Post How Much Will Your App Cost?

Firstly, take some time to consider what you’re looking to achieve.

If it’s about improving processes, how much will the efficiencies save you in other areas? Or how much more time will your people have to add value in other ways?

Think about the potential ‘knock-on’ impact of capturing information and data that’s likely to have a value in helping you better understand what’s valuable to your business, make improvements and underpin future decisions.

If the app is designed to add value to your customers by improving their experience, do you genuinely know what they will use and what the impact will be. You’ll certainly have an indication of engagement after you’ve built the app but by then you’ll have blown the budget, so how can you validate that what you need to spend is worth it?

If you’re going to charge people to use your app then it’s even more important to understand what customers will value, what the alternatives are and whether the app will meet or better still exceed their expectations.

It’s also worth considering how much you’ll need to spend to reach potential customers and convert interest into sales. It could be significantly more than the costs associated with app development.

Something else to consider is how much functionality you actually need to build into the app to get up and running.

There’s nothing wrong with setting out a vision for your app, full of amazing functionality, complex integrations and automation. The question you need to ask is whether they’re all essential from the outset or could you get away with an MVP? Our expectations are set by the popular apps we use on a daily basis but it’s easy to forget that these have evolved massively over the years.

If you manage expectation, deliver a great user experience, create immediate impact and encourage feedback, then you’re likely to keep control of your costs, build a significantly better app (by better, we mean fit for purpose) and see far greater, and hopefully growing, returns on what you should undoubtedly view as an investment.

You might just be shocked at what you can achieve.