“What I do is I have a drone, and it has got a professional camera on the bottom…I go around to different places and I can take high quality videos and pictures,” says Chandler Crane, a senior at Appleton North.

Crane has his own company, named Volo Aerial Videography.

He moves the drone (which flies in the air) with a controller, similar to a video game. He connects his phone to the controller so he can see what the drone’s camera sees. “I can move the drone up and down, left and right…there are also advanced features in the app for different camera settings as well,” said Crane.

Crane got the idea after watching YouTube videos featuring the drone. “I wanted it, but I couldn’t really think of a good way to convince my dad to let me buy this thing…what I did was I pitched this business idea, ‘what if you gave me the money to buy this drone?’ and in doing this company, I could pay him back for the drone…meaning I could get it and start my own company, which would be kind of cool,” said Crane.

Crane had never considered starting his own company, but after starting Volo, he is excited to possibly start another new business in the future. How exactly does the business work?

“People tell me what they want, either they want picture or video or both…I’ve been doing stuff with golf courses, I’m going to be doing stuff with a ski hill, I’ve done stuff with real estate and commercial locations. Basically, they tell me what they want, and I just fly it and take the pictures and videos. It goes onto an SD card…the company can then use it for their website, promotionals, commercials, or presentations,” said Crane.

Advice for those wanting to start their own business? “I would say just take the risk and do it. Even if you don’t succeed, you’re gonna learn stuff you didn’t learn before. I’ve done stuff with my website that I wouldn’t have known how to do before…You get to see how different businesses interact and how to manage the commercial bank account,” said Chandler.

Since starting paid jobs a couple months ago, and taking care of expenses, Crane expects to make profits in the near future.

To see videos Chandler has created, make sure to look at  Volo’s website, voloav.com.