My app company

[silentownage001]

Ok guys, I've been making progress with my first app. I've just finished drawing the rough draft. I'm going to draw out a nicer and simpler draft and from there I should be good to go to form my company. I have a few other bits to finish up besides that. Some of the things I can go over with the developer when I find one. That should be sometime next month. I'm aiming to start work on it end of May beginning of June. So I feel that I'm ahead of my original schedule

I will update this thread occasionally.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[stlsmoore]

What kind of app is it, or rather what need does it solve? Just curious, I'm working on a Saas app at the moment.

 

[silentownage001]

It's an app for a sport. I'm not saying too much. Someone could get it to the market before me right now. All will be revealed

 

[HD_edacity]

Try to put as little as possible when you first make a draft, if you shove in all your bells and whistles from he get go the developer is gonna look at everything and spit out a huge quote. Once you get the ball rolling its easier to add bits here and there without as big of a price increase. Just something I picked up from Trey Smith.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[silentownage001]

Try to put as little as possible when you first make a draft, if you shove in all your bells and whistles from he get go the developer is gonna look at everything and spit out a huge quote. Once you get the ball rolling its easier to add bits here and there without as big of a price increase. Just something I picked up from Trey Smith.

Thanks for the tip. I've tried to keep it simple. There is one thing I'm iffy on so I might take it out then add it in later.

 

[Nick]

Once you get the ball rolling its easier to add bits here and there without as big of a price increase.

It's actually much more expensive to add "bits here and there" after the development has started as features added on top of the existing code requires much more work to be done in order to implement them, work that can be avoided if a competent developer sees the complete picture from the beginning and chooses the most optimum way to build your app.

It's better to find a competent developer and rely on his expertise to find for you the best way of developing your app from the beginning with the full picture in mind rather than using these marketing gimmicks of what makes sense for you, especially if you have no experience in this area. Cause then the developer is looking for the quickest way to meet your requirement with the minimum amount of effort instead of the best way (and that's something you are not able to notice), and in the competitive nature of App Store where a bug in the app leads to a one star rating and review screaming "this app is a scam, took my money and it's not working", that's something that you rarely can afford.

 

[silentownage001]

So really either cheap out or have it done right. I'll take the second option.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Mike39]

What type of a budget do you have put away for marketing, it doesn't matter how life changing your app is, I wouldn't develop an app without having $1,xxx-2,xxx saved MINIMUM just for your marketing.

It's not as simple as just releasing it to the app store and boom, your rich. In fact, most likely you will never see your money back so understand what you are getting yourself into before you do it.

If I were to go back to when I developed my first app, I would have taken the development money and instead launched a business with more control, higher margins, and a solid strategy. It can be in a similar field to apps, think software, web applications, etc.

 

[silentownage001]

I would have taken the development money and instead launched a business with more control, higher margins, and a solid strategy. It can be in a similar field to apps, think software, web applications, etc.

I've tried to come up with things like that but I've yet to come up with an idea.

 

[Mike39]

I've tried to come up with things like that but I've yet to come up with an idea.

Honestly ideas are a dime a dozen.

How to make money in 3 easy steps:

1. Ask people what their problems are

2. Solve them

3. Collect Payment

For an added twist:

4. Rinse and repeat

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[silentownage001]

Honestly ideas are a dime a dozen.

How to make money in 3 easy steps:

1. Ask people what their problems are

2. Solve them

3. Collect Payment

For an added twist:

4. Rinse and repeat

Aha that is very true.

 

[healthstatus]

Right now you should be building a list of people with the problem you are going to solve. You need a site with a small amount of content on the subject and an email capture with a promise to solve their problems if they sign up.

 

[Talisman]

It's not as simple as just releasing it to the app store and boom, your rich. In fact, most likely you will never see your money back so understand what you are getting yourself into before you do it.

If I were to go back to when I developed my first app, I would have taken the development money and instead launched a business with more control, higher margins, and a solid strategy. It can be in a similar field to apps, think software, web applications, etc.

I suggest every single person thinking of doing some random app really reads this, and considers it.

I don't want to be a downer, nor does Mike I'm sure, the reality is that writing a cracker game changing app is NOT what it was a few years ago where you could throw something half decent into the market after working on it by yourself for 2 months, and have a good chance of making it.

You need to provide incredible value to the market, to make a difference. If you're 110% sure that what you're thinking of is going to do this, then sure, go ahead, just make sure you go ahead with your eyes open, and the realisation that your app has to be something either so unique (but desired) or so special that it's going to stand above apps developed by teams, inside some now fairly large companies.

In short, I agree with Mike, that unless you believe you have a game changer in this way, you are better off investing your resources into a higher margin, better return environment. Otherwise you're just putting your hand into the lottery, and the ticket price is more than $9.95 (or whatever lottery tickets cost), and a lot of your time.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[healthstatus]

I suggest every single person thinking of doing some random app really reads this, and considers it.

In short, I agree with Mike, that unless you believe you have a game changer in this way, you are better off investing your resources into a higher margin, better return environment. Otherwise you're just putting your hand into the lottery, and the ticket price is more than $9.95 (or whatever lottery tickets cost), and a lot of your time.

Either with an app or a higher margin SaaS, software or whatever, if you don't have a process to get your product in front of a stream of visitors that need the product it is not going to work. And just putting it in the app store and hoping it gets featured is NOT a mechanism for getting traffic.

 

[Mike39]

Either with an app or a higher margin SaaS, software or whatever, if you don't have a process to get your product in front of a stream of visitors that need the product it is not going to work. And just putting it in the app store and hoping it gets featured is NOT a mechanism for getting traffic.

This^

When I did my app I seemed to think that the only way of profiting was to get my CPA under the cost of my 2.99 app looking back on it limited my abilities. If I were to re-approach it, I would really drive downloads and get some placement on the "billboards" of the virtual world (review websites, app stores featured section, news sites, etc.) and really, really market it well even if you take an initial loss. If you can get it into a top section on iTunes, even if it costs you 2, 5, maybe even 10k; your most likely going to make that back in spades. It's not even about how groundbreaking the app is, if you think about it, the games that make 2 million a day are just as fun as some guys game that only has 1,000 downloads, the difference is their marketing.

Anyways, that is just what I would do if I were to delve back into the app world (which I have no intention of doing again).

 

[silentownage001]

I would really drive downloads and get some placement on the "billboards" of the virtual world (review websites, app stores featured section, news sites, etc.) and really, really market it well even if you take an initial loss. If you can get it into a top section on iTunes, even if it costs you 2, 5, maybe even 10k; your most likely going to make that back in spades. It's not even about how groundbreaking the app is, if you think about it, the games that make 2 million a day are just as fun as some guys game that only has 1,000 downloads, the difference is their marketing.

I've finished the free marketing plan. I think I can definitely net some decent downloads from it. Now to work on the paid part. I think that if I can get a lot of downloads quickly and get it into the Noteworthy section then I can really get a lot of downloads.

Secondly, I'm sharing my idea now to see some reactions before I put anymore work into it.

It is a news app for football. It will have a bunch of different sources such as ESPN, CBS, etc, and all of the teams' news sections and twitter. It simply has everything in one convenient place that you can access. I got the idea from another app. While that app doesn't have many downloads, I believe about 35k, I don't know how well the guy marketed it. I've searched through the app store trying the most likely names it could be under and I could not find anything, yet.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Nick]

Either with an app or a higher margin SaaS, software or whatever, if you don't have a process to get your product in front of a stream of visitors that need the product it is not going to work. And just putting it in the app store and hoping it gets featured is NOT a mechanism for getting traffic.

This is so true.

No one creates a website today and expects it to get customers without a marketing plan. Any source of traffic (seo, social media, paid traffic, advertising, offline visitors, etc..) requires either money or time invested. People got that, you rarely see naive people thinking their website will hit it big without any additional marketing.

Somehow people think that creating an app is somewhat different, you just have to build it, and the traffic will come. It's not (or at least, not anymore). It's similar with creating a website, building the app is just the first step. Mobile is just a different platform, where you get a chance to hit it big some would say much easier than on the web. Because most of the apps that hit it big came from relatively unknown/independent studios compared to the web, where most of the websites that hit it big had Silicon Valley behind them (in terms of investments, VCs, acquisitions, etc..)

Mobile apps solve a VERY BIG PROBLEM: boredom, by providing entertainment. This is a huge problem, movies, games, etc.. are all billions dollar industries based on entertaining people not to get bored. And where do most people get bored? Waiting in line somewhere, on a bus, traveling, in an office, and most of the time, the smartphone is their only way of receiving any entertainment, which makes mobile so valuable: it reaches customers at a point where traditional gatekeepers used to solve this problem (movie studios, pc games studios, etc..) have not adapted yet.

There are also utilities apps that are profitable, but most of the success comes from entertainment apps. And whoever says that entertainment does not solve a real-world problem, is probably not aware of how expensive a habit that is for the human kind, and how much money can be made by solving even a small fraction of it.

 

[silentownage001]

I have finished drawing the final draft of my app

Over the next few weeks I will be forming the company and will be getting ready to outsource the work.

 

[silentownage001]

Ok I am getting ready to move on with my plan. But first I have some questions.

First, for the app description in the app store, how have you guys done this? Have you done it yourself or did you outsource it? If you outsourced it was it to a sort of PR person/company?

Secondly, for the graphics work and app itself, can anyone recommend any developers? I figure that it'd be good to get some first hand feedback on good developers and what to look for.

Thanks.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PopEmersen]

First, for the app description in the app store, how have you guys done this? Have you done it yourself or did you outsource it? If you outsourced it was it to a sort of PR person/company?

For our app, we did ours ourselves.

Secondly, for the graphics work and app itself, can anyone recommend any developers? I figure that it'd be good to get some first hand feedback on good developers and what to look for.

We did our ourselves too, my business partner is a graphic designer.

 

[silentownage001]

For our app, we did ours ourselves.

I'm going to give it a try for mine and see how it comes out.

Anyone have any recommendations for graphic designers and developers?

 

[silentownage001]

It's been a very long time since I've posted here, but I've posted the job on Elance and I have 50 proposals to go through. It is a little strange now because for so long I've read of other people who are carrying out their plans while I was forming it and then not working on it because of school (and laziness :embarrased . Now I am carrying out my plan going into my freshman year of college having thought of my idea near the end of my freshman year of high school.

Anyway while I have many proposals to go through I figured I'd ask here if anyone has a developer they would recommend.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kevin Peter]

It's an app for a sport. I'm not saying too much. Someone could get it to the market before me right now. All will be revealed

Looks like I have competition Welcome aboard son!

 

[Micah Huxford]

I'm going to give it a try for mine and see how it comes out.

Anyone have any recommendations for graphic designers and developers?

What have you been doing since May of 2013? I am looking at potentially trying to tap into the app world, but would love to hear your experience. It seemed from the above posts that you had most of the pieces in place to get it into development. Did you run into unexpected setbacks? If they were related to the app, what were they?

Thanks!

 

[silentownage001]

Looks like I have competition Welcome aboard son!

Thanks

What have you been doing since May of 2013? I am looking at potentially trying to tap into the app world, but would love to hear your experience. It seemed from the above posts that you had most of the pieces in place to get it into development. Did you run into unexpected setbacks? If they were related to the app, what were they?

Thanks!

No unexpected setbacks as far as the app goes. It was around the end of June I believe when I decided to change the company's name and it wasn't until the beginning of September when I finally got the paperwork back saying that it was all done. In that time I had the app description written. Then I began junior year and had SATs to prepare for and had to look for colleges. It was mostly homework and SATs though. I was able to work on the app last summer before senior year after getting my school work done and finishing my volunteer work. Then school started and I had less work overall than the year before, but for the first few months I was doing college applications. And of course, laziness and procrastination struck as there were plenty of times when I should have at least done a little work on it.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kevin Peter]

Have an innovative approach for the App marketing. Do not think on the same lines if something went viral. Always stay out of the box as you are now.

 

[silentownage001]

Figured I'd post an update. I have been talking to three developers and have received an estimate from one so far of $5-6k. He did offer a breakdown so I said sure as I continue to talk to the other two.

As another poster said earlier in this thread to think carefully about this because of how much more difficult it is to strike it rich in the app store than it used to be, I have thought about putting my project on hold for now. Part of the reason is that the quote of $5-6k is almost all my money leaving little to spend on marketing, but also future bug fixes and updates to ensure it runs on newer phones and versions of iOS. Not to mention that it will take longer to get that work done. Also while reading this thread https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/learning-to-program-is-stupid-or-smart.41319/ I feel that perhaps right now it would be better to hold on to my money. I leave for college in a few weeks so trying to have an app created and settle in for the first time might be too much. I can always come back to this in the future and going off of that thread it would definitely be better if I became more knowledgable first about coding because right now I know very little. And the last reason is that who knows who I'll meet in college. I think if I work hard, network, put myself out there, then I will find other opportunities whether it be finding a partner for an idea I have or partnering with someone on their idea.

 

[silentownage001]

5 years after coming up with my idea I finally got it released. Rereading my last post in this thread from just before I started college, I have met a number of people who have been helpful with advice and their experiences. If I hadn't met one of my friends I would have had a tougher time finding a developer and going through the process.

Blitz! News on the App Store
Blitz! News - Android Apps on Google Play

There's still a long way to go with all the ideas I have for it, but I figured I would update this thread and read this forum more regularly like I used to.

A note for Android users: from the few people that have downloaded it, the app doesn't open. If you use Android and download it please let me know if it works or not along with what device and version of Android you use. I'm collecting data to figure out what's going wrong.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[silentownage001]

Update: Took a while, but Android now opens. In addition, both versions have been updated and Live Scores displays more games going backwards and forwards. Now to go all out marketing, get users, feedback, and revenue.

 

[Frosting]

Logged into the forum after a long time today and stumbled on this thread
How's your app doing?