Fife businessman flying high with drone company

Fife man Thomas Haywood has always had a creative flair from a young age.

It was photography that initially took his interest before turning his attention to drones.

The Dunfermline businessman has now built up his dream in starting Thomas Haywood Aerial Photography.

He answered our questions on his biggest struggles, achievements and more.

How and why did you start in business?

I started initially in photography – I have always been a creative person from school age.

On a skiing photography trip I saw a drone flying over an open air party in 2013 and I knew where I wanted to go with my business.

How did you get to where you are today?

I have continually over the past 15 years been a consistent business networker.

The result is that I now have a very large business network with many connections. This has helped me grow my business

Who helped you?

The FSB has helped – they have a great invoice debt recovery service that helped me chase up some unpaid invoices in the past. My BNI colleagues have always been there for me too.

Wicus van Biljon from Business Doctors has really helped me by pushing me in the right business direction – I now have an even better business offering.

Aerial shot of Elie Harbour. Image: Thomas Haywood Aerial Photography

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever had?

Be honest, up front and transparent in what you do. If you try and hide anything from the client it may come and bite you in the back later on.

Use social media consistently to help build your brand. It won’t be easy to keep producing great original content once a day, five days a week but it will give you the recognition.

What is your biggest mistake?

Learning how to fly drones was not easy in the early days when we were expected to fly them manually. They were far less technologically advanced in those days!

I had large £6,000 drones crash on me on separate occasions – a very expensive mistake.

What is your greatest achievement?

I filmed basking sharks for the BBC show off the Isle of Coll in the Hebrides.

We had to launch and catch the drone off a boat bouncing in the waves.

Forth Bridges enters a fog bank. Image: Thomas Haywood Aerial Photography

How are you managing rapidly rising costs, and how could the government help?

I work from home to minimise business costs – I feel government does not really help very small businesses very well. In my field the technology is changing so fast that keeping up with the required investment in new drones at times can be draining so more help needed from them.

What do you still hope to achieve?

I want to get more into TV documentaries with my drone work. I recently gained my CSCS certification which will allow me to work on construction sites. I want to document more longer term construction projects and to show the change over time.

What do you do to relax?

I love to go road cycling – it clears my head and makes me more relaxed. In the summer I am also a baseball umpire and I have represented my country since 2006. I have umpired more than 1,000 games in over 25 countries. I love to cook too.