By Holly Zoccolan, Founder of the Carol app
First of all, I would say research! It’s so important to do your research on the type of App you’re wanting to build, is there a market for it, who will your users be and what will your route to market be. Planning, strategy and research were an integral part of how we went about starting to think about launching an app. The last thing you want to do is spend a lot of time and money building an app for you, but actually that nobody else wants! Research, speak to as many people as you can and get started. Having a great idea is one thing, but getting started is what’s important. I think it’s always good to launch and then adapt, the first version is never going to be the perfect finished product but getting your app out there is really important.
I would also suggest scheduling in your calendar different parts of the app and business you will be working on throughout the day so you manage to cover a range of work rather than spending all day figuring out your social media strategy for example, break the day up into something like Content, Social Media Strategy, Marketing strategy, SEO so you are covering all things that are equally important.
With regards to hiring, I think it’s important to do as much as you can yourself to start with to save on costs, but also being aware of where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Hiring the right developer for you is crucial for a successful app that works and is your vision, so making sure you take the time to interview a number of people to check that you are doing your research on developers as well as understanding more of the tech side of the business if you aren’t from a tech background.
With regards to social media ads, I think it’s important to know; and not many people are aware, that Facebook has a dedicated team within their Ads department that can make appointments with you directly and walk you through the whole process – very helpful, time saving and would really recommend it! Before we hired our Marketing Manager we had calls with the Meta Tech team to help us with our Pixel and CAPI, to help us choose which ads are most appropriate for us and we have direct contact with them so can email them anytime which is incredibly helpful – so definitely take advantage of this service – it’s free!
Making sure you research, plan, build out your strategy and speak to a number of different developers helps you to understand how your app will feel and run and give you a better sense of any pivots you need to take and different ideas. I also think it’s important to know that you don’t have to take everyone’s advice on board – everyone will have their own opinion, so listening and taking what you choose is important and try not to overthink. Getting started is so important or your app idea will just remain an app idea.