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Didn’t you catch our tweet from last week? We love giving advice. About our app, life hacks, life in general, you name it. This time we thought we would shed some light on our App-building experience and break it down into a few main points you might want to keep in mind. In today’s world, apps dominate, and you know you want to join the party too. All good projects start with good planning and organization, so read below for tips on how to get started.
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1. Identify your Goals
At the end of the day, what do you have to contribute to the app world that someone else hasn’t already covered? Repetition is redundant, so really think about what the purpose of your app is. Do you want to increase communication with your employees? Or perhaps to offer a loyalty program for your lovely customers? You want to figure this out before engaging in any work.
2. Choose Core Functionality
We can’t have everything, that’s the first thing you learn in any economics class. Remember opportunity cost? (eek, I know.) Well that’s the case with your business too. There’s always going to be a trade off between wants and needs of a company, so you need to figure out what you truly need for your company to operate properly as opposed to what would be nice to have (like that peanut dispenser … alright, who are we kidding, that’s a necessity).
3. Know your Market
Remember when I asked what you would contribute to the market? Perhaps someone else is doing it too, but having competitors is A-OK. You just want to be aware of what they are offering versus what you would be offering. This will help identify the functionality of the app. Be informed to be cool(er), you dig?
4. Choose your Platforms
Once you know your customer, you want to know how they are going to access and use your app. Is it from an iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Amazon or Blackberry? The swanky graph below gives you some (perhaps unsurprising) statistics from 2014 to keep in mind. Last, don’t forget that Android apps can be ported over to both Amazon and Blackberry phones!
5. Decide on Budget
Money makes the world go round, right? Yeah, same for your app. Your budget is going to be the primary determining factor for what you offer. $100K gives you the ability to build your own app while also dealing with overhead, something below that might not. Whatever your budget, it will dictate the future of the app, so be clear on this early on.
6. Apps help each other
I already said apps are dominating, and this counts for businesses too. Look into what apps will offer solutions for your company. Forgive a little self promotion here, but our app offers mobile solutions for small businesses to save money. We all have different purposes, but we all share the goal of making someone else’s life easier, so look out for little helpers out there!