Creating a Business App: A Step-by-Step Guide

It’s no secret that mobile apps have become part of our daily lives. From increasing brand awareness to generating more sales and improving internal workflows, the use cases for mobile apps in 2022 are seemingly endless.

But how do you get started with app development?

The vast majority of executives and decision-makers understand the importance of mobile apps. Many already have an app idea in mind. But taking that next step to actually create an app is where they struggle.

If this sounds like your situation, you’ve come to the right place. This step-by-step guide simplifies the mobile app development process and explains how to create an app for your business that’s delivered on time and within your budget.

7 Steps to Create Apps For Your Business

App development is far less daunting when you break it down into simple, attainable tasks.

1. Define your app development goals
2. Set your budget and establish a timeline
3. Assemble your app development team
4. App design
5. Add your key features
6. Testing
7. Promote and publish

We’ll cover each of these steps in greater detail below:

Step #1 — Define Your App Development Goals

It sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many businesses skip or rush through this first step. Don’t make the same mistake.

Take a moment to truly understand your app’s purpose. This is the first building block on your path of building a successful app.

Avoid obvious or ambiguous goals like “we want to make more money” or “we want to make our customers happy.” These aren’t specific enough to drive the rest of this process and won’t get you very far.

Obviously, your goals will vary based on factors like your business size, target audience, industry, and other factors.

But one of the first things you should do is think about your app users. What pain points or frustrations are you trying to solve for them? Are you creating a customer-facing app that’s available for mass download on the app stores? Or is this an internal app for your employees?

Let’s look at some example goals for both consumer apps and internal apps so you have a better idea of how to approach this step.

Mobile Apps For Customers

The following example scenario may not apply to your specific business. But you can replicate the thought process and logic as you’re narrowing the focus of your goals.

Let’s say you run a gym chain with 25 locations across three states in your region. Each location has a different class schedule, and attendance varies by class, time, and instructor. Some classes are packed, and others are empty. Not only is this hindering the customer experience, but it’s also costly when you factor in the instructor’s fees to teach an empty room.

The solution—a mobile app with a real-time booking feature. Members can view schedules, class information, and sign-up for a spot directly from their mobile devices.

Can a gym app have features like membership sign ups, personal training videos, meal plans, and workout routines? Absolutely. But first, you need to focus on your primary goal and use case. Secondary features can always be added in at a later point.

Mobile Apps For Employees and Internal Processes

Internal apps are completely different from customer-facing applications. These are typically designed to improve the employee experience or reduce costs in specific workflows. 

In this scenario, let’s say you have a mid-sized organization with roughly 700 employees dispersed across eight corporate offices nationwide. In addition to those eight offices, 20% of your staff is fully remote, and an additional 35% is hybrid. The majority of those hybrid employees split time between their homes, offices, and working on the road.

The problem? Your HR department is confined to a single location in Chicago, and your HR staff is only in the office from 9 am to 5 pm EST. 

So when a hybrid employee working in California has a question about their benefits at 2:30 pm local time, they’re unable to reach an HR representative. Even if your staff is able to reach HR during office hours, they wait on hold, and it creates HR bottlenecks. This is not how you want your employees to spend time at work.

In terms of budgeting and personnel, extending HR office hours or opening an HR department in another location just isn’t an option for you right now.  

The solution—an internal mobile app for HR communication. You can set up a centralized HR communication hub and even customize an employee self-service dashboard. So if they have questions about their pay, benefits, or other HR information, they can access it 24/7 without the need to call or email an HR rep.

Other internal employee app goals could be related to training and compliance, employee onboarding, quick communication for urgent scheduling changes—the list goes on and on.

But again, rather than trying to build an app for everything, you need to focus on just one or two primary goals when you’re getting started. 

These goals will be your north star as you continue through the rest of these steps.

Step #2 — Set Your Budget and Establish a Timeline

Now that you’ve clearly identified the intent and purpose of your app, it’s time to assess your finances. Let your CFO and Controller do their jobs here and come back to the table with a reasonable budget for app development. 

They’ll obviously need to factor in some estimates for how the app will improve your ROI or change internal overhead costs.

Your HR costs might drop. But app maintenance costs will be a new line item on your expense report.

Common app development costs that you need to take into consideration include:

• App developers
• App designers
• Backend infrastructure
• Servers and architecture
• Hosting expenses
• Maintenance

In addition to the development costs, you’ll also need to consider the ongoing costs to maintain your app. Your costs don’t stop the day your app launches.

Beyond development, you’ll also need to consider your app marketing costs and user acquisition costs (assuming you’re building a consumer app). 

What kind of timeline are you looking at to launch your app? In some scenarios, you may not be in a rush. But depending on your company goals, you may need the app sooner rather than later.

For example, new ecommerce apps should be done and in the hands of users before the holiday buying season. Event apps would obviously need to be finished well before the event itself was taking plac

expensive. That’s why it’s so important to get everything right during the design phase.

Once you’re satisfied with the design, you can move on to the next step of the app development process.

This is another reason why it’s so advantageous to work with an app development company. Not only will they deliver a professional app for your business, but they’ll also handle all of the testing and updates for you.