So who is going to build your App?
There are a number of ways you can go about building mobile apps so let's run through them.
The first and cheapest option is to build it yourself. This requires a number of skill sets, however. You need to have expertise in design, architecture, coding, and development operations to build and deploy a custom mobile application. And, I'm guessing that if you had all of that expertise, you probably wouldn't need to read this article!
The second option is to get freelancer(s) to build the app for you. This can be a less expensive manner of getting an app up and running than hiring staff or an agency. There are lots of good tech freelancers available. There are some inherent risks though. The biggest risk is that you are investing everything in one individual and, if anything changes on their side that makes them unavailable temporarily or permanently, you may be left high and dry. They may become unavailable due to illness, a more attractive project opportunity, a new employment offer, changing family circumstances, etc. This can happen mid-project or, frequently, post-launch when you need further assistance or servicing.
One other issue to be mindful of when engaging a freelancer is their blend of skills. As mentioned above, building an app requires various skill sets and sometimes these skills are almost mutually exclusive. What does that mean? Well, you need someone imaginative and creative to do your User Interface design work and someone highly structured and logical to do your application architecture. Can that be the same person? Maybe, but you will likely have to make compromises in quality.
The third option is to hire your own staff. This can be the most expensive option because not only will you have all of the recruitment, salary, employment benefits, and taxation costs, but you will also have new overhead. Overhead may or may not include formal office space but will definitely include things like hardware, servers, tooling software licensing, and subscriptions. Believe me, it racks up quickly!
There are numerous benefits to hiring your own people of course.....project control and retention of domain knowledge to name two.
The last option is to hire a specialist mobile app agency to build the app for you. I own a mobile app agency so I'm obviously biased but, in my opinion, agencies provide the ideal solution for the majority of funded tech start-ups and SMEs in particular. Agencies can also provide excellent outsourced staffing solutions to enterprise-level companies and large brands that want to build mobile products quickly, in an agile manner, without committing to the usual associated overhead. The reason why this is the case is that the right agencies will have all of the skill sets required and offer a balance between project cost and control.
If you have a mobile tech project in mind, get in touch and I will provide the best advice I can.
Karl
