other family and friends I don’t feel like I’m talking about work, but I’m talking about a passion.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.abovebeyondaerialservices.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abovebeyondaerialphoto
