“I have a new app idea but I can’t talk about it for fear that it will be stolen.”
An idea is the first and perhaps the easiest step on the long road of creating a successful business. If you are hesitating about proposing an idea and discussing it, you may want to think that again because in this case, your path of implementation may be really difficult.
Well, ok, I am not saying that you should reveal every detail of what you are intending to build to anyone you meet, but exposing the big picture of your idea to people from the group that you are targeting it may make you rethink, or gain more confidence in the implementation, and sometimes it may make you discover new problems that you could solve through the application you are seeking to develop.
Here are some questions you should consider when you want to start developing your idea:
1. How do I verify that an idea is valid?
Search for similar apps.
Look for similar ideas and applications. If any, record what these applications did in the early stages of emergence to succeed or even to fail.
In many cases, you will take lessons and important information from companies that failed to implement an idea similar to yours. Try to avoid repeating these mistakes!
No similar apps?
If you don’t find a similar idea, look for the reasons. In many cases, there may be a legal obstacle.
If you don’t find a legal obstacle, start questioning if there is a demand for a similar application and if the problem that you are addressing in your application does not have better solutions.
Found a similar idea but in other (market) countries?
This is excellent, this means that you can check the validity of the idea in other markets. Search for the application and how successful it is in this country.
Try to find the differences between the target users in this country and the country in which you want to create the application.
2. How do I check the cost of the app?
You want to know the amount of investment needed to start. Remember that the cost of the application is not only in its development. In many cases, the marketing budget is much larger than the development/programming budget.
Are you a programmer or informatics engineer?
This will save you a lot of money, but you will invest a lot of your time in creating and developing the application and learning the necessary skills for that.
Not a programmer, but want to know an average app pricing?
(Common question: “How much do you charge me for a mobile app?”)
There is no average price for applications. The answer to this question depends on the complexity of the application that you want to develop, your intention to apply it professionally and with whom you want to develop it (example: an independent programmer, a start-up company in India, a global company, or a professional …)
As an entrepreneur, you can start by creating a prototype for this application, display it to the target group of users and take their feedback. Then you can decide what features you should add in the first version of the application and what features you can postpone to future versions.
In order to implement the model, you can talk to a designer without having to pay huge amounts of money for development and programming.
What is a prototype? In a later article, we’ll talk about how to create an app idea template.
Did you get good feedback on the prototype?
Now you can look for developers or a developer. Remember that for a mobile app you should have a web app version (often) , an Android version, and an iPhone version.
To save money in the beginning, look for a programming company/programmer who can develop applications using hybrid programming languages (hybrid mobile app frameworks). We’ll talk about this in a later article.
Focus on developing the essential features and having a product in its prime.
Create a “Minimum Valuable Product (MVP)” plan for developing your project.
3. How do I earn money from the app?
Think about a business model for the application you want to create. How can you get money from this application: Will you take a commission or a monthly subscription, for example?
If your idea is based only on ads, you must take into account that ads will not bring you profits unless you have a very large number of users and this matter may take many years.
Now you have the toughest task in the way of emerging projects: how to market an app.
Remember, you can have a great idea for an amazing app, but if no one has heard of it, it’s like a hidden goldmine.
I wish you success in implementing your idea. If you have questions please feel free to leave a comment in the section box below.
And if you want us to help you turn your idea into reality, please feel free to contact us for a discovery workshop.
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