How to start a mobile application development company. Business plan for mobile application development

You will learn:

• What mobile applications will be useful to your company's customers.
• Where to order development mobile application for your business.
• How to promote a mobile application for business.
• How to grow your business through internal mobile applications.

Does the average entrepreneur who has no idea about mobile marketing need business applications? Today, a significant number of people (more than one third) in the post-Soviet space are active users of modern digital gadgets: tablets, smartphones. There are even more such people in the West and Asian countries, and the mobile application market is developing at a tremendous pace.

All mobile applications used for business can be divided into two groups:

1. Programs that meet the internal needs of the company.
2. Applications that solve business problems: increase in sales, increasing loyalty, marketing goals, branding.

The most common internal applications are, for example, for business automation (restaurant and hotel business, shopping centers) or optimization and increase in the efficiency of collective activities:

• applications that allow you to share work documents;
• programs for implementation internal communication: messengers, trackers;
• mobile versions of corporate social networks;

The most common mobile applications for clients

1. Mobile loyalty program. Such applications are increasingly being used as a replacement for loyalty cards.
2. Applications to complement the company's online services: mobile showcases, online catalogues, shops; applications for purchasing tickets; online banking; trackers of goods delivery statuses.

The usual schemes that work on websites and in traditional online stores, unfortunately, are not applicable in mobile sphere. This is the main barrier to actively using apps for marketing, branding and increasing sales.

It is unlikely that a client will download a program to his phone with business card companies, when all this is easy and accessible in a mobile browser. This seriously complicates the work of many enterprises wishing to develop in the IT field.

When is it time to think about developing a mobile application for your business?

Of course, not every company necessarily needs mobile applications for business. However, some niche markets will benefit greatly from smartphone software in increasing customer loyalty to increase sales. These are areas such as:

• tourism (search for hotels, resorts, booking tickets, interactive maps);
• medicine (online appointment with a doctor, list of services and price list, calling a doctor at home);
• automobile business (rental, car wash, dealer networks);
• catering establishments: restaurants, cafes, etc. (promotions, menus, ordering delivery);
• beauty industry (appointment with specialists, interactive price list, information about services);
• delivery services and stores (product catalogs, ordering, price list);
• service sector;
• fitness (class schedule, prices, online registration, reviews);
• leisure (maps, online applications for tickets, rooms, tables, etc.).

Before ordering the development of a mobile business application, you should consider whether it will bring the benefits you expect. After all, such a program can either help the development of your business or not bring any results.

If you are sure that a mobile application will help increase sales, then you should carefully approach the search for a contractor. Answer the questions:

• Why exactly do you want to develop an application?
• Will the clients of your business be interested in it and will they use the application? For example, it is unlikely that mobile applications will work if the majority of consumers are pensioners.
• Will you be able to recoup the costs?

Just developing a mobile application for business is not enough. Its promotion plays an equally important role.

In other words, you will need to actively attract customers' attention. To do this, you need to plan costs.

It's not just the design and functionality of your app that matters. The quality of the product and service provided must also be at the same level. Pay attention to advertising, don’t let customers forget about the product, improve the application regularly.

It's no secret that many users are often annoyed by regular updates, because they complicate the work with the program. You should conduct a thorough analysis of whether your product specifically needs business application development.

5 cool apps for a creative leader

Read a review of five cool applications for creativity that will be useful to any manager in the article in the electronic magazine “General Director”.

Mobile application development as a tool for business development: advantages

Increased sales

Any business is created for the purpose of making a profit, and marketing tools also serve this purpose.

Mobile applications for business are aimed at increasing company sales by attracting and retaining the target audience. Built-in features such as a loyalty program or sending push notifications help in motivating customers to buy your products or services. In addition, they can notify you about discounts and promotions.

When leaving home, a person tries not to forget about his keys, phone and wallet. This way, the business ends up inside the customers' phones and stays in their pockets. The company's contact with customers occurs due to the fact that they use the mobile application. The scale is surprising. Never before in human history has advertising been so accessible.

Detachment from competitors

Many companies use a variety of means to advertise their business: flyers, radio spots, SMS newsletters, websites, social networks. If we look at the App Store and Google Play, we will most likely find no more than ten business applications in one city or entire region. Competition in this area is practically zero.

Let's say a resident of Voronezh wants to arrange pizza delivery to his home from his phone. Google helps him find a mobile application, which is automatically downloaded to his smartphone. Through a computer this does not happen as quickly (due to higher competition) as through a program on the phone. The Yandex company announced its readiness to set up advertising packages in Yandex. Direct" for mobile applications.

Business promotion using smartphone programs can occur not only through various marketing activities on the Internet.

To expand the number of its consumers, the company can give special bonuses for the fact that the client uses the application. Few people use such a tool, but people are very interested in bonuses and discounts. good attitude, everyone loves them. The vast majority of the population today has mobile devices. Using the application, promotions are launched, which helps to compete with other enterprises and increase loyalty of the target audience.

For example, to attract attention, a company gives a lifetime discount of 10% on its products or services to anyone who installs a mobile application. Another bonus could be a free cup of coffee in a cafe in exchange for demonstrating an application downloaded to a mobile device. In this case, all parties remain happy: in a cafe, the buyer is likely to order something in addition to his coffee, which will bring profit. In addition, the consumer will be grateful for the gift, and the company will have one more loyal customer.

Loyalty

How to win the sympathy and trust of clients? The secret is simple: be useful and indispensable to your customers. Loyalty programs can help develop various bonuses and gifts - customers, as a rule, love this very much. This will contribute to sales growth and stimulate repeat sales. So, for example, a cafe can host a variety of promotions such as “Every fifth cup of coffee is free”, “Every 10th dinner is free”. This will force a person to visit your establishment again and again in order to receive the coveted bonus. The smartphone program will begin to record visits, and the cafe will increase the number of loyal customers.

Another advantage of a mobile application for business: you no longer need to fill your wallet with numerous customer cards. The necessary program is in your phone, which is always with you.

Building customer trust through push notifications

Step-by-step development of mobile applications for business

Stage 1. Business analysis of the target market. This stage is intended so that the customer can understand for himself and determine why he needs an application for business, for what purpose he will use the mobile tool for communicating with his clients. Even before creating a technical specification for the program executor, the customer should think about some important questions:

• What is your main goal in developing and launching a mobile application for business?
• Are you planning to make sales using your business app?
• What exactly does your target audience look like? Who can join its ranks?
• Is there competition in the industry in which you want to work with the application, and how serious is it?
• Are your customers already using any apps? Customers of your competitors? Are there apps that both use? Will customers be ready to switch from their programs to analog?
• How much money do you need to spend on creating and promoting your business application?

Stage 2. Development of an agreed solution. An important step at the initial stage is preparation terms of reference. If the customer does not have a ready-made technical specification, then the contractor can provide him with a brief for filling out and further work on this document. The next step is prototyping and user profiling to evaluate the finished product. After the technical specifications have been prepared, the tasks have been agreed upon with the designer, and the profitability assessment has been carried out, you can begin the actual process of developing a business application.

Stage 3. Preliminary assessment of development costs. At this stage, an assessment is made of how long it will take to work on the application and which specialists need to be contacted.

The final price will not necessarily coincide with preliminary calculations. In the end, the cost of the application may be either more or less than expected. The terms of reference can help determine the amount for developing a business application as accurately as possible.

After all the preliminary steps, the program creation process takes control responsible specialist, who monitors the progress of work and answers all questions.

Stage 4. Prototype design. To demonstrate how a program works, you need a prototype, or, in other words, a model of the application. It can be static or interactive: with active buttons and transition capabilities. This is the job of an analyst. His task is to think through the logic of the program’s functioning and the user’s role in it (user story). Marketing department will help you make adjustments to the idea in accordance with the characteristics of the target audience and the tasks that will be solved using the mobile application.

At the end of his work, the analyst discusses the models with the customer, corrects some points and passes the baton to the designer. The latter’s tasks include choosing the style and design for the application.

Stage 5. Development of the first product release. In accordance with the terms of reference, the developers release a pilot project of a mobile application for business. If it is complex, then it is best to first create an MVP - a minimum viable version of the program that will allow you to understand how customers will react to your product. The analyst will help you understand the required set of functions for the application. If necessary, you can create a control server and an API service to transfer data between the server and the program.

Stage 6. Testing. Testing a business application is a necessary step in the process of creating a quality product. It can be performed on simulators and on real devices. The main goal of this stage is to make sure that the application will work with the hardware and software platform according to the planned model.

Stage 7. Publication. A new application is published, as a rule, in the customer’s personal account of the Google Play Market and App Store services. To create an account in Google Play Market, you need to make a registration fee of $25. It will cost $99 on the AppStore and will take 2 weeks to confirm your registration. Additionally, the App Store fee is annual.

Stage 8. Technical support. At the customer's request, additional services can be provided: technical support for the application, release of new versions for updated mobile OS, marketing and advertising services. In addition, you can place applications in the App Store or Google Play on customer accounts. All this is done for a fee.

• How a mobile application speeded up the work of employees and the company

Where is the best place to order business application development?

There are different options for where you can turn if you want to order the development of a business application. This could be a company specializing in such services, or an individual freelance specialist, or you can develop the program yourself. What to choose is up to you. All of the above options have both advantages and disadvantages.

Finding a freelancer for such work is no more difficult than finding a specialist to create a landing page. It is important that he knows how to program using the platform code. By working with a freelancer, you can significantly save your costs (from 20 to 40%). But at the same time, there is a high probability that there will be problems when fulfilling the order: freelancers do not always strictly adhere to deadlines and work requirements.

A specialized company will handle the order perfectly, but it will cost a lot. Refinement of any element or making the slightest changes will also be subject to a fee. And this activity cannot be done without them. As a result, you will get quality services for a lot of money.

You should expect approximately $10,000 (at a rough estimate) to develop a full-fledged business application. The customer pays:

• work of specialists on technical specifications. It is important for both parties to understand exactly why the application will be created;
• product appearance;
• programming and creating a working model of the application;
• product testing. Work to correct possible errors.

The final cost of the project will be determined by the scale of the issues that must be resolved when using the program.

In addition to all the options mentioned, there is the possibility developing a business application using the designer. This method is more suitable for simple programs with a small set of functions.

1. Flipcat.net (Russian).
2. Mobiumapps.com (Russian).
3. Russia.ibuildapp.com (Russian.
4. Brightmobile.ru (Russian).
5. Goodbarber.com (English).
6. Appmakr.com (English).
7. Kickappbuilder.com (English).

All these services are paid: English ones are more complicated and more expensive, Russian ones are simpler and cheaper. Each site offers a free trial option, so you can experiment and determine which of these resources is right for you.

What to consider when developing business applications

1. The cost of services for creating a mobile application for business is much higher than for developing a web application or website. And, as a rule, websites pay off better than mobile programs.
2. Mobile applications for business are investments with an eye to the future. It may seem that such programs do not play a decisive role in terms of competition today. But keep in mind that the mobile device market is developing very quickly and it is important to keep up with it so as not to lose your leadership position.
3. Statistics show that on average, each mobile device today has approximately 26 mobile applications, 10 of which are social networks, instant messengers, weather and email services. The remaining places are for your programs or competitors as games and other services. As you understand, business card applications have no chance.
4. A mobile phone today is the user's personal space. Just as people don't want to fill their pockets with junk and useless materials, they don't want to load up their phone's memory with information ballast. Therefore, develop a high-quality and useful product in order to gain the trust of your customers.

Based on the results of these points, we can build a logical chain: Clients love free applications → Programs provided free of charge will pay for themselves through advertising → You can invest in the creation, development and promotion of useful and free branded applications for business that will not contain third-party advertising.

For example, supply companies drinking water You can order a calculator to determine the water balance in the human body or a fitness program. Anyone who sells children's products may want to think about creating a product with useful information for parents or educational games for children.

If we talk about the quality indicators of a business application, these are the following points:

• no failures;
• number of daily and monthly audience;
• retention.

The last point can be considered the most important, since it shows how many customers will be willing to use the application on a regular basis. It is not easy to achieve a high level of this index. Typically, about one-third (26%) of people are not interested in an app and delete it from their mobile device. Even if half of the users continue to work with the program, this will be considered a good result.

How to promote a mobile application for business

Method 1. Optimization according to market requirements.

Optimization refers to the exclusive name of the application and the availability keywords in its description. In addition, to get to the top, the number of downloads and place in the customer rating are important. Don't forget to update your business application promptly: outdated versions are removed from both search and catalogs.

• integrate advertising into popular programs;
• divide your target audience into categories based on interests, choosing the most famous and popular applications;
• install your banners on them.

Google AdWords will help you cope with these tasks.

Method 3. Content marketing. Tell the world about yourself. Find out which resources your customers spend the most time on and post your guest posts there with information about the advantages and features of your application. To do this you need:

• post a video,
• create audio podcasts,
• shoot videos for special purposes,
• be active on social networks.

Try to use content marketing thoughtfully and comprehensively, using the various opportunities it has: guest posts, SMM, video marketing, etc.

Method 4. Working with opinion leaders. Opinion leaders can be great help in promoting your product. Any audience has several people whose point of view and value judgments the majority listens to. In this case, it is important for you to get a high rating for your application from opinion leaders, and then naturally, thanks to their stories and impressions, many others will very quickly learn about your product.

Method 5. Promotional website. An official online presence (whether it is an independent promotional website or a separate page within the company’s main resource) will be of great help in promoting your mobile application for business. The effectiveness of the program will be affected by the type of program: a startup or an information element of a large company.

Thanks to the promotional website, you will have new opportunities to promote your mobile application. For example:

• visualization of application features;
• creating instructions for using mobile programs;
• contextual advertising; social media targeting;
• WOW effect.

Today there is no shortage of ways to promote mobile applications for business; it is very important to use them wisely.

How to develop a business through internal mobile applications: 3 successful examples

Example 1. Retail trade.

Network grocery stores Vkusvill developed a mobile database and 1C:Enterprise and implemented it in automated system. The pilot version of the program was created within 2.5 months, and it took exactly the same amount of time to finalize the working version.

The application is used in stores to send reports. For example, in a situation of some kind of problem, an employee point of sale takes a photograph of the breakdown and sends it to the main office.

Thanks to the presence of the image, any explanation becomes unnecessary. The program also allows you to control product quality, returns, write-offs, etc. Using a mobile application scanner installed in the goods receiving warehouse, information is sent directly to the database.

The owner of the network claims that using this product saves millions of rubles per month. It was also possible to save on the development of the program due to the fact that it was created on the basis of 1C. In another specialized company, the application would cost much more.

Example 2. Production.

The AtomEnergoMash Technologies plant installed an application based on iOS and 1C: Management manufacturing enterprise", which is used by about 100 people working in the workshops. The company produces, among other products, components for nuclear reactors. These are huge products, reminiscent in their dimensions of a very large truck. The manufacturing process is fully automated, but for safety reasons workers cannot use computers directly in the workshops. The solution was a mobile application for business. It is capable of finding components by barcode, scanning, providing access to technological maps. Using this program, employees receive tasks and report on their completion.

Example 3. Wholesale trade.

The medical equipment sales company CS Medica Povolzhye uses in its work a mobile application based on 1C: Trade Management 8 and 1C: Enterprise Accounting 8. In particular, this program is actively used by sales representatives of several divisions of the company. The application performs various functions: reserving products in the warehouse, receiving and registering orders, filling out advance reports. The implementation of the software product allowed sales representatives conduct 20% more meetings with clients.

Another example of the successful implementation of a mobile application for the internal work of a business

Alexey Svetishchev, Head of Directorate information technology Velobike company, Moscow

Our company’s work is aimed at ensuring that there are always bicycles and empty seats at stations. More bicycles - more customers, more stations and free places on them - more satisfied consumers who don’t have to travel extra kilometers in search of a station with free space.

In order to solve our main problems, we needed to work to improve the logistics of bicycles and identify the optimal ratio of the number of bicycles and free places at stations. We managed to cope with this with the help of delivery drivers. They have been using a mobile application for business since 2016, which saves time and improves the quality of the park’s work. I will share with you more information about our application and the features of its functioning.

Each driver is assigned a specific city sector. His tasks include driving around the bike stations inside this zone, inspecting and visually assessing the bikes, putting them in order, and washing off any dirt or inscriptions. Those bicycles that are damaged should be sent for repair. The driver can also move the bikes from one station to another as needed. Each of the listed operations must be reflected in the driver’s report.

Before installing the application based on 1C:Enterprise 8, we used an Excel spreadsheet and an accounting program. But previous reporting methods did not suit us, primarily because they could not cope with large volumes of information. The Android-based mobile application was installed on special data collection terminals, which are very similar in size and functionality to a smartphone. The device is equipped with a scanner for reading barcodes and a built-in navigator function. The cost of one such terminal is about 35,000 rubles.

Before starting his duties, the driver receives a terminal from the dispatcher, enters the application and logs in. While at the station, he selects in the program the operation that he will perform.

If this is a standard operation like “get the bike in order,” then the driver simply selects it from among those listed in the application. For extraordinary tasks (for example, “get a drowned bicycle”, “find a bicycle abandoned in the city”, etc.) there is a special section “outside the station”.

For example, a driver works with the “move” operation: he picks up a bicycle from one station and transports it to another. After selecting a task in the application, it scans the barcodes of the bicycles it will move. Already upon arrival at the desired station, he marks the operation “set up” and again reflects the barcodes of the bicycles by scanning. In this way, information about the location of specific bicycles is stored in the database.

Database updates occur every five minutes. This process is error-free, fast and convenient.

Absolutely every bike, station and car is equipped with barcodes. We needed them for the operation of previous terminals - analogues of the current ones. We used them only in the warehouse to record received or issued bicycles.

The impact of the application on the quality of business performance was reflected in the following results.

1. The speed of decision making has increased. Information from the terminals is transferred to a database used by the dispatcher. In addition, there are two maps showing the number of all bicycles and the location of the drivers. Until recently, information was received twice a day, now everything is clear

In 2008, the first iPhone was in the hands of Maxim Voloshin. New product He liked Apple so much that together with his colleagues Maxim decided to develop applications for the Apple App Store. In the first three months, the mobile IQ Test brought developers $4,000. Then there were several games. But when large gaming companies entered the app market, the startup’s sales fell. Then Redmadrobot decided to create custom mobile applications. Today, the company's clients include publishing houses, mobile operators and banks. This year, revenue should be 90 million rubles.

Redmadrobot

field of activity: mobile application development

Created date: November 2008

Money to start: 50 thousand rubles

Business idea

Maxim Voloshin

founder of Redmadrobot

When I was 18 years old, in the evenings I studied to become an engineer at MIREA, and during the day I worked as a courier in a design studio. I was proactive, so I soon became an assistant manager, then a manager, and by the age of 25, a project director. We developed corporate identity, logos, brand books, etc.

In the studio, I met web interface specialist Alexander Alekhin and project manager Nikolai Satunkin, with whom we later launched Redmadrobot.

The first iPhone came out in 2008, and we immediately ordered three from America. A couple of months later the App Store launched. It was almost empty and we thought why don't we make a couple of iPhone apps.

Success and disappointment

The simplest thing you could come up with is a mobile IQ Test. There was no need to invent anything here: a ready-made algorithm, an easy interface. We found a programmer, bought him a white MacBook for 30 thousand rubles (without a MacBook it is impossible to write code for iOS) and paid 20 thousand rubles for development. This was our starting capital.

Registering an account in the App Store turned out to be easy, filling out documents to receive money from downloads was more difficult. Organizational and legal issues took three months. We sold the app for $1.99, of which Apple received 30%, minus tax, and the rest to us. In three months, the application was downloaded by about 3 thousand people.

I still remember the moment when I received a long SMS in English. I was driving around the city and didn’t immediately understand what was going on. It turned out that 4 thousand dollars from installations of our application came into my account.

At that moment it became clear to us that you can make money from applications. We released several arcade and quest games and came up with Redmadrobot. We really liked the word “robot”, “Red” was our favorite color, “Mad” was a rejection of stereotypes. Money began to trickle in from the sale of our applications, and we left the studio. But after a couple of months, large gaming companies rushed to the App Store, investing $500 thousand in the development of their products. It became clear that we would not build a business on gaming applications.

Growing pains

By 2011, media holdings, banks and mobile operators decided at once that they needed a mobile application. Everyone was in a hurry to get ahead of their competitors. Some did something on their own, others turned to companies that promised to do it quickly and cheaply. And this way and that it turned out bad. Then they began to look for outsourcing companies that had staff and at least some kind of portfolio, and often found Redmadrobot.

We received a dozen orders. At first we were happy, but quickly realized that we couldn’t cope. Our experience and team were not enough. Large clients expected a completely different level of development, which we did not really meet (at that moment no one on the market met it). For example, just to properly test applications, it was necessary to increase the team by a third, which we could not afford right away.

Deadlines were flying, applications were falling, and customers were indignant. The situation was critical. We urgently needed programmers, designers, testing engineers, business analysts, and high-level managers.

Before this, we subcontracted part of the work, but with the arrival of large companies, it became clear that this was a mistake: subcontractors without strong internal expertise cannot be controlled either in terms of deadlines or quality. We abandoned this scheme and quickly hired a powerful backbone of the team - top managers with experience in large IT companies, who increased our staff and built our production processes. And we began to work faster and better, but arose new problem- the threat of a cash gap.

Large client companies work without prepayment. Essentially, we had to lend free projects to these market monsters. All the money we earned on small orders immediately went to cover salary gaps in large projects. The company was on the verge of survival. But there was no other option: we understood that if we didn’t get involved in the big game, we wouldn’t improve ourselves.

Market and competition

Entering the mobile app market today is easy. Tools for the basics of iOS and Android development are free: online courses, books, forums. According to our estimates, there are already a couple of hundred small companies on the market that are stewing in the same “soup” - fulfilling small one-time orders for the development of corporate and promotional applications. The competition among these companies is very strong.

A separate story is the professional industrial development of mobile business applications. I mean long-term projects with millions of users in different regions. This requires experts in the field of coding and usability, as well as an infrastructure capable of carrying out complex integration with all systems of the client company, providing technical support and developing a mobile product.

On Russian market there are three or four companies that can take on such projects, including Redmadrobot, and there is no serious competition in this market. There are enough clients for all of us. For example, now all 60 of our employees are busy, and if tomorrow comes new client, we will need to find resources for it. Clients include Beeline, the Life group, the Kommersant publishing house and others.

Of course, those companies that are now stewing in the common “soup” understand that they need to reach a new level. But I don’t think they will improve at once and begin to compete with us.

Plans

By the end of this year, our revenue will be 90–100 million rubles. By the end of next year we plan to reach 150–170 million rubles. Of course, our company can grow into a factory with a staff of a thousand people. At the same time, there is a high risk of losing quality. Finding even 50 professionals of the level we need on the labor market is a difficult task. We’d rather manage 10–15 clients a year and make really cool products for them with a team of 100–150 people.

Our global goal is to increase the value of the company while maintaining the existing staff. This will become possible if we make a profit not only from the development of mobile applications, but also from the sale of our own products.

Yes, we have already launched electronic library"Business.Books" for mobile platforms - a joint project with Alpina Publisher - paid for itself in eight months. This is an open access reader and a corporate solution. To order, we create branded applications with the set of books required by companies. We have more than 50 contracts with leading pharmaceutical companies, retailers, banks, carriers, and telecom operators.

Through such projects, over the next five years we want to receive capital that we can invest, among other things, in educational and scientific projects.

PHOTOS: Anton Berkasov

1C solutions can work in two architecture options: file and client-server. In case file work option, the 1C:Enterprise platform ensures client interaction directly with database:

The file database in this case consists of several DBF files; their DBMS is part of the 1C platform. The file version of the work is easy to deploy and does not require specialized software in addition to the 1C platform itself. However, it has a number of limitations in use and is generally less reliable than the client-server option.

Herself platform 1C:Enterprise in both cases is a shell over the database. Its task is to improve the convenience of development. The developer does not have to design database tables to build an application solution; instead, it operates with applied objects, that is, direct analogues of “physical” objects subject area. For example, electronic documents.

On the 1C platform it can be developed configuration- that is, a specific application solution that solves specific user tasks. For example, there are configurations for accounting or driving a vehicle.

Question 01.07 of exam 1C: Platform Professional. Where is the structure of the business application being created in the 1C:Enterprise 8 system determined?

1. Technology platform
2. Configuration
3. Information base

Question 01.08 of exam 1C: Platform Professional. Where are business application credentials stored in the 1C:Enterprise 8 system?

1. Technology platform
2. Configuration
3. Information base

Question 01.61 of exam 1C: Platform Professional. What is used to develop business applications in the 1C:Enterprise 8 system?

1. Technology platform
2. Configuration
3. Information base

Question 01.62 of exam 1C: Platform Professional. How does the 1C:Enterprise 8 system work with infobase data?

1. Technology platform
2. Configuration
3. Information base
4. DBMS

Mobile applications have begun to play a big role in people's lives in the last decade. Their functions often seem insignificant, but, nevertheless, they help smartphone and tablet users solve various everyday tasks. Creating even a simple mobile application is painstaking and persistent work that takes large number time, effort and does not at all guarantee high profits in the future. However, truly high-quality and necessary applications can “shoot” in the AppStore or GooglePlay and bring their developers a lot of money. We invite beginning entrepreneurs to pay attention to the standard business plan for developing mobile applications with calculations, which is presented in this material. First of all, it will help you navigate the financial side of the issue and understand whether the game is “worth the candle.”

Investments at the start of a mobile application development business will need to be made in the amount of 350 thousand rubles. This money is enough to build from scratch stable business in this high-tech field. The source of initial investment can be either the personal savings of a novice developer or loan funds received from a bank.

Brief description of the concept

A business creating applications for mobile platforms, an example of the organization of which is presented in this article, must be registered as an individual entrepreneur. The best form of taxation for similar business– simplified tax system (“simplified tax system”) with a tax rate of 15% (income minus expenses). Declarations in this system are filled out almost intuitively, so the company does not need the help of a professional accountant. Processing financial statements is best done using online accounting services. Official registration of a mobile application development business will not be complete without selecting the appropriate OKVED codes:

• 62.0 “Computer software development, consulting services in this area and other related services.”
• 62.01 “Computer software development.”

How much do you need to invest in opening?

The costs that are inevitable at the initial stage of establishing a mobile application development business are presented in the following table:

It is not surprising that the main expense items will be the purchase of computer equipment and licensed software. Specifics of this business obliges the entrepreneur to pay special attention to the quality of equipment and software. After all, the equipment on which mobile applications are developed must simply work stably and without failures, and information must be well protected.

Production plan

The office of a mobile application development company is a compact room, the area of ​​which does not exceed 40 square meters. Some special requirements no to the office location. It can be located either in a modern business center or in a semi-basement in the old part of the city. The main thing is that all necessary communications and stable high-speed Internet are connected to the office premises.

An entrepreneur should also take care to ensure the security of the office, since it will contain expensive equipment and important development data. You can enter into an agreement with a security agency or simply install strong bars on the windows and a good-quality metal door.

Marketing plan

As for marketing and promotion of mobile applications for smartphones and tablets, everything is extremely simple - advertising can be ordered in the AppStore and GooglePlay at a very reasonable cost. Advertising on well-promoted YouTube channels also has a good effect.

The cost of one download of an average mobile application is 1.5 dollars, or approximately 100 rubles. Good apps are quickly gaining popularity among users, and it is quite possible that they can be downloaded 5,000 times or even more in a month. Accordingly, at this rate, the monthly revenue of the development company can reach up to half a million rubles, and the annual “dirty” income can reach up to 6 million “wooden”.

Staff

The work schedule of a mobile application development company is a standard “five-day week”, but with some features. As a rule, at the final stages of mobile application development, work goes on non-stop - seven days a week and almost without breaks. An entrepreneur should take this nuance into account in order to appropriately reward loyal employees in monetary terms. Below is the most optimal work schedule option:

• Monday – Friday: from 09:00 to 18:00.
• Saturday – Sunday: closed.

The list of mobile application development company employees is given in the table below:

Calculations of income and expenses

You can see the list of monthly expenses of a mobile application development company in this table:

The profitability of a company developing applications for mobile platforms is shown in this table:

As our calculations show, the net annual profit of a company that develops mobile applications, after taxes, will be 2.8 million rubles. This is provided that the applications are of high quality and the development period for each of them is no more than three months. Accordingly, the profitability of this business will be around 47% - an excellent result for a young, ambitious company.

Possible risks

The mobile app development business is a very risky business. It is impossible to take into account absolutely all the pitfalls of this undertaking, and quite often the “sink or die” principle accompanies the creation of any application until the end of its development. Below is a list of the most obvious risk factors that could negatively affect the development of this business:

• Leakage of information about the features of projects and, as a result, possible “borrowing” of their concept by other developers.
• The need to attract additional funding when launching expensive or time-consuming development projects.
• Increased development time for individual applications, associated with additional costs.
• Insufficient level of qualifications of employees, their incompetence in highly specialized aspects of working on the creation of mobile applications.

In conclusion, we note that developers who are passionate about their work and create truly high-quality software products for mobile platforms never remain in the red. World practice proves this perfectly.

To assess the market, you first need to decide on the volume of planned investments and the niche that is most interesting to you.

It is highly desirable that this interest be supported by some theoretical, or even better, practical knowledge about the development process, available tools and methodologies. You can analyze the demand and level of competition in the selected niche based on the data provided rating agencies. In almost every segment, even such a highly specialized one as the development of online stores, there are fairly detailed ratings comparing flagship companies by turnover, average bill, number of projects and other parameters that give a fairly clear picture.

Competition

Our niche is highly competitive only at first glance. In fact, this is the same level of competition as between BMW and AvtoVAZ - segmentation is primarily determined by the price of services and the class of customers. It is no secret that the price range for the same website development can be from 5 thousand to 5 million rubles. It all depends on what needs to be done, what level of quality to ensure, what tools to use, how big a name the IT company has, how well-known clients are in its portfolio.

As a result, if you work in the price range 5-25 thousand rubles, companies with projects from 1 million rubles will obviously not be your competitors, and vice versa.

To get ahead of your competitors, you must first determine in which price segment you will provide services. Then it’s worth analyzing direct competitors from the same price segment who provide the same services: see what development tools they offer, what additional services they include in the cost of development, what clients and projects they work with.

At the same time, it is quite important to objectively evaluate your own strengths - will you be able to provide quality that is no worse? Can you offer similar services at the same price? Next, it’s important to highlight your unique advantage over your competitors: what makes you better? Why should clients work with you?

If you have such an advantage formulated on an intuitive level, without external confirmation, it is better to check it in advance: conduct a survey of friends, acquaintances, and random interlocutors. Find out whether they would really care about such an advantage, or whether your hypothesis is untenable. The sample must be large enough to provide the most accurate representation possible.

How to decide on the range of services that the company will provide?

This depends primarily on your level of knowledge about the field and technology, as well as on the level of initial investment. For example, the average salary of an experienced Symfony programmer is 80-100 thousand rubles, i.e. 3 months of his work will cost the company 240-300 thousand rubles. At the same time, projects of this level are usually complex, expensive and require not only a programmer, but a full-fledged team: designer, tester, project manager, analyst, etc. It is highly desirable that at least one of key competencies the owner of the company had, otherwise it would be difficult to control the processes.

The most common situation in the market is when an experienced developer opens his own company, and rightly so. He already has an understanding of what pitfalls await him, what difficulties the company may encounter, and how to properly build processes.

Important to remember: additional services- this is good, but only when they do not divert most of the company's resources to themselves.

Sometimes occupying a narrow niche turns out to be more profitable than offering clients the widest possible range of services.

Who is the main target audience?

If we talk about the IT services market in general, then the target audience is almost any business, without restrictions. But to determine the target audience of your company, you need to create the most accurate portrait of the client:

• how much money the client is willing to spend on your services;
• what basic service does he need;
• what additional services he may need;
• if you have a regional link, the majority of companies from another region will most likely be eliminated from the target audience;
• what industry your client works in (often clients choose a developer who has projects in the portfolio for the same industry);
• who makes the decision in the client’s company (if you work mainly with small businesses, these are usually the owners; if you work with enterprises, these are middle managers, and they have a completely different level of motivation to start development and quickly complete the project );
• Are there any requirements for the tools used in development (some clients specify as the main requirement what the development should be done on, for example, what programming language should be used, what graphic editor, what CMS).

Beginners should remember that reaching large customers without prior preparation is a very difficult task. Our target audience immediately became a medium-sized business that needed some kind of non-standard solution for automating processes.

The key difference between companies operating in the higher price segment is that customers stay with them for a long time.

The thing is that products in this segment are complex and require support. Moreover, they rely on business processes, which is a flexible thing that changes over time. Therefore, the product usually evolves along with the company.

Investment volume

To optimize office expenses, you can rent it in a place that is not very accessible, because... its location is not very important - clients rarely come on their own. Or you can act radically and abandon the office altogether, transferring employees to remote work.

But this option is not suitable for everyone. We decided to take this step only after being 100% convinced that all our clients prefer to meet in their office or cafe, and also realizing that all our employees have been working in the company continuously for more than 2 years and are quite capable of responsibly performing their work without tied to an office chair.

Saving on salaries if you want to ensure high quality projects is definitely not worth it. But you can reduce costs if you hire employees for additional services on a project-by-project basis, paying them only for the work that was actually done, and use KPI to evaluate the work of full-time employees. All our employees are in one way or another tied to the company's profits.

The absence of an office and the use of some employees on a project-by-project basis allowed us to minimize equipment costs - most of the employees use their own computers, and we only bear the costs of their depreciation.

Step by step instructions

Having decided on a niche, studied competitors, recruited the first clients and rented premises, you can now proceed to the next stage of opening - purchasing equipment. Mandatory equipment, without which we cannot imagine working:

• The company’s own server (including for demonstrating work to clients and the operation of the project management system);
• Virtual PBX;
• Laptops or desktop computers of employees with sufficient power for the type of work performed;
• Office equipment.

It was quite easy to find suppliers, since many of them dropped out at the stage of the first request - they did not respond for a long time, took a long time to issue an invoice, and could not competently answer our questions. As a result, those suppliers of equipment and services with whom we constantly work have not changed for years.

For example, we maintain the company’s own server in the provider’s data center, which has not been changed for 4 years. His prices are not the lowest, but the speed of response to our requests is no more than 10 minutes.

Thus, the main criteria for selecting suppliers for us are:

• Speed ​​of response to our request (especially if these are permanent services);
• Equipment quality;
• Equipment cost.

Of course, no equipment will work without specialists. For an IT company, they are the foundation of success. The number of employees a firm has depends on which services are key and how many projects are being carried out simultaneously. For example, we are a technology company, and this means that programmers must have high level training, while there should be at least two of them on staff, and preferably 3-4, in order to ensure interchangeability and speed of project implementation. But only one designer is enough.

On at the moment our staff consists of:

• Sales Manager;
• Project Manager;
• Technical Writer;
• Designer;
• Three programmers;
• Tester;
• Copywriter and content manager.

Depending on the focus of the projects, the ratio of designers and programmers in the company may change, and some employees may combine several positions.

There is often a situation where a project manager also serves as a technical writer and tester. And HTML layout can be performed, depending on the company and its business processes, by a designer, programmer or individual employee.

There is a big problem with highly qualified employees in the labor market.

It is very difficult to find such employees “off the street”, and the process of integrating them into the team is quite painful. You must always keep in mind that, regardless of the skill level of the new employee, he will be fully integrated into the work process only 1-2 months after the start of work. When hiring such employees, they go through several stages of selection. At the beginning, we look at the resume and study the portfolio, then we give a test task. Based on the results of the test task, the applicant is interviewed by the leading programmer, and after that an interview with the director.

The final hiring decision is made based on the totality of the results of each of these steps, with preference given to the opinion of the lead developer, since it is with him new employee will interact first.

Low-skilled employees are much easier to find. We usually work with them on one or two test projects and only after that we hire them on staff. The selection process in this case differs from the first option. At the first stage, we also look at the resume and portfolio, if there is one, after which the project manager conducts an interview and makes a decision on cooperation. If the cooperation is successful, the employee remains on staff or is entered into the database remote employees and is involved in future projects as needed.

The operating hours of an IT company are determined depending on the operating hours of the main clients.

The bulk of our customers are located in Moscow, so our working hours are from 10.00 to 19.00 Moscow time, regardless of where our employees are located. Some employees can vary their work schedule, observing the rule of at least 8 hours a day, but some employees are deprived of this privilege. If clients work from 10 to 19, sales managers and project managers must be on call at the same time.

The time it takes to complete one order varies from several days to several months, depending on the complexity, urgency and volume of the task. At the same time, you need to understand that not a single person can work 24 hours a day, no matter how much the director of the company or clients would like it. In order to avoid missing deadlines, overlapping tasks and constantly switching employees from one task to another, we use a planning system. Thanks to this, each employee knows exactly what he will do tomorrow, has a fairly clear work plan for the next week and an approximate work plan for the month.

All tasks received from clients are formulated in the system, assigned to a specialist and planned according to the date and time of completion. The only exceptions are very urgent tasks:

if something breaks in a client's running project, this is a very good reason to postpone all other tasks and devote resources to fixing the problem.

Our practice has shown that the location of the office does not matter for clients; it is much more convenient for them to meet in their own territory. The presence of an office in the center can confirm the high status of the company, but it is definitely not worth incurring huge costs because of this. Therefore, when choosing an office, you can only take into account how convenient it will be for employees to get to it, and it is entirely possible to locate it on the outskirts, but within transport accessibility.

If employees work in an office, it is also advisable to consider how convenient it will be for them to go to lunch - are there canteens, cafes and restaurants nearby, or is it easier to organize lunch delivery to the office. It is highly advisable to have a cooler, tea, coffee and sweets in the office. Having a microwave and multicooker is also not a direct necessity, but it adds convenience.

We have abandoned the office, and our employees are happy because they do not have to waste time on the road, and they are free to choose where to work. ​​​​​​​

There are no requirements for IT companies in terms of layout and ceiling height, but the room must be light and spacious enough so that employees do not sit on each other’s heads. It is advisable to plan the placement of specialists so that they have a feeling of isolation from each other.

The maximum area depends on the number of workers simultaneously in the office and common sense. The office should be spacious and comfortable enough for all employees to feel comfortable in it. At the same time, people working on the same project must be in direct access to each other.

As for contracts and documents for premises, as a rule, an IT company chooses an office in office center, and there the owner of the premises or the management company deals with these issues. Therefore, an IT company only needs a rental agreement. However, this agreement must be given careful attention when concluding in order to avoid pitfalls in the form of a sudden increase in rent or an unexpected request to urgently vacate the premises.

Documents

EmployeesIT companies produce an intellectual product, so it is necessary to resolve the issue of copyright for it.

As for working with the customer, there are two options. In the first case, we reserve copyright. And in the second, if an individual design or individual visualization elements are developed, we transfer non-exclusive rights to them to the customer. That is, he can use them, but cannot resell them. At the same time, the authorship remains with us. This is necessary so that we can add the work to our portfolio and add authorship to the client’s website.

Opening checklist

Is it profitable to open

In order to determine the cost of fulfilling an order, you must first understand exactly what the cost per hour of the company’s work is. It consists of constants and variable costs divided by the average number of working hours per month.

Knowing the cost is important primarily because at the initial stage of work, without a good portfolio, it will be very difficult to receive expensive projects and you will have to be content with little, and sometimes even give additional discounts. Knowing the cost, you can rely on it, understanding exactly how far you can move in price while incurring acceptable costs.

The price for fulfilling an order is determined based on the costs that the company will incur for its implementation, the inherent risks and the desired profit. If the company exists for a long time and works on standard orders, some types of work can later be included in a price list, since the average cost of these works will be known in advance.

IN general view, the calculation is performed based on an estimate of the projected time for the project. For the most accurate estimate, it is important to break the project into small tasks at the design stage, so that each of them takes no more than 8-12 hours. This will reduce the likelihood of error to a minimum. ​​​​​​​

In general, our calculation looks something like this: number of estimated hours * cost per hour of the company's work * 1.3 (risk adjustment factor; may vary) * N, where N is the profit factor. The company owner determines it independently, guided by common sense and his own greed.

A very important aspect of the company’s work is the preparation of technical specifications for projects. Determining the exact cost of a project without having detailed technical specifications is a grave mistake that company employees can make.

In our company, the project work is structured as follows:

• Obtaining a problem statement
• Preparation of proposal with preliminary assessment
• Conclusion of a contract for technical specifications
• Design, development of detailed technical specifications and project prototypes
• Coordination of technical specifications and prototypes
• Signing of closing documents for the development of technical specifications
• Drawing up a detailed estimate for the project
• Signing a project development agreement
• Execution of work on the project
• Signing closing documents for the project.

Depending on the scope of the project, work may be divided into additional stages performed under separate contracts.

It is very difficult to estimate the number of orders and the average bill, since projects can be of very different levels. Theoretically, 3 projects with a check of 150 thousand rubles will be equivalent to 30 projects with a check of 15 thousand rubles. But in fact, 2 projects of 300 thousand rubles each can be in work at the same time. with a scope of work for 2 months and an even distribution of project amounts for this period, 3 projects of 100 thousand each and 5 projects of 25 thousand each. All of them can be at different stages, carried out by different specialists and form receivables that accumulate over time.

The payback period depends on the costs at the initial stage, as well as on the size operating expenses companies, including the level of salaries of specialists.

It is important to realistically assess the possibilities in terms of the number and level of projects for which contracts can be concluded at the initial stage.

If you hire an employee with a salary of 100 thousand rubles, and enter into 2 contracts per month for 25 thousand rubles, you definitely won’t last long.

Another important point: the more complex the projects you want, the higher the cost of attracting a client and the longer the period from the moment of first contact to the conclusion of the contract.

In this case, with the same employee on a salary of 100 thousand rubles, the following situation may arise: you have potential client with a project worth 1 million rubles, you happily hire an employee, pay him a salary for 2-3 months while you negotiate with the client, and only after that you receive the first tranche from the client. It’s good if he covers the expenses incurred, but what if the deal falls through? This probability also exists exactly until the money arrives in your current account.

If you build processes as flexibly as possible and constantly keep in mind the possibility of the described situations, the payback period may well be 3-4 months, or even less.

The main way to increase profits is to reduce development costs, reduce risks and provide related services to clients.

Debugging business processes allows you to reduce development costs. Each employee must know exactly what to do depending on the situation that has arisen, understand who is responsible and who to run to if something goes wrong. For this we have several simple regulations and a project management system.

Risk reduction occurs through more thorough preparatory work with the client before concluding a contract. We do not aim to conclude an agreement at any cost. Our main task is to build long-term relationships with each client, and this is only possible when he trusts us as professionals, and we trust him as a customer.

There are several risks, we have encountered all of them:

• Insolvency of the client - the client starts a large-scale project, but in the middle of the project he runs out of funds, or the project loses relevance. To minimize this risk, we break large projects into many stages with payment tied to them. This allows you to understand in time that funding is stopping and lose a minimum of time and money.
• Lack of technical specifications - sometimes sales managers are very tempted: “Guys, we have a client for 500 thousand, let’s work quickly, sign an agreement, to hell with the technical specifications.” And then it turns out that the client has million-dollar wants, but he refuses to pay for them, arguing: “And your manager promised me that everything will be as I want.”
• Incorrect assessment of the project - sometimes it happens that specialists make mistakes in assessing the scope of work. In this case, in order to save face and reputation, you have to work at a loss. Breaking the project into small pieces is also a great way to eliminate this risk.