There has been a tectonic shift in the technology world as we have seen some of the most prolific technological advances. The revolution that began with the desktops swiftly moved towards laptops, and now we have mobile phone (smartphone) users that are rising with every passing day. It will not be counted as an overstatement that in the past few years, having a mobile phone has become more of a necessity than a luxury.
But now as we have entered the age of abundance, the level of competition has become more brutal and cutthroat. To survive and prevail in the present-day work environment with your mobile app development startup, you need to have an ‘all basses covered’ mobile app business plan.
The new-age mobile app development startups need to be more thorough with their business plan. The reason behind this is, their majority of the targeted audience is millennials and thus need to target their apps to reach the audience in a better manner. A well-thought-out and researched business plan is the primary requirement to kick-start business as it will be the base on which the foundation of the future will be laid.
Therefore, before getting into the details, let us understand the importance that making a Startup business plan for a mobile app.
Why do you need a Startup business plan?
Having a full-fledged plan will refrain you from putting your hand into impulsive things and will keep the money matters in order. A business plan will enable you to map the journey, and thus you can foresee the hurdles and build a strategy to avoid them, making your app development startup a successful one.
In addition to the investments and reducing the risks, a business plan escalates your knowledge in your field and helps you to take tough business decisions with proper calculations. A business plan will be your blueprint through which you can remember the important points while taking a significant decision and can improvise as per the demand of the situation.
Steps to build a successful business plan for a startup
After understanding the importance of constructing a solid business plan, we will now look at the steps required for building an ‘all bases covered’ business plan for your app development startup.
Identify the Problem
You need to identify the problem to understand the pain points of the targeted audience and thus decide on the solutions. The magnitude of the problem becomes the basis on which you have to assess and provide the solution.
To make your app development startup successful, you need to understand the metrics of the difference between the demand and supply chain in the market. After this, your business plan should have a detailed analysis of:
1. What significant impact your solution can cause on the life of your targeted audience?
2. Does your targeted audience already have a solution? If yes, how effective is it?
After analyzing the questions mentioned above, list the potential solutions so that they could attract investors. Here you can explain how your mobile app solutions will eradicate the concerned problems and make life easier for the consumers. Moreover, keep in mind to only mention the things that are concerned with the solutions that you are providing, Refrain yourself from listing the distinct quail ties and features of the app to maintain the sanctity of the Unique Selling Point (USP).
Explain what is unique about your business product
There are more than 4 million apps on the Apple store and the play store. Thus your business product must have a Unique Selling point (USP) that can differentiate it from its peers. For example, the mobile game PokemonGo had Augmented Reality as its USP, and it used nostalgia to the core to create one of the highest downloaded and liked gaming apps. On the other hand, Uber concentrated on the commuting problems of their targeted customers and created a free-flowing taxi booking app to counter.
Your startup business plan must have an explanation of how your app is different from the other apps in your category to divert the world’s attention towards it.
Moreover, the startups must know that once they have set their USP, it is not necessary that it will be permanent and will stand the changing times. The USP of your product must also evolve according to the updates and new features.
Defining your USP might become a challenge if you are entering an unexplored market. Still, if you are entering into an established setup, you better be sure about your high points. The USP will be crucial to give your mobile app a head-start at the app market and keep it ahead of its peers.
Develop a well-researched company profile
Mention the details of your partners, the registration details so that your investors won’t have an issue in understanding the background of your startup business. In addition to it, highlight the critical members of your team and what they do in their job profiles.
Don’t forget to tell a brief history of your company and the origin of the idea on which you have started the business. Mention the highlights of the company and its achievements, the kinds of clients or company backgrounds that you have served in a period, etc.
While explaining about your team, write in detail about the nature of work they do, their location (in-house or remote), total experience in app development or related work. Apart from mentioning the administrative panel, don’t forget to include the names of the advisory members as well.
Operational Strategy
You need to clearly define the strategy that your organization is going to implement going about the daily works of mobile app development. A stoic operational strategy plays an integral part in defining the nature of work and creating awareness among the employees and thus forms a vital cog in building a mobile app.
You can differentiate your operational strategies into two categories:
- Personal Plan: This process will highlight your hiring process and the data related to the employees. Right from their hiring process, to their salaries to the work hierarchy they will follow, everything will be mentioned in the personal plan category of the operational strategy.
- User Process: The information related to user behavior will be mentioned here. You can have the data related to user behavior from their previous buying habits and the changing trends in the market related to your genre.
Market Analysis
Knowing the market in and out is one of the significant factors that will help you realize the full potential of your mobile application development startup. Right from the short-term forecasts to knowing the trends to keeping an eye on the future, a thorough market analysis will be essential in showing the actual viability of your business and help in its sustainment in the future.
Market analysis will give you the real report about whether your product has an audience and also the amount of growth your business can expect in the coming years. Moreover, for the success of your startup business plan, you need to do the SWOT (Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat) analysis by going to the depth of the market and realizing the future potential of your business.
Market Research
After getting a project for your mobile app development startup, validate the app idea before going into the development phase. You need to know the targeted audience, the size of the market, and the available demand for the solution that you are going to provide through the mobile app. Along with this, it becomes essential to hire dedicated developers as they would upscale the level of the app with their expertise and prowess.
Have a firm hold and knowledge about the three key parameters that define the market:
- The available audience in the market that demands the kind of solution you are providing with your mobile app
- Among the available audience, the number of users that you can target through sales and the various marketing channels.
- Among the targeted audience, who would be the first users of your product
By researching every aspect of the parameters mentioned above, you can develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of your app before going with a full-fledged app in the market. The MVP will help you realize what your targeted customers want, and thus you can re-design your business plan and development strategy accordingly.
Monetization Strategy
An excellent investment is only successful when you have an excellent mobile app monetization strategy that allows you to earn rich profits on the investment. The following techniques will help you make money and expand your mobile application development startup product.
- Subscription: Like Netflix and other OTT platforms, you can earn money by charging your users monthly or yearly based on the kind of services you are giving them.
- Paid-app: Keep some exclusive features of the mobile app paid and encourage the users to buy them to avail themselves of the additional benefits without any hassle. For example, if you have a monthly subscription to Spotify, you can listen to ad-free music, download unlimited songs and listen to them offline as well.
- In-app advertisements: In-app advertisements are the best options if you wish to increase the number of your targeted audience. The reason behind this is, you don’t have to charge money from your users as the advertisers will pay for their spot.
Summarizing
Every new business has to face its share of hurdles while finding its feet in the ruthless modern-day business world. However, with a stoic business plan for your mobile application startup, you would have a layer of cushion to fall back on when the situation gets tough out there. As a reputed mobile application development organization, we’ll consult and guide you throughout your app development journey and help you surge ahead of the competitors.