On Own It! The Podcast 141 we ask the question; is it a good idea to invest in an app for your business? Does it add value to your clients? Can you sell it on iTunes to defray some or all of your set-up costs? What’s the ongoing maintenance fee and how much should you expect to pay for the whole package?
In the Show…
Nicola’s enjoyed a week of lovely things – a visit to the beauty salon, an invitation to an Indonesian lunch, plenty of beach time and hosting Write Club at her house. Judith’s spent her first two days in a decade helping out a friend by doing her accounts on Sage, returning big favours. Whilst it comes back like riding a bike, it was strange and unfamiliar again at first, but she had a lovely, lovely time, revealing that she was somewhat secretly ashamed of how much she loved it!
Client Challenge of the Week?
Karen Wilmot, The Virtual Midwife, sends in this week’s Client Challenge. Should Karen get an app for her business, either as a value add for existing clients or as something people would pay to download from iTunes. The app would be about breathing in pregnancy and labour. Nicola advises based on her own experience of investing in an app for her business.
We learn than (like anything) an app doesn’t sell itself. Rather than selling it, Nicola thinks Karen should give it away and then later, perhaps, she might consider a paid level of membership via the app. Nicola sees an app as a communications and promotional tool and a way to talk to potential future customers and she is happy to explain that she paid £2500 for hers. The ongoing monthly cost is $197, as recently advised on the podcast, and that includes a whole new makeover for her so she’s happy. Also she loves how the app pulls in all the content she creates elsewhere via RSS feeds, including from her blog, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
Judith thinks that the average age of a woman having a baby would place her firmly in the app generation, so she tends to agree with Karen that it is a good idea for her business.