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Benefits Of Owning A Small App For Your Business

Aamir Qutub
Aamir Qutub
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Entrepreneurs are taking Australia’s innovation portfolio on the crest of a wave. With cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence, IOT, and Big Data, they have a vision that promises us an incredibly refined lifestyle. In this post, we are going to read how a small app can save your business in tough situations.

As of June 30, 2016, the number of actively trading businesses in the Australian market sector was 2,171,544, an increase of 2.4% from 30 June 2015. From 2014-15 to 2015-16 there was a slight increase in the business entry rate (from 13.4% to 14.6%) and a small decrease in business exit rate (from 12.4% to 12.3%).

And it can be indubitably stated that most of you entrepreneurs might have initially taken up projects that you might not have the adequate resources to complete without undergoing a cost-prohibitive situation. Even if you do, there is a fat chance you’ll ever be able to accomplish it without losses.

So if you want to leap at the opportunity, the best you could do is, outsource your trivial or smaller projects to some local company that is specialised in doing the same for you. This will save you time, money and labour while you can put your energy into rest of your core competencies.

Some firms look for a one-click and quick solution for an app; we have come to be labelling them under the category of Small App Projects.

Here is a little comprehensive session on everything about small app projects and how you can have them done with a minimal effort.

“While it may seem small, the ripple effects of small things are extraordinary.”

-Matt Bevin

True that. So let’s start!

What Is A Small App Project?

“Small apps are the ones that take less time to develop and have just a few functionalities.”

The MVP of small apps is relatively easy to build and hence gives us an idea of the market performance of the app before the final development of the application. There are other things to keep in mind when we talk about small app projects.

If you’re a newbie you might just be blank about how to go about it.

Here is a fundamental approach that is followed to develop any kind of app:

1. First, Pick a platform that you would like to develop on – native iOS, Android, web, hybrid, PhoneGap.

2. Then think about all the essential services you use – Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Instagram, Imgur, Quora, Reddit, Youtube, Amazon, Yelp, Netflix, Dropbox, Uber, Evernote, Kayak, Pinterest, Path, Flickr, Tumblr, Buffer, Shazam, StumbleUpon, Airbnb. Almost all these apps have a public API that you could leverage.

3. Next, think about a specific part of that app and how it can be improved by providing context, or automating some part of it, or building a better UI only for that feature.

E.g. an app that lets users post a movie recommendation from Netflix to their Facebook friends and ask them to vote on it.

Doing this, not only will you learn about the development platform; but also how to use some of the more popular web APIs that will come handy in other projects. Building a successful app would be a nice side-effect of this exercise.

“Delivering a project isn’t difficult. What’s difficult is delivering a project without first taking the time to plan properly.”

– James Leal

And that is precisely we intend to do with small app projects, go ahead!

Time Needed To Develop A Small App

Although a specific timeline cannot be affirmed as it largely depends on the complexity of the app and your developers, to generally state, it is speculated to be achieved within two weeks to 2 months.

The experience that development team has on that kind of application strictly guides the fact that they can use a code previously written for another released app, if the designs are already approved, etc. There is no final deal for understanding the small app’s time of development as well as cost, so you need to be aware of certain other things to be sure of your app’s cost.

An Epitome Of A Simple App That Will Make A Difference

The numerous advantages that small app projects have also make them a very favoured choice amongst entrepreneurs. Look at the following snapshot:

Average Startup Survival RateSource

The average survival rate of startups has been demotivating because most startups fail in spite of receiving funding from incubators due to a vague USP and overdone UX/UI of the apps they develop.

Usually, small apps include functionalities which are connected to the elements of the native device such as graphics, video, microphone or geolocation. Such kind of apps are fascinating to develop as you get quick results. While for the bigger projects it takes much more experience, time and labour to attain an outcome. Pre-requisites of a Native or Complex app are harder to achieve as compared to a simple Hybrid app. Small apps get the quick WOW effect.

Let’s create an impact of the aftermath of this through a fictitious startup scenario.

John is a start-up enthusiast, with a vision of a technocrat he wants to work for the welfare of common people. But being a beginner in the startup arena, he lacks resources, sufficient funds as well as time.

Now, John is also aware that he’ll be damned if he went on to challenge the tech-giants that are leveraging eminent technologies like AI, Machine Learning or Big Data.

So, rather he takes a smarter approach and goes on to outsource a small app to a company that doesn’t charge him massive mounts. This app majorly integrates everything from a website into an extremely simple interface that is mobile-responsive; as the importance of mobile-friendly web apps has surpassed the importance of websites.

Let’s see what features he got his app nourished with, that helped him make the most out of what he intended to do:

Below is the snapshot of the home page of John’s app, followed by some of it’s simple yet appealing features:

Small App Home Page

Technology at Glance

The firm John chose for his app builds the app on the Ionic framework on Angular 2, using HTML and CSS, with WordPress embedded content management system; that synchronises all the blogs, news and other data from the respective website.

How a small app can save your business in tough situations?

File Transfer

It also has a feature that lets you send your files, documents or media files through an inbuilt mailing system. So, there’s nothing to worry about importing the data into different gadgets to sending it across WhatsApp or mail; it can be directly picked and sent to the recipient through the app.

How a small app can save your business in tough situations?

Data Organisation

To help the organisation keep all the data organised in one place, the app has been lodged with google drive space. Works like a real-time cabinet, where anyone at the firm or it’s clients can store, send, retrieve or update data while other concurrent tasks are on the go.

Ecommerce Integration

Another stunning feature of this app is woocommerce with best-embedded practices and unified payment gateway; where you can display your products along with their description and price, for the potential customers to buy.

The organisation can have their online marketplace for medications or special equipment. Here is a snapshot of how the market product will look like in the app:

How a small app can save your business in tough situations?

Community Engagement

Every process in business requires consistent communication. To facilitate easy and hassle-free communication the app has been linked to Google Calendar, which helps clients fix appointments; also gives them the idea about the client’s availability all through the year. Here is the snapshot of the appointment book from the app.

How a small app can save your business in tough situations?

Broadcasting

Seen those Zomato pop – up ads every time there is a new offer or event at a restaurant? Push notifications are something of a panacea to all the broadcasting problems.

100% of Android users are automatically opted-in for Push Notifications when they download an app, versus 43% of iOS users who manually accept to receive them when prompted.

So, the app also brings that feature at the disposition through the app, where the firm can stay in touch with their client base for every vital notification release.

Isn’t that amazing how John went on and found a company that implemented this extremely simple idea with an even simpler approach where all individual tasks had been refined into a one-stop solution, with a straightforward approach?

What Makes The App So Special?

Now, let’s do some real-time talking about the app and its advantages. If you are like John and have decided to treat yourself with a similar app, here is another list of things you should know.  

If you are tech-savvy, smartphone glued person, which is a 99.99% chance you are. You must think these are some very nominal features that every other app has.

But a person who has a keen eye for the technology will never overlook the amount of good that this app holds for his business.

Here we talk about it a little more:
  1. One advantage of this app is the fast delivery and the feedback to have a faster update for the app. The app will be delivered to you within a couple of weeks, making it quick and desirable to use.
  2. Every time the app encounters a bug; it is much simpler to get back and get it resolved due to inherent simplicity of the design, and the interface. So, you’re promised to be serviced even after the delivery, to help you with the glitches you encounter within the app.
  3. There is a very little technical complexity, is to say that you can save on man-hours and the cost. This kind of app is purely information-based, with not much dependency on data synchronisation, specific UI, a complex algorithm and other secondary frameworks.
  4. The app is of tremendous use to small businesses or startup companies that are beginning to have their influence in the startup world, a wonderful way to study the market, get some recommendation from potential users, see what functionalities work out and which don’t.

There are some downsides, not with the functionality but some that you should know in case you have varying objectives to get your small app developed.

Let’s discuss them too:
  • Basic steps are sometimes ignored, carried haphazardly, or done later than required. Likewise, costly mistakes can be made when risks are missed by performing too soon. A small project that isn’t designed enough can also overlook critical stakeholders, causing both resentment and rework.
  • Project management methodologies and frameworks intended for large projects complicate the problem. Using such structures for small efforts is cumbersome and unnecessary. What is required is a method that focuses on the essential steps and doesn’t waste time on overkill.
  • It’s difficult to make a unique and exciting app as there are so many of those in the market. Such apps can create a buzz in the market, but they can also lose reputation in just a matter of time, so the app owner must always have some new ideas to hold on to the user’s interest.

Conclusion

Simplicity is the base of any small app! The quote ‘less is more’ is the essence of a small app. The simpler it gets, the more functionality it can have.

Although, the price and time of development can vary from developer to developer. Therefore, you need to study what functions you require in each of the proposals to choose the best developer for the project.

So, start off before you miss out any more opportunities to get the spike you deserve in your business!

Aamir Qutub
Aamir Qutub
Aamir Qutub is the founder and CEO of Enterprise Monkey, has a sincere passion for innovation and startups. With an experience of around a decade, he is a proud co-founder of 4 technology startups, focusing on real-world problems and their solutions. He also loves to cook and spend time with his onlyborn.
Aamir Qutub
Aamir Qutub
Aamir Qutub is the founder and CEO of Enterprise Monkey, has a sincere passion for innovation and startups. With an experience of around a decade, he is a proud co-founder of 4 technology startups, focusing on real-world problems and their solutions. He also loves to cook and spend time with his onlyborn.

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