How to create a perfect mobile app business plan?

Are you a business?

A Start-up?

Legacy Enterprise?

Mid-Sized firm?

It could be any size, any field of work, and any number of employees.

You must have had at least one discussion about having an app for your business.

This app may or may not directly impact your business, especially in terms of dealing with your consumers.

This app may purely be for your internal team or your entire business model could be based and be dependent on this app.

But, you would have discussed the idea of an app, for sure.

To say mobile apps are the future of this smartphone-dependent world, will be saying the very least.
Don’t believe us. Look at the numbers.

As per the first quarter of 2020, Android users had access to 2.56 million apps.

Apple’s App Store was the second-largest with almost 1.85 million available apps for iOS.

That said, businesses now, no matter what size they are or what industry they function in, are brainstorming potential app development ideas.

But, you need to remember that hitting on that brand idea is not enough to kickstart your app development process!
Cracking the idea maybe is the foundation to move forward, but it is equally important to work on a business plan for the mobile app that gives a proper structure.

Merely having a brilliant idea you want to execute is not enough, thereby making a business plan important.
No no, don’t feel overwhelmed, we got you covered.

But what about these things? Well, here we go.

First things first; the idea

Brainstorm, brainstorm and brainstorm the idea for your mobile app

Think about it, your idea is the foundation of your entire app development process. So it is of utmost importance to ensure your idea is solid and well thought off.

Bring your entire team out, start brainstorm sessions.

The best idea here would be to have people from various fields to provide ideas and insights so that your app is well suited to hit the market.

Every fresh set of eyes that views the app will provide valuable feedback and insights into the better development of the idea in turn resulting in better development of the app.

On the other hand,

Identify the gap aka problem you want to solve

Seriously, ask yourself

What gap are you filling?

What problem are you solving?

Find where your app fits

While you are at it,

Identify your USP

Is your app maybe the first of its kind to be ever developed?

Or do you have competition?

Either way, it is important to understand and establish the USP of your app.

You must have a clear answer to what will be the factor that will make your app stand out from the rest, thereby clearly establishing your USP.

Okay, now, what’s next?

Marketing understanding and analysis

Do your market analysis, for your business plan

Run a market scan to draw a comprehensive analysis of the market. This analysis is conducted to understand every aspect of the market you are entering into.

From a competition point of view to your consumer behaviour, a market analysis also helps you with.

Finding similar apps or existing competition

It is a good habit to research on competitor apps.

Find out what went right or wrong with those apps.

It’s simple: Do not repeat the same mistakes!

Third-party apps such as App Annie and Sensor Tower also help in analytics that may enable to understand the market size and the competitors you are up against.

Now,

Collect and understand data from app stores

Survey of this data helps in understanding the kind of apps that feature in paid and free versions.
Data from app stores also help in understanding reviews and knowing what people like and/or dislike or essentially the overall perception of an app.

And finally, find out

What is the market size?

Last step of your market analysis.

Understand how massive or minute your potential market in. This helps in understanding the potential position of your app.

Okay now, what’s next?

The Target Group

Identify your exact Target Group

Self-explanatory really. But very crucial.

Your defined TG (target group) also helps you with the UX and UI elements of your app, basis what the audience prefers.

This can sometimes also impact the platform you choose to launch your app on, for instance, if a majority of your TG is Android users, then it will make sense for you to launch your app on Android first.

Analyse your TGs preferences

What do they like and dislike?

Crucial for various aspects of the app development process- such as the user interface.

This will also come handy when you work on your marketing strategy.

The mobile app

Pen down your final concept for your business plan

Much like a big reveal, it is only logical to pen down your exact final concept.

This will include the key features of your app, along with your USP.

It is important to have this final concept ready in order for you to start your app development process.

Now, Finalise your mobile app experience

You will now move onto designing your actual app experience. A tangible solution to bring out your idea.
This can be done via a paper drawing

An artwork, Digital designs etc.

The idea is to give an image to the experience you are trying to give your potential consumer.

What next?

Be clear with the goals of what your app is trying to achieve

You must establish your goals, as a part of your business plan for mobile app

These goals may range from what the app is trying to solve, to where you’d want the app to be after 5 years.
Having clear goals gives a clear vision and aids the app development process.

What next then?

Budgeting

Cost of app development

Probably the most crucial aspect of any business plan for mobile app- budgeting.

At this stage, it is a good idea to sit with your developer and actually work out the cost of your mobile app development basis your idea, concept, platform, and app experience.

Developers and their experience helps in putting an image to your app, thereby helping with the cost of the app development.

Also,

find out the cost of maintenance

It is important to understand the cost of app maintenance services. This includes a smooth running of your app, and regular updates etc.

What will be your operating cost?

You must take into account your cost of operations. For this, you will work to understand your manpower requirement, your day to day expenses etc.

And lastly, what are your marketing costs?

You must define marketing solutions and strategy to ensure the success of an app.

This stage will overlap with your marketing strategy step because a marketing budget can only be allotted post finalisation of marketing strategy.

So naturally,

Marketing Strategy

Look at the user persona

Define your user persona.

It is possible to have multiple user personas and thereby is best to define these as detailed as possible.
These are defined on the basis of- Age, Geography, Gender, Income, Occupation, Marital Status etc.
Along with this, you must also work on analysing psychographic data such as- Hobbies, app usage, tech savviness, favourite sites/apps etc.

What is your customer acquisition strategy?

How exactly do you plan to acquire and gain customers?

Especially crucial for a new launch, it is a good habit to leverage data to fathom consumer behaviour, thereby understanding available marketing opportunities.

This ensures that your marketing attempts reach your consumer exactly how you want.

What are your key metrics for success?

Define your exact metrics.

What will define your marketing success?

What outcomes are you looking for?

What will be the exact indicators that will show your marketing strategy is working?

It’s now time, to look at

Your team

Find the right team and the right partner

Chances are you already have a partner and a potential team working with you.
It is, however, very important to make sure you have the right time and the right partner.
This will really make or break your entire project aka your app.

A good team, and a partner on the same page as you will determine your success or failure.

But, how will you know?

Look at ast experiences

Past experiences not just aid in bringing knowledge and work ethic but also help in determining the future of the app, with experience.

Impact on potential investors

At some point, you will look for funding and will reach out to potential investors.
Investors take a keen interest in the partners and in the teams before taking a final decision.
They usually analyse the past experiences, solidity of the idea and team skills.

While we are on the topic, let’s discuss

Funding

What is your business model and monetization strategy?

Ask yourself:

How do you plan to make money from this app?

What are your options?

In-App advertising, In-app purchases, Freemium, advertising based on incentives and subscription models either monthly or yearly.

The choice of these options will differ basis the app you are planning to make. You may also choose to charge the users for a single download.

This is where your market analysis and consumer persona come into help.

Figure out your costs

Basis your budgeting, it is work on a projected profit and lost statement that will give you a clear image of how much you can self-sustain and how much funding will your need.

Have clear answers!

We said it once and we’ll say it again.

Merely getting an idea is not enough for your app development process.

Ensuring a well drafted business plan is the only way to go about a mobile app development process.

Simply put,

The app development will undergo many phases and evolve as the process goes on, and business plan for mobile app will make sure you have a clear structure to refer to.

Also learn about: How to Get Funding for Your App Using Crowdfunding