How to make the highest return of self-employment (12 tips from professionals)

 The creation of an electronic application is one of the most important means of profit from the rising Internet in the current period. Everyone relies on applications in various life fields such as social networking, entertainment, money transfer, etc.

Also, the use of applications is no longer limited to technical experts, but millions of people rely on applications in their daily lives without having large or even medium technical knowledge, and without having to have expensive smartphones.

How to create a successful and profitable application in 10 practical steps

In 2020, the profits of applications reached about $582 billion, and this is a sign that the market for applications is successful and profitable.

You may now think that entering this domain is limited to major companies and this is not true, in this article we explain in detail the steps to create a smartphone app through which you can make thousands of dollars and more.

Steps to Create a Mobile App

1. Identifying the idea of application

There are several methods you can rely on to determine the idea of the application you want to create and the most important ones:

a) Identification of need

The reason for the success of the greatest apps and websites is their ability to meet the needs that their users have desperately needed to meet.

Mark Zuckerberg relied on the need for individuals to socialize online to create and develop the Facebook app, slack app developers relied on the need for individuals to communicate directly and securely during working times and many other applications.

In general, humanity cannot suffice from electronic applications, and we can say that there is more than one application for most human needs, yet you still have the opportunity to create an app that meets one of these needs. All you have to do is identify the need you want to meet.

You can start by yourself as with most successful app developers. Ask yourself what app I need in my life but I don't find it. Is it a medical application? Or a more focused application? You may need an app that helps you perform your business better, the odds don't end.

Find one of the most important problems you meet in your life on a daily or periodic basis and find a solution by creating an app. Don't worry about how the app works or is designed. This is easy. We will explain the easiest ways to complete it later in this article.

Also, identifying needs should not only be confined to you, it can extend to individuals around you. There are a large number of applications and even inventions created by their designers to help their relatives and friends overcome problems they were experiencing.

Your friends and relatives will be excited to discuss the problems they experience daily when they know you are thinking about solving them, and some may even become one of the sources of funding you can rely on to create your app as we will clarify it later.

Finally, you can search and see the needs and problems that users post on social media sites. Human lives are complex and sometimes conditions occur that require new applications to confront them, such as those that have emerged in the last two years following the famous epidemic.

Seeking to meet a certain need is one of the most important sources of ideas for creating apps for mobile phones, as it helps to access an idea that has a request from users. The more demand to meet an individual's need the more they are willing to pay money to get it.

b) Improvement

You may not know this; But Facebook is not the first social media site (or app) on the Internet, it's just that Facebook is a development of social media sites (scarce at the time) such as myspace, which went viral after Facebook appeared.

Optimization of software and applications (and sometimes websites) is a common method used by many major technology companies.

Some companies are improving on the applications they already have available, and others are doing an improved application from a previously existing app, whether this app belongs to them or purchased from another company as happened between Yahoo and a written site.

Of course, the improvement goes beyond a change in design or color, we are talking here about adding improvements that change this app radically, in fact, most of the new great apps are improved copies of other apps that were old.

Most of the conversational apps on smartphones, for example, are not much different from the apps we used in the last decade.

I am of a generation using programs like yahoo messenger and Hotmail messenger, and I can assure you that both apps can be considered spiritual parents for apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and others.

What I like about this way is that it enables you to create an app without looking for an idea and turning it into an app from scratch, remember that you don't always need to come up with a new idea to create around your app just the opposite.

You can choose the idea of a previously executed application and advance it through your application in a whole new way. There are a huge number of apps that offer solutions to major life problems but failed due to technical factors or because of their developers' lack of interest and many other reasons.

You can reintroduce the ideas of these apps after radically improving them in terms of technology and design, as well as work to address the problems that have led to these apps failing to deliver their services and solutions to the satisfaction of users.

Of course, you should focus on improving the way to deliver the solution that the idea offers in general and not creating an application that offers the same solution. Note that your application should be different from any other application for two reasons the first is to avoid entering into legal problems and the second is excellence.

There are a large number of grocery delivery service applications. If you make an application for the same purpose, you will be subject to legal accountability or charged with theft of property rights. Of course not, this will only happen if you make a similar application in the form and are subject to an application that already exists.

To excel in providing grocery delivery service, for example, you need to know the problems of other apps and how you can solve them, this will help you improve the idea of grocery delivery in general.

So you will have a grocery delivery app home but it is outstanding and improved in terms of performance, delivery, or other, also in this way you may have improved a solution that was already there.

Note that it's easy to persuade users to use an app that offers a solution they know about relying on an app that offers a whole new solution.

Finally, as a simple exercise pick up your mobile phone and take a look at the apps you use constantly, now see the performance of each app are you fully satisfied with it? Do you have ideas for improving it or developing the service it offers? If the answer is yes, excellent, I found the idea of your application.

c) Integration

The method of integration in the creation of applications is very similar to the method of improvement but only form and not subject matter.

Integration is one of the famous methods that can be relied upon to find an application idea, the idea is based mainly on the merger of two ideas into one application with only the integration being abstract.

Abstract integration is the merger of only two basic ideas such as making short-term videos (Idea 1) (Idea 2), TikTok merged the idea of videos on the YouTube platform with the idea of short videos, which have been on Facebook for some time.

TikTok relied on many other sub-ideas and combined them with its basic ideas. Some of these sub-ideas included the addition of effects and filters, all of which were preceded by a large number of social media programs, headed by Instagram and Snapchat.

Now if you go through Idea 1 with Idea 2 and some of the previous sub thoughts you'll know that the idea of TikTok is not new at all, if anything, it shows that the method of integration is popular in the field of app creation.

Most financial and e-payment applications depend on the merger concept and users are always looking for a comprehensive application.

In the case of these apps, all users are looking for an app that they can perform all their financial transactions through, so we see many of these apps provide more than one type of financial service such as paying bills, transferring money, and even charging the balance of electronic games.

You might think that financial apps have always worked like this but the truth is otherwise, each of the previous services had a different application in previous years, and then one smart developer collected all these services and provided them in one app for users.

Users preferred to use one app for all their financial transactions instead of relying on several apps, note that this is better in terms of ease of use and security.

You can also integrate more than one idea and service into one app. You just need to select your application domain and look for and study leading applications, and how they can be integrated or integrate properties from them to deliver a whole new app.

2. Specification of application characteristics

Some may mingle the concept of an application as including application characteristics and this is not true. The idea of the app is the solution that this app provides to its users, but the characteristics are how this app provides or offers this solution to users.

In the example of the previous grocery application; The application meets the need for individuals to buy grocery ingredients without much effort. As for the characteristics, we can say that it details the application of this need and the advantages offered by the application in the field of grocery delivery.

The failure in this example may relate to the delivery of such orders, the time of arrival, or even the place of receipt or payment. Another popular example is financial applications The idea of this app is to facilitate electronic payments and purchases for users.

The features of these applications may be the possibility of paying invoices, linking to electronic wallets or a bank account, and so on. The bottom line is that you need to make a list of the characteristics of your app.

We know that you may have a large number of characteristics and features that you would like to add to your app and this is great, however, you would prefer to divide these characteristics into basic and secondary characteristics.

Basic characteristics are the centerpiece of the solution or meet the need of users you aim to help through your app, and therefore you should be the primary focus of your attention in terms of thinking and studying.

Secondary characteristics may include visual characteristics, presenting data in a particular way, or even sharing it on social media, such characteristics may be anything you want and are of course important, but their importance is not as important as the basic application characteristics.

Note that the software design of the app is expensive and to at least reduce the cost first should focus on the basic application characteristics only, of course later you can add all the secondary features you want whether it be through simple updates or comprehensive updates.

Also identifying the basic characteristics of your app will help you expose it to investors.

Investors need to learn about the most important thing your app will offer to users. This will help them during the process of deciding to fund this app. It can even be considered as the final in the process of financing this app, as we will explain later.

3. Study the market and search for the most famous applications in your application field

Now you have reached the idea of your application... It's time to study his market. Whatever the idea of your app is, it belongs to a certain field in the world of smartphone applications.

If your app offers a money-related service it belongs to the economic sphere, your app offers some form of communication so it wishes for social media apps, and so on.

You need to carefully study the domain market to which your app belongs, as it will alert you to important factors affecting the success of your app such as:

• The extent to which the market needs your application (related to market size, scope, and most famous applications).
• The nature of competition in this market (competition in the financial application market is ferocious as opposed to that in the field of self-development applications).
• The extent to which the applications available in this market meet users' needs.

The last point of users' needs moves us to the very important question of... Is there another application based on your same idea? This is another important thing to watch out for. Don't worry the existence of this app doesn't mean that your app doesn't have to show up in the light but may be necessary.

Don't marvel. One app can't control a whole field. In any field you will find a large number of apps that perform almost the same purpose, Facebook and Twitter are considered to be the most important social media apps, but each has a different form and audience.

Telegram plays the same role as WhatsApp with some additional features, yet both are different from others and have a large number of users.

It makes you more hairstyle; A large number of users rely on several applications to perform a single purpose, this is not limited to entertainment or social media areas but extends to financial and service applications.

Well, some apps already exist that are based on the same idea as your app.

There are several things you can do so you prepare to compete with similar apps for your app such as:

• Do SWOT analysis work (analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) for your application and competing applications.
• Download the top 5 apps you expect to compete with and use them intensively.
• Find users' opinions on these apps and the most important reasons why they use them.

There is also a manual approach to the previous style that involves taking the following steps:

• Record the most important information about these applications such as; Name, price, valuation, number of downloads, developer of application... And so on.
• Setting certain criteria that suit you will reduce the number of apps you would like to compete with (for example, you may not want to compete with an app that is rated below 3.8 on the Google Store or do not want to compete with a paid app), this will give you fewer apps that aim to compete with.
• Find the most demanding features by the audience of these apps and add them to your app.
• Target weaknesses in similar apps and try to address them in your app.

Now you compete with 4 or 5 apps in your application area and this is better in terms of resource concentration and ideas. Competition is always based on the introduction of features and additions to the public that are not present with competitors, which is easy to do if you follow previous steps.

4. Determine which operating systems the app will work on

You must select the operating systems on which your application will operate, operating systems are the market for any application.

If you create an app that works on Android only, you will fight your competition with the applications of this system.

This of course means that the more your app runs on multiple operating systems and devices the more markets you will compete in, this at first glance may be scary, but it is not as it will provide you with greater opportunities for success and growth.

Also, this means that you will earn your profits in several different ways, you can freely access the app on Android and provide it paid on IOS or vice versa according to your market study.

Each public operating system has a different economic nature and the presence of your app on more than one system increases the number of your customers and by extension your profits.

Well, you may now wonder which operating system has been chosen. Answering this question is due to you, the latest statistics indicate that the number of Android phone users reaches 70 percent of the world's total smartphone users.

This means that providing your app to work on this system helps you access a huge number of customers, however, users of IOS phones have higher purchasing power, as well as the likelihood that they will buy the apps.

I can write a full article on the advantages and disadvantages of creating an app that works on either system... It's confusing. I know that.

My advice to you is to conduct the following studies on the following factors that vary from application to application:

• Application area (acceptance of applications of a particular area varies from one operating system to another).
• The cost of creating your application on both operating systems.
• Will you be rolling out your app for free or paid?

In general, most app owners aim to create their apps to run on Android and IOS simultaneously, some may choose to launch their apps on one system before the other, but most target both systems and are always a profitable and successful option.

Use the results of previous studies to identify the first operating system that you will call your app, after success and growth you can launch on the second system.

5. Identification of the initial design of the application (simple model design of the application form)

The initial design is intended for user interface and app pages, not for the application's or Backend's software part, so is the page design meant for Frontend? Yes, no.

The initial design of the interface and sections of the app is a design and layout of the overall format of the application. The programming of these drawings to work when the user interacts with them and the way they appear is the so-called Frontend.

While creating your app you prefer to have imagined the shape of its interface and arrange the appearance of its sections, this imaginary design will be converted to your application prototype, which even if later changed is very important and we will later explain why it is important.

This is a very important step in creating your app, and of course, there is more than one way to execute it according to your imagination of the shape of your app, we will first assume that you have an imagination of the shape of your app interface and the pages of its sections.

Now you need to convert this design from just an idea to a sketch either on paper or digitally on a computer. On paper, sketch the form and sections of the app and transfer them to the digital image by you or through a specialized graphic designer.

Of course, converting the idea to a direct digital format is much better, but it may need some pure experience or the use of a designer as we have shown.

However, there are several tools you can use to implement your design digitally, the most important of which are:

1. Sketch
2. Figma
3. InVision Studio

Previous tools will enable you to convert the initial design of your application form into a digital design. The importance of this model lies in its ease of implementation compared to the entire creation of the app itself, which needs resources that may not be available to you.

This model can be relied upon while communicating with those who hope to get funding from them. Of course, these entities prefer to see a complete application in software, but having this model with the idea and characteristics of the application provides a thorough view of the idea of your application and its design.

Important note: This step can be overlooked and start designing the application directly. Interface design, pages, and programming are the prerogative of a programmer specializing in programming the application interface or Frontend developer in coordination with the application's design officer.

However, we mentioned it here, because in the early stages of the application (and even before getting funding or agreeing with the app design) you may need to create an initial form of its interface yourself and the easiest way to do so are the tools we mentioned in this part.

6. Choose the name of the application

I know what's going on in your head. Why are you so late in discussing this area? Choosing the name of the app is a step that can be completed at any time, and some popular apps even change their name more than once over their working years.

However, the name of the app is very much related to its idea and characteristics, so it is preferable to choose it after completing these two steps. Studying the market is another important factor in choosing the name of the app, through which you may discover that there is an app with the same name as you chose for your app.

You may also come up with suggestions for your app name based on other app names in this domain or what users are looking for.

Of course, this does not prevent you from choosing your app name before making any of the previous steps (including identifying its idea), but many technical experts advise that whatever options are available to you and the word is correct.

Choose an attractive name that is easy for your audience to pronounce, also taking into account your target audience's culture and nature, will you target your country's audience or that of several countries or aim to create an app with a global audience?

Don't forget that whenever your app name is simple and easy to remember whenever this contributes to the process of spreading it among users.

Lastly, the name of the app should indicate the service it offers. This will make it easier for users to identify it, which greatly encourages them to use it. Everyone prefers to use an app that knows what it does easily and here the name plays a big role.

7. Funding the creation of the application

The word finance may seem too scary but it is not, there are several solutions you can rely on to fund the process of creating an application such as:

a) Rely on your knowledge or friends to fund the creation of your app

This is mentioned above and in general, this method of financing is relied upon by a large number of startup and small business owners.

Here we are not talking about an advance or a debt, but about a formal partnership between you and an acquaintance to fund the creation of your app.

It's easy and simple, but it has to be done professionally and don't let your relationship negatively or positively affect the decision of your friends or acquaintances.

Submit your app idea, features, and market study that you have done for your friend that you would like to fund your app, show them every idea of your app in detail and how much you need to create the app, and how much you will make profits from it and when.

If your friend agrees, start immediately by officially documenting the details of the agreement between you that guarantees each party's rights.

b) Get a loan

There are a large number of successful projects that have begun to be funded through reliance on loans. Don't forget that the creation of an electronic application is a small project, and this type of project is very desirable for loan providers right now.

Banks are the first to think about when we mention the word loan, and although some may not favor borrowing from them, it is very common in small enterprises and start-ups, especially because banks facilitate borrowing terms for these projects.

We know that banks are the best or most common trend when we talk about loans, but they are not the only option.

Now compare the details of each loan in terms of fees, terms, and value. Through this comparison, you will be able to find out the best loan that suits you and suits your application details in terms of the value and time of profits.

c) Relied on crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is relying on showcasing the idea of your application to several individuals in the hope of obtaining funding from them to create this app, access to these individuals is through several well-known location platforms in the field of crowdfunding.

Top crowdfunding platforms:

1. GoFundMe
2. Indiegogo
3. Kickstarter

Register on one of the previous sites and learn the idea of your app and receive funding from people who liked the idea of your app. Of course, you will repay this funding later with a simple profit margin for each financier, but generally funding through this method is easy and its cost is simple.

d) Rely on private companies

Many private companies offer grants in various fields, including believing in their community's role in the country in which they operate. Research private companies that provide financing loans and study their terms well.

Find private companies in your country and visit their sites to find out which grants you are funding, it is best to look for large and global companies, as they provide greater funding amounts than small local businesses.

e) Search for grants

Every time some government and private entities provide grants in certain areas such as IT and app development, look for donors for grants in your country and communicate with them to fund the process of creating your app.

in my personal opinion; Grants are the best funding sources you can rely on to create your app.

Relying on loans means committing to the repayment of these loans and their interest, which, although they may be simple, are still an additional cost that will not be fully utilized in contrast to grants, the terms of which are often easier and may not need to be repaid.

f) Find an angel investor

The owner investor is an investor who finances one of the projects from his own money and has a large percentage in this project, of course, the ratio is determined and agreed upon before the start of the financing, but it is often greater than the owner of the idea of the project itself.

The owner investor may be a friend or classmate and not much different from what we made clear in point A.

Of course whoever you are going to fund will ask for several information about your app, which may include the following information or more:

1. The idea of the application.
2. Application characteristics.
3. Application name (or initial name)
4. Amount of funding required.
5. Feasibility study of the stages of establishment of the application.
6. Market Research.
7. Approximate dates for the stages of the creation of the application.

Failure and the basic idea are essential elements that must be requested by any financial entity. However, having the rest of your items will enhance your position vis-à-vis these actors and inspire professionalism and seriousness, factors that significantly affect the approval of funding grants.

8. Composition of a task force (or group of teams)

Let's be honest the process of creating an application is huge. Can one individual do it? Yes, but not easy, especially in the early stages of the app creation process

The stages of finding the idea of the application and its characteristics and even its name may be able to be completed by one person within a short period. For the advanced stages in this process such as market studies and marketing of the application, it is indispensable for a team to complete it properly.

Marketing the app alone may need a full team, note that you may market a product you would like to publish globally and not just locally, let alone other factors that make the idea of relying on one individual to market the app almost impossible.

other than the distribution of voltage; Having a team with you helps you manage and market the app is necessary, even after the implementation phase and launch of the app for the user you will need to launch updates and process errors, in other words, you will need a technical team.

Of course, you can count on who has designed the app to perform maintenance tasks and updates to it, however, it is preferable to have a technical team available for you even part-time to solve emergency or huge application problems.

Well, the purpose here is not to complicate things for you at all, but to clarify what you need to make your application work in its field, now that we have explained the reasons why you need to have a team or small task forces that will help you how to make these teams.

First, you will need to identify tasks that need a task force, which is often:

• Financial tasks (management of application funding and payment of various expenses).
• Legal tasks such as use agreements.
• Technical and programming functions (maintenance and updates).
• Marketing application.
• Public relations (communication with investors and companies).

Now dealing with all previous tasks needs some intelligence, you can arrange these tasks and classify them according to their importance according to each stage of the application.

For example, financial tasks will exist at the beginning of the application's life and continue thereafter. The marketing of the app will not take place until after the design has been completed or at least just before the completion of this period.

You will encounter legal tasks once you receive funding for the application, especially if you rely on an owner or partner investor and so on.

After following the previous style market produces you have fewer teams you need to configure.

Now we move to configuration methods, which team will take over which of the previous tasks will be your final management directly?

Remember this well as you choose your team, because one of the methods of team formation that app owners may rely on is to rely on their friends and knowledge to be the basis of these teams and this is an excellent way of making these teams.

However, for business management, you may have problems communicating with some of your friends and acquaintances when it comes to ordering and instructing, but don't let this note keep you away from this method of team formation, but take it into account as you follow it.

The advantage of this first method is that it may be greatly saved. Here we do not mean that you meet the wages of your acquaintances and friends who will work with you, but that their wages (or part of them) can be otherwise saved such as shares of profits or shares in the application.

We assume here that your friends who you will rely on are not experts in the fields they will carry out their tasks, but they have some knowledge and experience that qualifies them to take on these tasks.

In other words, the cost of their wages will not equal the cost of relying on specialized companies or teams to perform the same tasks.

Of course, you can hire professional people to do these tasks whether from freelance platforms or by agreeing with a company, the right way to make the team is related to your personal opinions and budget available in the first place.

9. Choose Design Method

How will you create your app Will you depend on yourself? Or on others?

Anyway, there are several ways you can create your app:

a) Designing the application yourself

Yes, this is possible and easier than you can imagine, but of course, it depends on the idea of your app (see the first step), for example combining the two ideas of two apps is easier than creating an app based on a whole new idea.

It is, of course, easier if you are a programmer or have a background in the programming field but even if this is not available don't worry, you can learn the appropriate programming language for the app you want to create... Do you see it as difficult or Western? I assure you it's not.

The history of app creation is full of individuals who have learned programming languages themselves to create their apps, of course, this is not the easiest way to rely on to create an app but it may be the best.

Remember that you are the owner of the idea of the app, that is, you may be the most well-known person in the way it works. Don't worry learning to program is not as hard as some can imagine.

b) Using a programming company

Using a programming company to create your app is a practical and logical solution, programming companies will save you effort and time learning a programming language and training them to create your app.

Do a quick search for the best programming companies available in your country or even globally, and contact them to find out the cost of creating the app.

c) Using a programmer

Do you think that using a programmer to create the app is a similar process to hiring a programming company? Well, that's not at least entirely true. Using a programmer can be easier and cheaper than hiring a programming company.

There are several ways you can use a programmer to create your app such as:

• Use a programmer you know (one of your friends or acquaintances).
• Using a programmer through Fiverr - Upwork.

Try to see the programmer's previous work or CV before hiring him, of course, he prefers to hire a programmer with experience in creating apps similar to your app or even in the same field.

d) Use App Builder platforms

App creation platforms enable you to create your app without having to know programming languages.

Here are the most important platforms through which you can easily create your app:

1. Andromo
2. AppsGeyser
3. AppMakr
4. Appy Pie

Previous platforms cost low, some are free and used easy, and there are a large number of world-famous applications created through these platforms.

10. Post-creation tasks

After creating the application there will be some tasks left that you will have to do, these tasks can be divided into two types: the first type is one-time tasks, and the second is continuous tasks throughout the application.

The task you will do once is to lift your app on the OS app store on which your app is running. Each store has different terms to accept applications. You need to read these terms carefully and know the requirements of each software and physical store.

Continuous tasks are tasks such as marketing, maintenance, and updates, the majority of which are tasks started with you during the period of establishment of the application, these tasks do not end but their objectives change every period.

The task of marketing the app goes from attracting users to using the app only to marketing its new features added by each period, maintenance tasks and updates work all the time to solve problems and continuously improve the performance of the app.

These tasks are the secret to the success of any application. Creating and uploading the app to the store without marketing will not bring you users and profits and so on.

Important note: Arranging the steps to create your application that we mentioned in this article is an indicative rather than mandatory arrangement, indeed, there are always steps that will precede steps such as that to precede the step of choice of the design idea, but this is not the case with all steps.

About profit generation, we have a special article for our winners entitled Ways to Profit from Mobile Apps, which I advise you to check out.

Conclusion

In this guide we tried to explain the steps that enable you to create your app with ease, you need nothing more than to follow this guide to become a successful app holder and make huge profits in a short time.

Do you have ideas about what to pay attention to while creating apps? Share them with us in the comments.