Recently, we unveiled the Newbie’s Guide to Building an App. We received a healthy response from many of you with the natural next question - what’s next? So here we are with part 2 of the guide. To recap, in part 1 we told you that the first steps were: 1) Know what problem your iOS or Android app solves for 2) Write down your mobile app idea as detailed as possible 3) Hire a mobile app developer At this point in the process, you aren’t on your own because the developer you’ve chosen will help you along the rest of the way. However, it’s important to know what the standard process is to make sure you’re on the right track. Here’s what will happen next: 4) Conceptualization and Feature Set You’ve written out your idea and pitched it to your developer, who you’ve hired and are ready to get cracking with. Now it’s time to take your concepts and mold them into a tangible product.  The first step of that is to decide on a feature set with your team - what is it that your app will actually do? You’ll create a set of features, flesh them out and have them well detailed and written out. You will likely go back and forth with members of your team deciding on what the best functionality is to maximize your app’s potential, yet minimize unnecessary development effort. It’s all about deciding what you NEED vs what you WANT. Once you all agree on the app’s direction and features, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and start building. 5) Working with your Developer The actual building of the app is easily the longest leg of the process. Each experience with different developers will go quite differently. However, there are some mandatory conventions to bear in mind. Be clear about what you want - If you give your developers your idea, chances are they will have a general direction of where to go. Yet in order for you to get the product you really want, don’t be shy about providing your honest feedback. Listen to your developers recommendations - You are an expert about your business and about your concept, but when it comes to the building of your app, you developer is the expert. Keep an open mind and listen to their suggestions. They won’t make recommendations for any reason, but to make the app successful. Their skin is in the game too and they want your app to blow the competition out of the water. It only adds to their resume and makes them look great too. 6) Testing/UAT Next up - you have a version of your app! Your developer will give you a testing site to play around on. You’ll understand the functionality and see the idea in real life. Now it’s up to you - do you like it? This is what’s called User Acceptance Testing, or UAT. Take your time and don’t be afraid to speak up if you don’t like something - if you don’t like it chances are your users won’t either. Take your time and get it right to ensure that once you launch your app, people will like it and use it. 7) Launch & Marketing Once you’ve gone back and forth with your developers, now is the time to launch! And in order to have a successful launch...you’ll need to get your marketing strategy off the ground. We went into detail on this in The Best Mobile App Marketing Techniques, but to sum it up, here are the keys to getting started: Leverage word-of-mouth - Tell everyone you know about your app. You have no idea the compound power of word-of-mouth marketing. First you tell your parents about the app, who tell their neighbors, who tell their friends, cousins and social networks. While Facebook, Twitter and the like are excellent mediums by which to share your product, telling another human in person gets that one on one attention on your app to help spread the word to people who trust you. Bug the Bloggers - The blogosphere is one of the main sources people get their information these days. Therefore, give the bloggers something to blog about - your app. Bloggers love to have new and exciting topics to discuss, and your new mobile app should be one of them. Learn ASO - The Apple store is an online marketplace of awesome….and mayhem. Getting noticed on the Apple store, as well as Google Play, can be one of the trickiest parts of getting your app off the ground. Your developer may have some expertise in this, which is a great place to start the learning process. Building a mobile app from conception to completion can take around 18 weeks to complete. Once you do you’ll have a shiny new app that you can be proud of - at least we hope so. Need help getting started? We can point you in the right direction.

Saving is a skill a third of America lacks, with one out of three Americans living without a penny in a retirement account. This isn’t surprising in a culture where money is spent on credit and university education is paid for with borrowed dollars. Given the pressures to live a luxurious lifestyle beyond your means, it can be a challenge to get ahead financially.  Fortunately not all systems in modern western culture result in the reddening of your credit. Specifically, money saving apps.   Mint  Mint is a well known app that even our parents’ parents use. The established credibility and no brainer UI make this app a simple solution for getting all things finance on track. The app takes a look at your overall financial blueprint, including your debts, income, investments and savings. It can be a little terrifying putting all of this confidential information in one place, but perhaps more frightening is that first time you see your overall net worth. However once you get past those hurdles, Mint is an excellent solution for seeing your overall spending and saving. From there, you can set goals such as overall savings for the year or saving in specific areas of your life. One such department could include your affinity for chinese takeout...how it’s possible to spend so much per year on chinese takeout can be pretty impressive when you see your aggregate spending. But with Mint you can get those spending habits at least a little bit more in control, without entirely abandoning chow mein.   Gas Buddy  Gas prices have lately been a bit kinder to us than other times in the recent decade, but petroleum is still a place we’d rather save as many pennies as possible. Gas Buddy is the convenient app to help you locate the best gas prices in your area, and guide you to the gas stations you trust. This is especially great for the travelling salesperson unfamiliar with new towns as you travel throughout your region or state. Then, while saving money is a fun game in and of itself, Gas Buddy includes gamification features such as points for saved gas and clever car icons when you report new gas prices. Take or leave the gamification of it, the best part of this app is keeping a few more cents in your pocket that can better be spent on Italian footwear. We mean savings, savings account is where those extra pennies will go…   BillTracker  There are certainly plenty of bills that you can set to pay all by themselves with auto-payment features. Yet it’s important to keep an eye on when those payments are coming out and maintaining focus on how much you really are spending on your phone bill each month. BillTracker is the simple app that allows you to do just that. This is also helpful for those payments that can’t be set to auto-pay, making absolutely sure you don’t waste a single stupid dollar on an unnecessary late payment.   RetailMeNot  Coupon clipping is still a pain and we’re not going to sit here and say it’s a fun and cool way to spend a Friday night. But that’s why us app developers are looking out for you, and come up with apps like RetailMeNot. This is a fantastic little app for the person who loathes the concept of bargain hunting but still enjoys keeping more of his/her hard earned dollars in their fat wallet. The way we use this app is whenever we’re about to hit “Checkout” on any of your online shopping carts, we always check RetailMeNot to see if there’s a new valid coupon for your particular purchase. We can’t explain how many times we’d laugh at the idea of our bizarre purchases like a 6 pack of Mike Tyson shaped whoopie cushions having a coupon available...only to realize RetailMeNot absolutely has one and it’s 50% off. Do yourself a favor and just download it and start saving.   Digit Digit is sort of like that 4-eyed accountant that takes a look at your spending habits and tells you how much you’re capable of saving over a given period of time. That’s because it is, as the smart app that can help you strictly with reducing your spending habits to help you beef up your savings account. Once you link Digit with your bank account, it studies your income and spending habits and crunches these numbers into an algorithm to help you start the savings process without really thinking about it. Then every two to three days, the tool transfers small amounts of cash, typically between $1 - $150 dollars, from your checking account and funnels it to an FDIC-insured savings account. You are notified of these transfers via text message, kind of like the happy “clink clink” sound you heard as a child when you dropped quarters into your piggy bank.   Are there other money saving apps you use and love to stay on track? Let us know your favorites in the comments below.  

We all have our heros. Richard Branson taught us why neckties are the worst. Steve Jobs demonstrated that simplicity can build an empire. Bill Gates proved that a diploma doesn’t forecast success - and that sometimes nerds can win the whole game.   Yet today we want to focus on another hero of ours - Ron Swanson.   Fictional character of the hit NBC TV show Parks and Recreation, Swanson is a no nonsense guy’s guy. A meat eating, Europe hating, screw-the-government, breakfast food enthusiast. While much of the humor spouted by the anarchist character is heavily tongue in cheek, there’s a lot to be learned about web and mobile app development from the father of stoic narcissism.   Here are a few nuggets of Swansonian wisdom that can guide you in your iOS and/or Android application development quest:   1. "Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.”     One of the most important things when building an app is understanding that you aren’t building a super robot that can accomplish everything there ever was. You won’t develop the Tweeting LinkedIn integrated CRM with chat functionality throwing Angry Birds that Crush Candy.   Find your niche and get good at it. Not just a little bit, but REALLY good at it. You won’t please every user but if you can hone in on what makes your niche users fall in love with your app, that is how you will experience viral growth.   2. “Turkey can never beat cow.”   A little context, Ron Swanson and Rob Lowe’s health nut character face off in a hamburger cook-off. Swanson simply uses a traditional bloody beef burger with nothing on it. Meanwhile Lowe goes above and beyond with ingredients, fancy spices, flashy decorations, and generally puts far more effort dressing up his burger-mimick than Swanson ever did.   Who won? Swanson with his beef burger.   Regardless of how much effort Lowe muscled into dressing up the turkey imitation, he still was working with the wrong product - and his audience knew it. Your audience is just as aware, and will see right through your product if you don’t do it right. Now there are two things we want to point out here: Be original - don’t copy another application.   While we believe in the idea of borrowing brilliance, we don’t believe in being a copycat. Facebook is the Facebook of all the Facebooks, so don’t build another Facebook. Make sure your idea is different enough to solve a real problem in the marketplace and is the solution people are looking for and can be excited about.   Don’t hire a second-tier development team - go for quality.   As the turkey burger is inferior to the beef burger, so are unproven developers to the experts. In mobile app development, finding the right developer who knows what they are doing may seem expensive on the face of the project. But in our experience, we have had client after client come to us lamenting the hiring poor developers to save a few pennies on the surface, only to pay for their mistakes and go to the experts in the end anyway. Do it right from the start to save yourself time and money.   3. “Crying: Acceptable at funerals and the Grand Canyon.”   Building an app is a long, well worth it process, filled with unexpected roadblocks and sometimes unforeseeable problems. We previously discussed the obstacles you may face in developing your application but in sum, remember to keep a cool head and know there will be challenges. This will enable you to lead your team with patience and end up with the product you all were hoping for. The point here is not to freak out and yes, the development process can sometimes be tough.   Through the same vein, Swanson gives us another good example of demonstrating toughness. During a typical meeting, to relieve an alleged toothache Swanson grabbed a pair of pliers. After moments of shaky tugging and pulling, he yanked out his own tooth. As his colleagues horrified shrieks faded down the hallway from fleeing the room, Ron turned to the camera to state, “It’s always a good idea to demonstrate to your coworkers that you are capable of withstanding a tremendous amount of pain.” Touche Ron, touche.   4. “There’s only one thing I hate more than lying: skim milk. Which is water that’s lying about being milk."   It’s not uncommon for salespeople to over promise what their product can do. However the companies that really get ahead are honest with what they offer and clear about their application’s capabilities. When you get to the final marketing process of your mobile or web application, maintain integrity in your marketing. Being honest about your finished product is what can earn you lifetime, loyal users.   Overall, building a web or mobile application is a process. Many steps must be considered and many people will be involved - but you can do it. And now that you have completed our bacon lover’s guide to app building, may we offer one final blessing from Swanson:   “Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into Swansons.”   Have questions on getting started on your mobile app, or already started and a little stuck? Ping us here and let us know how we can help.   Ron would.