Hello everyone! I'm Michael from Poland.
Hello everyone! I'm Michael from Poland. I am new to this community, I have an idea that will solve a serious problem. I 've never started a business neither do I have any programming skills. What are the steps to take? Do I have to look for a co-founder that has the programming skills needed to build the app?
Are you able to explain what you have done so far?
Are you able to talk about what the product is, even on a basic level, so that IHers can get a sense of what you are trying to achieve?
Thank you all for your advice. I will take them into account. However, I am still open to more advice.
Michael, take my advice with a grain of salt but here is what I would do first: Talk to potential customers and show them your product idea. Watch for their reaction. If they absolutely love it, ask them to commit to payment. Don't ask "would you pay for this?" but rather "how much are you willing to pay for this if I make it?". Get a bunch of commitments then go build out a minimal product (hire a developer if you can afford one). Get only the basic features in place, just enough to be valuable then get it in front of those potential customers to get their feedback. If they are willing to pay you right there and then then you're onto something. Otherwise, ask what features they would need to pay for it.
Development is expensive. Anticipate 2-3x whatever estimates you get from developers. When creating project scope, leave no detail out. Make sure you mention every single function imaginable (for your MVP) so that there are no surprises. Of course, there will be surprises, but if you get super detailed, you'll have fewer running expenses.
Keep in mind, you're going to have to pay for support (of the app, features, broken stuff etc..) For a simple app you could be looking at 5-10k up front investment plus ongoing ... so if you don't have paying customers quick it will be very difficult to justify paying such expenses. Even if you start making some money, it gets a lot easier swallowing costs knowing you can recoup them later.
Best to you!
I'm certainly not qualified to give business advice at my current stage but as far as not having programming experience, you can check out Bubble.is. It is a "no code" platform. The learning curve is steep, but not nearly as steep as full bore coding. It took me about 5 months to get an MVP out with Bubble.is from concept.
Hey Michael,
You're going about it the wrong way. Find a problem that people will pay you to solve, then worry about these issues.
You can always hire a programmer or a project manager but you can't do any of those things if you don't have any paying customers.
John