Please, introduce yourself and your business.
My Name is Toni Zeravica and I am the founder of a geospatial and geophysical service provider: TerraVia Aerial Services LTD (a drone surveying company).
How did you start your business?
Through passion. What was once a hobby turned into a profitable business. After university I started to realize that drones can do a lot more than just be toys.
How much revenue was your best year?
2024 is looking to be the best year since the company was founded. We are projected to generate USD 100,000 or more revenue this year. Every year since founding has been the best year. We are slowly but surely growing.
When did you notice traction when building your business? The “Oh S**t!” moment, what did that feel like?
2023 is when traction really started picking up. We were inundated with requests and the "Oh S**t" moment was when clients in the same industries started competing for our services.
What was your childhood like? Were you slinging candy on the playground?
It was good. I was a naughty kid at school and couldn't keep my mouth shut. Yes I was. I used to repair peoples electronics which I could not afford myself so I could learn. The criteria was I would return the device in the same state or better and almost always returned it 100% repaired. I used to jailbreak iPhones and PSPs for people in high school. I did all this for free with the aim to learn.
What has been your best marketing marketing channel?
We don't really market but really should. All work has been through happy clients referring us to other clients. Purely word of mouth marketing.
How many attempts at building something did you make before you found what you’re working on now? Did you always have an entrepreneurial drive?
I've had many ideas but no revenue to start. Many ideas I believe would have been really successful if I had the revenue and nailed the execution.
I have prepared multiple business plans and all required costing for my ideas but could never execute due to revenue (broke uni student). I had 1 attempt at the same industry before. It was with a business partner for whom I single handedly built an entire company and reputation for. That did not end well due to differing principals and ethics so I gave away my shares and left the company. I wanted no association with it.
What is your biggest overhead expense?
New drones, sensors and software. We are constantly expanding our capabilities and learning new skills.
What’s the most important skill you’ve learned?
Quality and ethics will get you further for longer than smoke and shadows.
What do you spend the majority of your time doing, in a given week?
Learning new skills and techniques to make my work more efficient. Keeping up with requests for the business. Preparing proposals for prospective projects. Making sure all paperwork and certification is up to date. Tending to the drone fleet we have and making sure everything is in perfect condition.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when first starting your business?
Put your head down, ignore all naysayers and do the work. The road to success is not a short one. It is long and treacherous.
What’s a big problem you’ve faced as a business owner and what were the emotions behind it?
Government related issues such as randomly changing taxes/customs on import items. Attaining the licensing and certifications to legally use drones for commercial purposes. Not having revenue and having to take out loans to acquire better equipment and software.
What is your best advice for someone who feels completely stuck?
You are not the boss of your own business. The business is the boss of you.
Don't start a business with the goal of becoming rich. Start a business with the goal of fixing a problem. Identify problems in your region/country and fix the problem. The solution you provide, if executed with ethics and quality will provide for success in the future. It takes a long time to build a reputation but only 1 instance to destroy it all.
Check out Toni and all the great thing he does, here:
