HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF BUYERS ARE LOOKING FOR YOUR GREAT APP

Have a hot idea for mobile device app software? The number of ready buyers is rapidly growing. They use popular smart phones, tablets and products like:

Devices such as these have quickly found a massive, ever-expanding market for good (and not-so-good) app offerings. Carving out even a fraction of that market can yield enormous profit.

Current Mobile App Market Revenues & Future App Sales Projections

If the annual app revenue projections (column 2) pan out as shown, total app revenues should surpass approx. $100 BILLION in 2018 (some predict they will get there a bit sooner). Who wouldn’t want a small slice of all those revenues? For example (as illustrated in column 4 above) If you could create an app(s) that wins 1/100th of 1% of those 2018 projected revenues, you make more than $10 million in that year alone! If you build that app(s) to launch in 2012 and make 1/100th of 1% of the above projected revenues through 2018, your tally for 2012-2018 revenues could add up to $39 million (as shown in the bottom row).

Not sure you can develop one or more apps to capture 1/100th share of total app revenues? How about cutting the goal in half by aiming for a smaller 0.005% share as illustrated in column 5? Using the revenue projections for 2018, a 0.005% share of the projected total would yield $5 million on 2018 revenues or an accumulated $19.5 million between 2012 and 2018.

Still not sure you can develop one or more apps that can capture 0.005% of total revenues? Column 6 illustrates aiming for a tiny slice at only 0.001% share (that's 1/1000th of 1%) of the estimated revenues. Even with such a low target, 2018 could be a million dollar year for your business and 2012 to 2018 could deliver accumulated sales of $3.9 million. That would be like making better than a $500K-per-year salary while selling only 0.001% of the total app revenues projected through 2018. Only 1/1000th of 1%!

Don't take the "your cut" columns to mean you can't go for better than the share estimates shown in the table. While column 3 at 1/2 of 1% share illustrates how to become an app entrepreneur billionaire (yes, that's billionaire with a "B"), some app development companies are aiming even higher with share targets of 1%-5% or more. We don't even show those much bigger numbers in the table but larger shares would yield much greater revenues than what we do show. For example, 1% would simply double the numbers illustrated in column 3... 2% would quadruple them.

Given the amount of money involved, you should aim as high as possible too... even monetize your app idea(s) within your own business. We can help you build a great company from scratch or evolve an existing business toward (also) capitalizing on the app market gold rush. If you strive for 2% but end up with only 1% you'll just have to try to get by best you can on those billions. As a frame of reference, in 2011 Forbes estimated HDNet, 2929 Entertainment & Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's worth at $2.5 billion and he seems to be doing OK. Want to buy your own national sports team, media company and/or television network?

If you are an innovator with a good app idea(s), you’ve already accomplished what many consider the most important part of the process. If you are now looking for “the rest,” we’re your team. The rest is all about turning your good idea into a finished product and taking it to market most effectively. We believe the very best way to proceed beyond your innovation brainstorm can be summarized in 3 key needs:

Of course not! These are all experts that you temporarily hire to lend their expertise to your wants or needs.

Exceptional programming talent can be contracted just like an electrician, mechanic or Doctor. In most cases, it is shrewd to tap into specialists already skilled at the task as opposed trying to do it yourself... even if you have some ability. They’ll likely get it done much quicker and at a much higher level of quality than you’ll be able to achieve on your own. Besides, while you’re busy trying to figure out how to code your app in Objective C and/or Java and/or HTML5 + Javascript, etc, someone else may beat you to market. There are many ROI advantages in agility. A good team will outperform any individual. BI has very capable programming teams in our cream-of-the-crop network. We can match your concept to the person or team most suitable for turning your idea into a quality, usable app... FAST!

Before you engage programmers, there’s a very smart thing you should do first. By far the best way to minimize the cost of programming is to minimize the time they need to understand exactly what you want the app to do, exactly how you want it to work, exactly how you want it to look, etc. To revisit our home-building analogy, if you want to build a new home do you just call in the carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc, and start building? No, the first step is to develop detailed plans for the home you want them to build. An architect helps you fully conceptualize your new home in nitty-gritty detail before the first brick is laid... before you have to start paying the skilled labor to do the building work. An app architect consultant like BI can help you completely map out your software application before the first line of code is written.

This specification stage is all about app architecture: developing an exceedingly clear picture of how the app should work, look & function before we engage the programmers. We can work with you to turn your ideas about the app into much more tangible plans, documenting the details so that when the programmers are contracted, they’ll have a very clear picture of exactly what you want them to do. If you were making a movie, this would be the detailed story boarding part... the final creative stage before the big budget must start being spent on actually making the film. We can’t overstate the importance of app architecture. We use many of these same, proven concepts in how we develop award-winning websites. Why? Because it is the best way to develop any kind of software.

The alternative approach is the more common, fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants app development model, which is much more like asking the skilled labor to build your dream home without any architectural plans. That model involves a ton of question & answer as the programmers try to draw out of you what you want them to do, often followed by them doing some coding then seeking input. In an unplanned dev project, you will certainly make many change requests when they guess wrong. And they’ll guess wrong often because you have them working without a plan. The changes you will want delete code you’ve paid for and replace it with new code… often over and over again. Another review, more changes, more deletions, more expense. The seat-of-the-pants model is NOT a smart way to develop an app even if you have money to burn. Don't do it that way.

Besides saving (relatively expensive) programmer time, a great written specification document also helps you think it all through, fleshing out the loosely-defined concept in your head into a detailed app description. Most importantly, a complete specification facilitates the opportunity to solicit fixed project bids for the coding work. In other words, instead of falling into the (almost always more expensive) trap of an open-ended hourly project, a fixed bid gets you a total FLAT FEE bid(s) to develop the app in full.

Beware the hourly gigs. Engaging contractors on an hourly basis creates a tangible, financial incentive for the project to take as many hours as they think they can bill. It’s not about how quickly they get your dev project done, it’s how long they can stretch it out. Each added hour of billings is more money for them. And remember, the biggest lure of programming by the hour conceals a hidden hook: once you get into a coding project, you somewhat get married to the developer. If it doesn’t go well and you want to fire them, their replacement often wants to throw out “all that bad code that (former) team created and start over.” For these reasons, we generally subscribe to the idea that fixed project cost development is the ONLY way to go.

In our approach, we help you fully spec out your app so that programmers are actually willing to offer fixed project bids. They will still (generally) arrive at their bid by estimating their timeline in hourly terms. From their perspective, a richly-detailed project specification gives them something they rarely see from app entrepreneurs: a specific development target ready to be locked down. This is key to their ability to estimate exactly how many hours they'll need to turn the description into a functional, polished app. With assurances from you/us that that the project won't become a much more common moving target (so prevalent in the fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants model where the details of the app are being made up and/or changed on the fly), they can confidently nail down a fixed project fee bid.

If some of the bidders have questions, we work with you and/or them to clarify any areas within the spec from which those questions arose and then share the added detail with the other bidders too. The end goal is to end up with a selection of bids from quality developers that reflect the right balance of sufficient compensation to fully accomplish your objective. Then, you (or we) can choose the right team from the various bids and put them to work. We can also manage their work as part of a BI engagement.

Along with helping you map out the look & feel and functionality of your app, we also leverage our expertise in marketing, recurring revenue models, business, etc, to help you think about the future of your app with special emphasis on the many ways it can help you make money beyond the initial sale. This is vitally important for maximizing what is known as lifetime value. Such concepts can be added later but most of the business-related ones are best to weave in right up front.

2. Contracting the Right App Programmers For Your Job

With a complete specification describing the nitty-gritty details of the app, we should be able to get a good number of fixed project fee bids for the coding part of your project. Here’s some of what goes into helping you select the best programming team for your job:

• Invest the time to find the right developers from a sea of wrong developers. Look at examples of their work. Talk to references about the experience of working with them. If they’ve developed apps for others, be sure to take notice of app reviews in which the developer’s own contributions to the app- often the programming, but sometimes the design work too- are poorly received.
• Ask those that become finalists for your project about their current project load. They’ll always claim they have capacity but you want to insure that they really do. Remember what we shared earlier about the importance of agility.
• Ask them for a realistic timeline to completely finish your app as architected in the spec document. Insure they are held to this quote. Consider linking a small bonus to that schedule AFTER they offer it.
• Ask when they can start your project. Don't assume the answer is always immediately.
• Get their coding warranty and/or method of fixing bugs in their programming after your app is live. There's always some bugs to squash; you'll need some rapid turnaround programming support to minimize bug-driven complaints in customer reviews. Sales momentum gets hurt by long lags in resolving bugs. Again, you need agility.
• 2 universal truths: 1) all programmers are not created equal and 2) the programmers who offer the cheapest quote are not automatically the best quote. It’s not solely about lowest price, it’s about completely getting what you want out of the job. The low-ball programmers are quoting low for a reason, which is unlikely to be remarkable generosity on their part. When we gather multiple contractor quotes for clients, we usually dismiss the outliers- the crazy low and crazy high quotes- then make our recommendations from those that remain. The cluster of quotes in the middle are much more likely to deliver the app as described in your specification. Low-ballers will quit on you, deliver substandard work and/or come back seeking additional money after you are somewhat locked in with them.

There are various pros & cons in the debate of domestic programmers vs. offshore programmers. We have found that the latter sometimes comes with some communication and other hurdles that can offset the perceived savings. For example, if you have to spend double or triple the time communicating what you want with an offshore team, their total billings can end up higher than going with a native team. Again, see that final bullet in the above list. Choose wisely (or get our expert recommendation).

After the engagement is underway, it’s important to be patient. Rushing programmers yields stress on both ends and/or shoddy shortcuts. We always collaboratively build specific development milestones with the programmers as part of their engagement. Attaching project development fee payments to milestone accomplishments is an excellent way to keep your project on schedule. Never prepay for the whole project.

Lastly, money talks in this space. Everybody wants non-sales talent like programmers to work for only a share of future revenue but talent- if it is good- has plenty of other employers demanding their services too. Some will be willing to pay for that talent with cash now. Popular concepts like joint ventures, alliances, partnering, etc, all sound great to the risk-averse entrepreneur who wants lots of work done for them solely for "future potential" but all such concepts usually involve asking very skilled professionals to work for free today in hopes of some big payout tomorrow. When this kind of talent looks at their compensation options of future potential vs. hard cash today, the latter tends to heavily dominate their priorities.

Of course you would like to get your app developed with zero out-of-pocket risk. Who wouldn't? The problem is that there are a ton of competing entrepreneurs who have the exact same wish. They too have the greatest app concept ever conceived and once it's launched it will probably make them into the next Electronic Arts on its own (too). You can try to win programmer commitment that way but you'll do much better by realizing that entrepreneurs who grow great successes out of ideas usually do so because they take tangible risks. If you want your project prioritized, showing the programmers the money wins their focus over the countless other would-be app entrepreneurs in search of some form of sweat equity. It's very smart to move toward the front of the line.

And don’t take a lack of enthusiasm or interest in your offers of some form of commission, stock or stock options as an expert vote against the potential ROI in your app. You just have to put yourself in their shoes. How often do YOU choose to put in a lot of professional work for free in hopes of getting paid in some unknown amount of compensation at some ambiguous future point in time? Good programming talent doesn’t need to take on 100% of the risk for only some small share of future reward. They’ve got 10 more app entrepreneurs calling them every day with "this is the next Angry Birds" programming projects. Some of those people believe in their concept enough to spend some cash on realizing their dreams. If you have a good idea, you should too.