Why should I not have an app?

Imagine this: you've had a world-changing idea, so you reach out to us for help bringing it to life. We complete our investigation phase and we tell you that you don't need an app - but why is that? As a full service digital agency, we know that you're looking for some key things:

• the ability to create a positive impact with your idea, so you can change the world
• the potential to scale your idea, to create more impact
• the desire for return on investment, to provide more resources to grow
• the need for product market fit, to show that the investment you're making is worthwhile

Two of our key values are honesty and transparency - these are reflected in our investigation phase where we'll make it clear what we believe you'll benefit from having, and what we believe you either don't yet need to focus on, or what you don't need at all. There are a range of factors we consider when we make our recommendation, so your startup is best placed to succeed.

Audience

Different people will prefer different ways of interacting with a business, different ways of purchasing items, and different ways of building connections - as part of our investigation phase we consider the target demographics of your project, and take time to understand if they will truly engage with an app-delivered experience. For example, take a second to consider who an app-only experience might be excluding if you're targeting an older demographic that may not be comfortable using a smartphone. If you do decide to move forward with enhancing an existing offering with an app, be sure to consider how you'd maintain your existing offerings as to not exclude those who aren't able to use an app.

We work with our clients to suggest a range of approaches that are suitable for both the project & the target audience, whilst ensuring that access is equitable so nobody is excluded.

Development Cost

As a small business, you want your funds to go far & you want to see a return on investment that justifies the level of expenditure you're making to deliver a project. Building a world-class app doesn't come cheap, so with your budget in mind we work with you to form a series of suggestions for ways forward - some of which not necessarily involving mobile apps. For example, we may suggest building a prototype of your project as a Progressive Web App (PWA) to validate your concept before investing more money into a fully-fledged mobile app. As startup founders ourselves, we understand the need to prove product market fit before diving too far, so we structure our scopes of work to ensure we stay on the right track.

Furthermore, outside of the initial scope of work, ongoing maintenance requires engineers who are specialised in mobile development - contributing to increased costs.

Alternative Solutions to Apps

We often have prospective clients come to us and say that they need an app for their business, but they don't know where to start. Sometimes however, through our investigation phase, we discover that they don't actually need an app and that something else will create a more positive impact. We might also discover that the market itself is too saturated and that building an app to enter the market would not be a wise use of funds.

For example, some previous cases include:

• A client wanting a full web platform built to allow clients to manage projects - we recommended that they focused on expanding their consultancy side to ensure that they had enough customers who could be funnelled towards the web platform on release
• A fitness instructor wanting an app to interact with their clients, within in-app messaging, billing for sessions, and tracking of core stats - we directed them to a platform that already provided this functionality, as an equivalent app build was prohibitively expensive
• A group of taxi drivers wanting to build a platform that allowed riders & drivers to discover each other & book trips - we recommended that they consider one of the existing platforms as the cost to compete with the incumbent platforms would be unjustifiable without significant support from investors

In the past, we've also suggested responsive websites and progressive web apps as great alternatives to mobile apps, where it's been a more suitable alternative choice for our clients.

Focus on Core Business Offerings

Often it's incredibly easy to get distracted by the potential of another idea, and forgetting to fly the plane - your business still needs to be run! We ask our clients to consider if the project they're considering building is actually required for their business to thrive, or would they get value from growing other parts of their business. A great example might be a retail startup choosing to build their own data analytics solution: we would ask "are you a retail startup, or a data analytics startup?" - if the commercial benefits are there to justify the upfront & ongoing costs of building the solution are there then it could be worthwhile, but if actually it would be a distraction from the core business, we'd advise instead to look at a third-party solution instead.

Ultimately, we want our clients to succeed, and go on to create a massive positive impact on our world. Sometimes, we don't need an app to get that done, and there are other great approaches to get there instead. If you're wanting a consultation to get some feedback on your idea, reach out - we'd love to help out!