How to Start a Virtual Tour Business

Virtual tours are popular with many industries, including the hospitality and real estate industries. You will be using photo, video, and other multimedia elements in order to bring a space to life for people before they visit the physical space. While you may eventually create virtual tours of almost any space, some of the main areas you will virtually recreate are apartments, houses, hotels, resorts, and neighborhoods.

You may also be interested in additional online business ideas.

Ready to turn your business idea into a reality? Tailor Brands is our top recommendation because it guides you through every step of the formation process with hands-on support — from paperwork and compliance to devising a detailed plan to help you achieve your business goals.

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Start a virtual tour business by following these 10 steps:

  1. Plan your Virtual Tour Business
  2. Form your Virtual Tour Business into a Legal Entity
  3. Register your Virtual Tour Business for Taxes
  4. Open a Business Bank Account & Credit Card
  5. Set up Accounting for your Virtual Tour Business
  6. Get the Necessary Permits & Licenses for your Virtual Tour Business
  7. Get Virtual Tour Business Insurance
  8. Define your Virtual Tour Business Brand
  9. Create your Virtual Tour Business Website
  10. Set up your Business Phone System

We have put together this simple guide to starting your virtual tour business. These steps will ensure that your new business is well planned out, registered properly and legally compliant.

Exploring your options? Check out other small business ideas.

STEP 1: Plan your business

A clear plan is essential for success as an entrepreneur. It will help you map out the specifics of your business and discover some unknowns. A few important topics to consider are:

Luckily we have done a lot of this research for you.

What will you name your business?

Choosing the right name is important and challenging. If you don’t already have a name in mind, visit our How to Name a Business guide or get help brainstorming a name with our Virtual Tour Business Name Generator

If you operate a sole proprietorship, you might want to operate under a business name other than your own name. Visit our DBA guide to learn more.

When registering a business name, we recommend researching your business name by checking:

  • Your state’s business records
  • Federal and state trademark records
  • Social media platforms
  • Web domain availability

It’s very important to secure your domain name before someone else does.

What are the costs involved in opening a virtual tour business?

The costs of opening a virtual tour business depends on the amount and type of equipment you buy as well as whether you work from home or not. For instance, it is possible to start a home-based virtual tour business for $4,000 or less. This includes spending approximately $500 on a DSLR camera, $250 on a fisheye lens, $400 on a panohead, and $50 on a tripod. In terms of software, you will need to spend approximately $400 on Panoweaver Professional Edition and $900 on Tourweaver Professional Edition. The rest of that budget assumes spending approximately $500 on a professional website and $1,000 on some traditional advertisements in things like newspapers and radio, though much of your advertising will be done via your website as well as your social media presence which you can establish at no extra cost.

The cost of this business can go up if you want to offer different services that require different cameras. For instance, a professional camera that can create 4K, 360-degree video will likely be $1,000 or more, and software to edit these videos (such as Autopano) may cost up to $250.

What are the ongoing expenses for a virtual tour business?

One of the best aspects of this job is that if you work from home, you have virtually no ongoing expenses. Shooting everything digitally means that there is not an equipment cost after initial investment (until you decide to replace equipment entirely), and working from home means you do not have additional overhead, utilities, and so on to worry about. Functionally, then, you are merely paying for gas that you require to travel from place to place, and the charges to host your professional website (which should be less than $80 a year). You may also choose to advertise via traditional media from time to time, but as mentioned earlier, much of your advertising presence will be online.

Who is the target market?

As mentioned earlier, your best clients will be those from the hospitality and real estate industries. This is because they will both have numerous rooms and properties for you to create virtual tours from, all of which adds up to a bigger payday for you.

How does a virtual tour business make money?

A virtual tour business makes money by charging clients to shoot, edit, and deliver photos and/or video to create a virtual tour of a physical space. The exact amount you charge typically varies based on the requested media format, the venue, and any additional add-ons that customers may purchase.

How much can you charge customers?

Your pricing may vary based on different packages, bundled services, and so on. Typically, though, a photo-based virtual tour of a home or hotel room would be between $200 and $250 dollars, while a video-based virtual tour would be between $1000 and $1200. You may charge more for specialty services or requests (such as shooting at night, aerial photography, and so on), and you may experiment with pricing models where you charge businesses a monthly fee, such as $50 a month for a fixed number of months to produce and edit an unlimited number of listings for this business.

How much profit can a virtual tour business make?

The exact amount of profit that you can make from this business obviously depends greatly on how many clients you have and the amount of work that they provide. For instance, if you specialize in video tours and do hundred jobs in a year, this job could provide a six-figure income. Realistically, your profits will be lower when you are starting out, but the aforementioned lack of true overhead means that most of every dollar translates directly to profit.

How can you make your business more profitable?

One path to increased profitability is to offer different tiers of services at different prices. This lets customers feel like they are getting a deal while also giving you a chance to upsell them on better packages. Also, try to branch out—while hospitality and real estate are your primary industries that need virtual tours, you may find that corporations, school systems, and various city offices would also be interested in your services. Finally, make sure your social media presence constantly has a stream of new media highlighting your services, your previous work, and so on; this connects you to the community, which makes it that much likelier that the community will want your services.

Want a more guided approach? Access TRUiC’s free Small Business Startup Guide – a step-by-step course for turning your business idea into reality. Get started today!

STEP 2: Form a legal entity

One crucial aspect that cannot be overlooked when starting your virtual tour business is the importance of establishing a solid business foundation. While sole proprietorships and partnerships are the most common entity types for small businesses, they’re a far less stable and advantageous option than LLCs.

This is because unincorporated business structures (i.e., sole proprietorships and partnerships) expose you as an owner to personal liability for your business’s debts and legal actions, while LLCs protect you by keeping your personal assets separate from your business’s liabilities.

In practice, this means that if your virtual tour business were to face a lawsuit or incur any debts, your savings, home, and other personal assets could not be used to cover these costs. On top of this, forming your business as an LLC also helps it to appear more legitimate and trustworthy.

Ready to Turn Your Business Idea Into a Reality?

Tailor Brands is our top recommendation because it guides you through every step of the formation process with hands-on support — from paperwork and compliance to devising a detailed plan to help you achieve your business goals.

FORM YOUR LLC

Note: If you’re interested in more information before getting started, we recommend having a look at our state-specific How to Start an LLC guide (DIY) or our in-depth Best LLC Services review (for those opting for a professional service).

STEP 3: Register for taxes

You will need to register for a variety of state and federal taxes before you can open for business.

In order to register for taxes you will need to apply for an EIN. It’s really easy and free!

You can acquire your EIN through the IRS website. If you would like to learn more about EINs, read our article, What is an EIN?

There are specific state taxes that might apply to your business. Learn more about state sales tax and franchise taxes in our state sales tax guides.

STEP 4: Open a business bank account & credit card

Using dedicated business banking and credit accounts is essential for personal asset protection.

When your personal and business accounts are mixed, your personal assets (your home, car, and other valuables) are at risk in the event your business is sued. In business law, this is referred to as piercing your corporate veil.

Open a business bank account

Besides being a requirement when applying for business loans, opening a business bank account:

  • Separates your personal assets from your company’s assets, which is necessary for personal asset protection.
  • Makes accounting and tax filing easier.

Recommended: Read our Best Banks for Small Business review to find the best national bank or credit union.

Get a business credit card

Getting a business credit card helps you:

Recommended: Apply for an easy approval business credit card from BILL and build your business credit quickly.

STEP 5: Set up business accounting

Recording your various expenses and sources of income is critical to understanding the financial performance of your business. Keeping accurate and detailed accounts also greatly simplifies your annual tax filing.

Make LLC accounting easy with our LLC Expenses Cheat Sheet.

STEP 6: Obtain necessary permits and licenses

Failure to acquire necessary permits and licenses can result in hefty fines, or even cause your business to be shut down.

State & Local Business Licensing Requirements

Certain state permits and licenses may be needed to operate a boutique tour business. Learn more about licensing requirements in your state by visiting SBA’s reference to state licenses and permits.

In addition, certain local licensing or regulatory requirements may apply. For more information about local licenses and permits:

Most businesses are required to collect sales tax on the goods or services they provide. To learn more about how sales tax will affect your business, read our article, Sales Tax for Small Businesses.

Service Agreement

Virtual tour businesses should consider requiring clients to sign a service agreement before starting a new project. This agreement should clarify client expectations and minimize risk of legal disputes by setting out payment terms and conditions, service level expectations, and intellectual property ownership. Here is an example service agreement.

Recommended: Rocket Lawyer makes it easy to create a professional service agreement for your virtual tour business when you sign up for their premium membership. For $39.95 per month, members receive access to hundreds of legal agreements and on call attorneys to get complimentary legal advice.

STEP 7: Get business insurance

Just as with licenses and permits, your business needs insurance in order to operate safely and lawfully. Business Insurance protects your company’s financial wellbeing in the event of a covered loss.

There are several types of insurance policies created for different types of businesses with different risks. If you’re unsure of the types of risks that your business may face, begin with General Liability Insurance. This is the most common coverage that small businesses need, so it’s a great place to start for your business.

Another notable insurance policy that many businesses need is Workers’ Compensation Insurance. If your business will have employees, it’s a good chance that your state will require you to carry Workers’ Compensation Coverage.

Find out what types of insurance your Virtual Tour Business needs and how much it will cost you by reading our guide Business Insurance for Virtual Tour Business.

STEP 8: Define your brand

Your brand is what your company stands for, as well as how your business is perceived by the public. A strong brand will help your business stand out from competitors.

If you already have a logo, you can also add it to a QR code with our Free QR Code Generator. Choose from 13 QR code types to create a code for your business cards and publications, or to help spread awareness for your new website.

How to promote & market a virtual tour business

As mentioned above, the best advertisement you can do is to showcase some of your best virtual tours on your website and social media feeds. For local businesses, it doesn’t hurt to advertise in newspapers from time to time, and especially when your business first opens. Also, try to get in-person meetings with hotel managers and realtors whenever you can: the nature of your product is that you can quickly show prospective clients your results on a phone or a laptop, which is immensely helpful in pitching your products.

How to keep customers coming back

Attracting customers is often a matter of starting small and working your way up. For instance, you may start with smaller hotels and/or newer realtors in your area who are more willing than larger corporations or businesses to give something new a try. Once you have a proven track record of helping out these smaller businesses, it is easier to pitch yourself to larger clients. Retention should be a natural function of the product: once companies are able to chart increased profits and improved client perceptions to your virtual tours, they will be happy to continue using your tours to highlight new properties, renovations, and so on.

STEP 9: Create your business website

After defining your brand and creating your logo the next step is to create a website for your business.

While creating a website is an essential step, some may fear that it’s out of their reach because they don’t have any website-building experience. While this may have been a reasonable fear back in 2015, web technology has seen huge advancements in the past few years that makes the lives of small business owners much simpler.

Here are the main reasons why you shouldn’t delay building your website:

  • All legitimate businesses have websites – full stop. The size or industry of your business does not matter when it comes to getting your business online.
  • Social media accounts like Facebook pages or LinkedIn business profiles are not a replacement for a business website that you own.
  • Website builder tools like the GoDaddy Website Builder have made creating a basic website extremely simple. You don’t need to hire a web developer or designer to create a website that you can be proud of.

Recommended: Get started today using our recommended website builder or check out our review of the Best Website Builders.

Other popular website builders are: WordPressWIXWeeblySquarespace, and Shopify.

STEP 10: Set up your business phone system

Getting a phone set up for your business is one of the best ways to help keep your personal life and business life separate and private. That’s not the only benefit; it also helps you make your business more automated, gives your business legitimacy, and makes it easier for potential customers to find and contact you.

There are many services available to entrepreneurs who want to set up a business phone system. We’ve reviewed the top companies and rated them based on price, features, and ease of use. Check out our review of the Best Business Phone Systems 2024 to find the best phone service for your small business.

Recommended Business Phone Service: Phone.com

Phone.com is our top choice for small business phone numbers because of all the features it offers for small businesses and it’s fair pricing.

Is this Business Right For You?

This business is good for those with multimedia savvy, for it takes skill with photography, video recording, sound mixing, and multimedia editing to create a solid virtual tour. It is also good for those with extensive travel experience, as this lets you think like the consumers you are creating tours for.

Want to know if you are cut out to be an entrepreneur?

Take our Entrepreneurship Quiz to find out!

Entrepreneurship Quiz

What happens during a typical day at a virtual tour business?

In no particular order, your daily activities may include communicating with current clients as well as prospective clients. On busy days, you will be traveling to the areas that you must create virtual tours of and gather the necessary photos and video recordings as well as information about the space. Back at home or the office, you must edit this together into a virtual tour and send the finished product to the client, all while making any adjustments they require. When you are not doing these things, you may be working on advertising your services, investigating the competition, and staying current regarding new camera hardware and editing software.

What are some skills and experiences that will help you build a successful virtual tour business?

The most relevant skill to help you build this business is extensive practice with all of the software and hardware involved. For instance, if you are creating 360 degree videos for clients, having created and edited many of your own videos will help you understand the “do’s” and “don’ts” of this technology. Other skills include prior employment in some of the sectors that you will now service, such as real estate or hospitality, as this can help you with your initial networking.

What is the growth potential for a virtual tour business?

The growth potential for this industry is quite large. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not chart the virtual tour business specifically, Greenlight Insights reports that virtual reality as an industry will grow from a $7.17 billion industry in 2017 to a $75 billion industry by 2021. Virtual tours are a part of that, and as the public embraces the potential of VR, it means exciting new ways that they can check out your virtual tours.

Not sure if a virtual tour business is right for you? Try our free Business Idea Generator and find your perfect idea.

Take the Next Step

Find a business mentor

One of the greatest resources an entrepreneur can have is quality mentorship. As you start planning your business, connect with a free business resource near you to get the help you need.

Having a support network in place to turn to during tough times is a major factor of success for new business owners.

Learn from other business owners

Want to learn more about starting a business from entrepreneurs themselves? Visit Startup Savant’s startup founder series to gain entrepreneurial insights, lessons, and advice from founders themselves.

Resources to Help Women in Business

There are many resources out there specifically for women entrepreneurs. We’ve gathered necessary and useful information to help you succeed both professionally and personally:

  • Funding
  • Events
  • Guides
  • Support

If you’re a woman looking for some guidance in entrepreneurship, check out this great new series Women in Business created by the women of our partner Startup Savant.

What are some insider tips for jump starting a virtual tour business?

Make sure that your website and social media presence showcases some of the virtual tours you have already created. This is your single best advertisement, as clients can see how good this looks before agreeing to your services. Try to pitch your services in person when you can, and make sure you have research handy: for instance, testimonials from hotels and realtors about how virtual tours have improved their business are a great way to convince new clients you can do the same for them.

How and when to build a team

In order to maximize profit and minimize overhead, many virtual tour businesses remain one-person operations. It is also easy for an experienced person to do most of the shooting, recording, and editing on their own. However, if you are getting more requests than you can personally handle, you may need a partner or small team. Alternately, if you decide that your business has grown to the point that it needs a standing office, you will obviously need to hire a small staff (such as secretaries and assistants).

Useful Links

Industry Opportunities

Real World Examples

Further Reading