Creating Your App Idea – The Facts
So you’ve come up with a great idea for an app, you’ve given it some thought and you’ve decided it’s time to make that dream become a reality. So now the question is; “What do you need to know?”
The first thing to do, before you do anything else is decide how your app is going to make MONEY. The reasons for this are simple, but often forgotten. Firstly, apps are not cheap to build, especially those with clever code in them and great new ideas being brought to life – the more complex, the more expensive – so if you want to ever make your money back, you need to have some idea as to how you’re going to monetise your idea.
Second, if your idea is that good you might be able to get investors to put money into it – but what to all investors have in common? They want to see a RETURN on their investment, so you’ll need to be able to show them how that might happen – otherwise you’re seeing very little chance of investment coming in!
After you’ve done this – and make sure you do this before you go any further – there are some other things to consider.
Is there someone else out there doing it already?
This might sound like a silly question, but believe it or not, we’ve had plenty of people come to us with a “great new app idea” only to find out that it’s already been done. So for your own sake do the research, dig around, find out what your competition is like. When you do find some competitors, (and you will, we promise) identify what makes your idea different enough to compete.
Know this, know it well and be sure that you aren’t blinded by your own mind telling you what a great idea you’ve just had – assess it with some pragmatism and clearly identify what stands you out above your competitors. Do you plan on charging more than your competitor? If so, how can you justify that cost? Make sure you know what about your app will encourage users to flock to it and abandon your competition in favour of yours!
What is your budget?
Another important consideration, apps are not as simple as websites. If you want your app to be available to Apple, Android and Windows customers then guess what – you’ve got to pay to develop it on 3 separate platforms – so you’ll be paying extra for that. Apps are not cheap, they’re more complex than websites, if your app involves things such as games, video editing, image manipulation, uploads/downloads etc then that makes it more expensive.
Remember just because the Facebook app on your phone does it and that’s free that doesn’t mean it’s cheap to make it do it. Facebook are a multi-billion dollar company with hundreds of millions to throw at development costs, so although – yes, that thing you’ve seen on another app can be done – it isn’t necessarily cheap. Or easy.
What is your marketing plan and marketing budget?
Another often forgotten point – just because you’ve paid to have your app built, that doesn’t mean you can just release it into the marketplace and suddenly everyone and their dog will start downloading it and Tweeting all their friends about it. It can take a lot of time, money and effort to get an app to market, no matter how clever it is. Snapchat took $140 million to make it to where it was, before Google and Facebook started rocking up with massive bids to buy it out.
So make sure that after you’ve paid for the app to be developed, a brand created, a website created and social media accounts created, you’ve also got the budget to pay for marketing and the time to act on that marketing – do you have someone to run your social media, your blog and your website? Or do you have the budget to pay someone to do this for you?
Who are you targeting with your app? Who will be downloading it, using it and telling all their friends about it? And how will they put money into it so the idea can make money? It isn’t a case of “build it and they will come” – nowadays it is a case of “build it and smash people in the face with it until they use you or hate you” the unfortunate reality of modern marketing.
