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How much I spent on creating a mobile application, and how the coronavirus revived it

Hello everyone! I haven’t written for a long time, I am correcting myself. For those with whom I am not familiar - Andrey. Founder of several IT projects and the company for the production of wireless vacuum cleaners PRO-EXPERT. In combination - kiter.

In past publications, I promised to share my experience in creating a business in Russia. In the last post, there was a success story about creating an offline product - the PRO-EXPERT folk wireless vertical vacuum cleaner. For six months, the vacuum cleaner became a bestseller in the market, which proved the hypothesis: if you set a goal to make a high-quality, but low-cost and consumer-friendly product, there will be luck!

But with the IT business, everything was not so smooth. If you are interested:

  • Read about the pitfalls of creating an IT project from scratch
  • Find out how much it costs to create a project based on a mobile application for apple and android
  • Understand how to choose and evaluate an idea for a business
  • Find out what is more important, an idea or market demand.
  • Get a checklist for creating an IT project from scratch
  • Learn what to think about before investing in development and starting an IT project
  • Understand who you need in the development team, or what you have to learn so that the application can live, be supported and users are happy with it
  • Is a sales department needed for a mobile application and how much does marketing cost
  • And the most delicious thing is to get a list of project fakaps, knowing about which you can save time, and most importantly money. And a little about why there is a silver lining: how the coronavirus helped the MyQRcards project of electronic business cards

I tell you.

About MyQRcards Electronic Business Card Project


Back in 2014, I worked as an IT director in the management company of a fairly large Russian holding. We have made for the top management web pages with electronic business cards. Sticked stickers with QR on the phone covers of employees, QR led to these pages.



We began to show off in front of partners and customers at meetings and hand them out instead of a return business card, not a piece of paper, which most put in a trouser pocket and then erase or forget on the bedside table ... And a nameplate with a QR code on the smartphone’s cover. Reading the code, our new acquaintance gets to a web page with an electronic business card, where your photo, contacts and company information are displayed - down to the office coordinates and academic degree (well, say, if you are a professor, or like I MSMK;). In addition, a list of social networks is available, where you can add friends in one click. And, of course, you can save a business card with photos and all information to your contacts, or write to the owner of a business card in WhatApp in one click.

The main value of all this action was not so much to surprise the client with a fashionable electronic business card, thereby showing their digital superiority, but that the client (that is, a new friend) added a business card to your phone with you, which means when you called - Your photo and all the information was highlighted, as if from an old friend. You will not wait long for an answer or explain who you are. (By the way, I practically stopped taking the phone from unfamiliar numbers. I defeated spam!)

So, having made such a handmade solution “on the knee” for ourselves, we continued to deal with other interesting tasks.

The work has begun!


In 2019, at a conference, my colleagues and I were again left without paper business cards. People began to pay attention that we are sharing a fashionable electronic business card from a smartphone case. There were requests to make them the same pages with their electronic business cards ... Well, as an entrepreneur, I certainly had euphoria - this is the same topic! Urgently need to start the project! Googled, found several abandoned projects of similar subjects on the Internet, it didn’t bother ...

FUCKUP No. 1: if when researching an idea and testing the hypotheses “who is your client” or “is there a market” you see abandoned projects - this is a sign! Look around, analyze the reasons, look for answers ... There should be a lively demand for any product. If there is no demand, and you are dreaming of a blue ocean - a call!

How to check the demand and market readiness for your idea?


I found several ways for myself. I share:

1. The first method for assessing the “suitability” of an idea is “Park” (from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg). Walking in the morning in the Silicon Valley park, he sat down on a bench with unfamiliar passers-by and started a story about his idea. Having told the idea, he asked how much interest it had. The answer was usually: "yes, great thought ...". If so, Mark asked if the stranger was ready to buy this product for a certain price (he voiced the estimated price). And asked to evaluate the chance of purchase on a 10-point scale. If in response I received a willingness below 8 out of 10, then most likely I won’t buy it. And only if the confidence was close to absolute (9 or 10 points) - Mark recorded that the idea is suitable and you can think further!

2. Next - an assessment of demand on the Internet: ask yourself how your customer will look for your product. Lock the top3 keywords. Go to Wordtart and look for these keywords, are users often looking for them? And then compare the results (the number of searches) with

  • the density of competition (how many resources and landings on the Internet are already targeted to this target audience (appear in the search results)
  • potential market size: for example, if at your request “wireless vacuum cleaner” you see 150 thousand requests per month, and the word “electronic business card” is 1 thousand, then you will receive demand 150 times lower in reality. Therefore, think about how you can compare a new project (from the demand for what you know how to buy) to appreciate the real interest.

3. The third method of assessment: “the blue ocean - is it a friend or an enemy”? Everyone says - look for the blue ocean! However, many forget that the blue ocean strategy is the creation of pre-existing demand in a new market. That is, you must not only create a product, but also create demand. But the latter is often forgotten. They simply believe that there is demand. So this method of valuation is to evaluate “but will you have the strength and resources to create demand and rock the market”? Moreover, you will do this not only for yourself, but also for all competitors who usually do not doze off and just stick to the emerging demand like leeches. So evaluate the available investments and financial resources of potential competitors. If the assessment is not in your favor - do not look for the blue ocean! This is a failure.You have to play with existing demand and by making a competitive product pick up part of the existing market. It is many times cheaper! How to estimate the project budget? The template for the IT development project will come next.

FUCKUP No. 2 : “There is definitely a demand, because we and others like the idea so much!” No matter how. We return to the previous section “how to check demand and market readiness for your idea”. If you get right to the point, it will be like with our electronic business cards to the coronavirus.

A small insight, what is the relationship between electronic business cards and coronavirus? As it turned out, a year after the project was in stagnation - there is a connection! Growth has gone.

It turned out that people began to meet less often the appearance of coronavirus. Also, everyone suddenly remembered about hygiene. They became afraid to pick up other people's things. In particular, business cards!

With the outbreak of the epidemic, companies began to contact us and acquire a solution of electronic business cards for their employees. To make it clearer, I’ll explain how the MyQRcards electronic business card works.

1. The company acquires a subscription to electronic business cards for its employees (but you can download the application for free and use electronic business cards for your loved one: to create a business card, put the mobile application in 5 clients and try everything yourself).

2. Through the personal account, the administrator responsible for creating and issuing electronic business cards to employees, enters a list of employees with basic data.



for private users: just download the application from the store and create a business card from it.

3. From the application, you can order a metal nameplate sticker, pasting which on the phone case you can conveniently share a business card. Of course, no one bothers without a sticker to share a business card, sending it from the application to a new friend, or showing a QR Business card, which is easy to scan by pointing the smartphone camera at it.

You can read more, because the post is not about the solution, but about the experience of building an IT business, which is based on a mobile application.

FUCKUP No. 3: The blue ocean is your friend ?! Aw, let's create a cool thing! No matter how. I will continue the topic of the lack of demand in the new market: there may not be demand not only because no one has come up with this cool thing. The idea itself costs nothing without implementation and demand. And what do you think, what percentage of success gives a great idea and how much does the success of an enterprise depend on demand and a quality product? Write your opinion in the comments, as I myself argue periodically on this issue. I am sure of one thing: if at least one of these factors is not enough weight, the project will fail. As, in fact, what happened with the MyQRcardS project before the coronavirus. But there were several factors actively preventing the spread of such a cool idea:

The reasons for the failure of the MyQRcardS project of electronic business cards (before the arrival of the coronavirus


1. Habits: as it turned out later, when the electronic business card application was already developed and launched, users don’t like something new, which they used to do without, and when this new one does not simplify their life. We are all idlers by nature! And when you need to install the application, create a business card and start using it - it's easier to do nothing and look for a mossy card holder in the nightstand. Rebuild units. But they become your followers and customers. Appreciate them!

2. Mentality: for example, in Japan, the exchange of business cards is a ritual. In such a country, the launch of electronic business cards is a fiasco! A business card is a cult. Her transfer is action and respect for the interlocutor. Take a look at famous business cards



But what about the Russians? As I understand it, most Russians are just quite comfortable coming to a meeting without a business card, and when you need to exchange contacts - just dictate the phone: long, not elegant, not effective - but we don’t care !? =) Of course, not everyone has that, but if the project needs mass for payback, and the mentality is inappropriate, then there will be no success.

3. Prosperity level: where is it here, MyQRcardS is free to create one business card, and most do not need more? ... Yes, but it takes up space on a smartphone, and we are accustomed to saving due to limited abundance. There is always not enough space on smartphones and putting an extra application, for many, a stop factor.

What has changed with the advent of the pandemic? We quietly become different and this is visible. People began to wash their hands, a healthy disgust appeared, which has long been characteristic of a number of nations. The companies began to think about how to protect employees from a pandemic (and they first began to think, since they bear the whole burden of responsibility for workers). And many are beginning to understand that exchanging business cards, in view of the current situation, is not such a safe thing and began to look for electronic substitutes for the ancient ritual. In general, the corporate user began to search and find us, without this, the project was doomed!

Here are brief financial statistics on the project : how much does it cost to create a mobile application for apple and android, plus a backend, web and infrastructure for them?

Expenses



Total, to launch the solution - 2.7 mln.r. (rounding) and further on at 2.4 million per year for support. Do not forget that the application itself does not live. Users find bugs, new versions of phone operating systems come out that require updating your applications, and new devices (especially for the iPhone, this is important), new requirements appear on the app stores of the mobile platforms Apple store and Google play market. In general, support and continuous improvement are needed.

The composition of the team of a similar IT project (creating a mobile application of electronic business cards MyQRcardS) by roles, by the example of our project (some of the resources were used from the existing company team and were not calculated into the project budget) but if it were completely done on our own:

  • Analyst and / or product owner
  • Architect / Development Manager
  • IOS Developer
  • Android ( )
  • WEB-
  • Back-end

MyQRcards


  1. — ( — ) 30 . — Google Apple. 50%. — 5000. 1000$.
  2. — 500 / . 100 , 50 000 ., . , , , . , , .
  3. — 5000 , - . — , ? .

- -


To summarize what needs to be done to create an IT project, I would say the following:

1. Check the idea, be sure to interview as many strangers as possible (acquaintances often do not want to offend or argue with you, so their answers are not always enough objective)

2. Calculate the project economy, taking into account the following cost items:

  • Registration of a company or individual entrepreneur (up to 30 thousand rubles) initially and from 40t.r. in year. Taxation is a simplification of income (6% of turnover for IT is optimal). I do not take self-employed into account, since they cannot have employees.
  • Office rent - from 500 rubles per sq.m. on average per month. Everything is online - you can probably, but I can’t do it ... Productivity is falling.
  • : ( ), 1.5. (, , , .) . - - . ~14%.
  • , — 20% . , , 70-100% . : - (., google.adwords, )

3. Calculate the monetization of the project based on the fact that marketplaces applications in a circle take up to 50% of revenue. Calculate how much you need to sell in pieces so that the project pays off. Think about who you need to support and provide these volumes and adjust your spending budget. It will not be difficult to calculate if you try to simulate the sales process, calculate the time spent on one sale, multiply the time costs by the payroll of participants and the coefficient 1.3-1.4 (more than 70% of the employees do not work on the total working time).

4. Lay down other overhead costs: creating a site with support, design of marketing materials, software licenses, office equipment, hospitality expenses. Offhand - about 5% of the project budget excluding marketing.

5. Try to find the backbone of the team and discuss all issues with them.

6. Plan your investment for a minimum of one year. A rare IT product cycle can be less than a year. The minimum development period to MVP is one year. Complex projects - from two to three years. Then another year - entry into the market and only then - development and growth.

As for our project of electronic business cards MyQRcardS - the total cost of the project, currently amounted to about $ 68,000 (5 million rubles), including operating costs.

Payback? She is not without corporate sales in our project. And if your path is subscriptions in Apple and Google markets - consider the economy with the costs higher, since even without the marketing component, which in such projects reaches 70% of the total costs (promotion of applications), payback is a very difficult task if You, of course, are not a developer, a tester, a designer, a marketer, a support specialist, an architect, a seller, or an entrepreneur in one package, but you did something very necessary, with high demand, the audience’s willingness to pay for subscriptions, and something super- viral!

But despite the fact that the payback of our project is illusory, we do not plan to close the project of electronic business cards.

We are an IT company and the costs of supporting this solution are not so significant for us, but we and our customers like the solution. And today, for us it turned out to be the most important and relevant that the application of electronic business cards MyQRcardS helps to avoid the physical exchange of business cards, which is fraught with the spread of viral infection due to the current situation of the epidemic - coronavirus.

Health to all!

Ask questions in the comments, I will try to answer everyone. If you decide to develop something - carefully calculate the budget of the income and expenses of the project before you start, identify the need of your client, make sure he is ready to pay as much as is required to implement the target model of monetization of your solution. And good luck! Entrepreneurship is a state of mind, a drive and an endless search for new ideas, and further - ways of their implementation and monetization.

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