How easy do you imagine it will be to have an idea for an app to sell, and then make it happen so that you’ll make some money? In theory, it sounds like maybe you’ll just have to spend a little bit of time doing some programming, and then you’ll submit your app to the Android and iOS stores, and then money starts pouring in.
There’s a little bit more to it than that, and those extra parts will often cost you some money to make happen. These stages include app development, promotions, troubleshooting, maintenance, and possibly even infrastructure. Take a minute to think about each of those categories.
App Development
First of all, there’s the cost of app development itself. If you have a team of people, you have to pay them. But if it’s just you doing the developing, your time is still worth money, you know? You still have to feed yourself and pay your bills, and whether you’re making any money or not from early app development stages, at the very least, you’re taking away from other amounts of cash you could be receiving for working a different job.
Promotions
And just because you’ve released an app into the wild, and it’s the most amazing thing ever, that doesn’t mean it will catch on without the right kind of promotions. There are so many thousands of apps out there – how will people decide to buy yours? The answer to that question will often reside in how well you do promoting it. This isn’t an easy or automatic task, and can take some serious time, resources, and firsthand knowledge to accomplish in an efficient manner.
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting your app is going to take some serious resources as well. You can wander through the code and operations as many times as you want, but as soon as the app is in the public realm, guaranteed people will find a way to break it. And it will be up to you and your development team to spend the time troubleshooting and fixing it, and there’s a cost to that in terms of hours.
Maintenance
After the initial release, people will expect improvements to your app over time. This means that you’ll have to put some cash regularly into the ideas of research and development. Apps that don’t change with the times, especially to keep up with operating system updates, will eventually crash and burn.
Infrastructure
And do you plan on offering a subscription with your app? Because if you do, there, some serious infrastructure costs to handle. You have to have server space that will handle all of the private details of the folks that subscribe to you, and potentially even have the space associated with each of their accounts to save data.
