Appy Days: How Moms Can Rake It In As Independent App Developers

Apps for Business Use_Chispa MagazineApps have been a godsend for people with an entrepreneurial spirit. Thousands of developers have made substantial sums of money, sometimes from the comfort of their own home. But, with literally millions of apps on Google Play and Apple, succeeding in the app space is by no means guaranteed.

Here is some advice from successful indie app developers, designed to help moms get into the app space, create amazing products and make a name for themselves.

Study Bad Apps
Some apps, like Flipboard, are great. But for every successful app, there are at least a dozen failures. Matt Hall, the man behind Crossy Road, suggests that new developers don’t just look at the apps that were successful, but also those that went horribly wrong. He says that mompreneurs should focus on what those apps did wrong so that they don’t make the same mistakes themselves. Many people he says, only study apps that are at the top of the charts. As a result, they never find out the reasons why some drop to the bottom.

Increase Your Output And Decrease Time
Some app developers make one great app which sustains them for the rest of their career. But many apps, like flashlight apps, only take a few weeks to develop and don’t require a lot of updates and modifications. As a result, top apps developers recommend that moms focus on keeping their development cycle as short as possible. Eight weeks should suffice, allowing plenty of opportunity to for them to build up their portfolio of apps, increasing their likelihood of success. QASymphony’s list of software testing tools includes tools for testing mobile applications, helping to shorten the development window.

Build Something You Love
Many people who make apps decide to make something that they are not personally interested in themselves. As a result, they often wind up producing something that is half-baked. If you don’t like sport, don’t dedicate your life to making the world’s best fitness app. Instead, make an app that you’d love to use yourself. This will help put you in the shoes of your customers, allowing you to experience your app as they would.

Building something you love also gives you conviction that it’s something that is worth doing. It’s easy to get passionate about creating a new education app, for instance, if you’re a believer in the importance of education to young people, especially those in poorer parts of the world.

Make It Simple
Hall also recommends that new apps developers try to keep their creations as simple as possible. Looking at his own experience, Hall says that the most successful apps were those that he could simply hand to people who had no clue about what the software did, but who, nonetheless, could figure it out how it worked in a matter of seconds.

Have Perseverance
Most of Hall’s achievements over the last ten years weren’t overnight. Instead, they took a long time: often many years. His advice is to stay persistent, keep learning and make your apps better with every update.

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Mia Guerra

Mia Guerra

Executive Editor at Chispa Magazine
Executive Editor at Chispa Magazine, Mia Guerra is a writer at heart. Regardless the topic, she loves to investigate, encourage, and ruminate on topics that can make us better people. Aiming to live a Proverbs 31 life, Mia is ecstatic to be following her calling with Chispa. At home she is her husband's sidekick and together they are raising a God-fearing family in Atlanta.

Mia Guerra

Executive Editor at Chispa Magazine, Mia Guerra is a writer at heart. Regardless the topic, she loves to investigate, encourage, and ruminate on topics that can make us better people. Aiming to live a Proverbs 31 life, Mia is ecstatic to be following her calling with Chispa. At home she is her husband's sidekick and together they are raising a God-fearing family in Atlanta.