Do you have what it takes to work in tech? At a time when the tech field is booming, young people are faced with an important decision: whether they can parlay their skills into profitable positions in the industry. But the choices go beyond that. Even if you can’t get a job with a major tech company or a startup, independent app development can be a profitable approach to entrepreneurship – and it all starts with a great idea.
App Development 101
The first thing you should consider if you’re interested in independent app development is what your motivations are for entering the field. Some people enter the field because they enjoy programming and are interested in the technical side of the field. Others consider app design because they have an exciting product idea that they’re determined to bring to market. To succeed, though, you’ll need a combination of both, as well as engagement with the current technology landscape.
Trouble Spotting
As long as you have the technical skills to build an app, you can create anything, but that doesn’t mean it’s worth developing app after app in pursuit of a hit. In fact, you’ll do much better if you spend time defining your goals for your app and researching your competitors. You need to know what other developers are doing, and especially what other apps are doing wrong, in order to create a successful app. Good apps can inspire you, but unsuccessful apps can show you where the gaps are in the market – and you need to exploit those.
Find The Right Ecosystem
There are many different spaces that welcome app design, and if you’re going to succeed, you need to choose the right development ecosystem. Apple, for example, has a mainstream app development program, and this is one of the main points of entry for developers who want to distribute through the Apple app store. More recently, though, Apple launched the Apple Developer Enterprise Program, which allows developers to distribute unvetted apps. This can be dangerous, and these apps may violate a variety of iOS standards, but it can also provide developers with an opportunity to test the limits of the field.
Focus On Passionate
It can take a long time for an app to make money, which is why it’s important that you pursue a project that you’re passionate about. If you take on a task that you think is important but that you don’t find personally engaging or enriching, you won’t succeed. Or, if you do, you’ll be bored and frustrated before your app gets to market and never want to build another one again. Ultimately, passion is what makes independent development work sustainable, especially before the money starts rolling in, because you can fiddle with it in your free time, treating it as a hobby during the early days.
At first, building an app won’t make money – so don’t quit your day job, and the experts even recommend that new developers avoid pursuing investors. Rather, if you build quality programs, those investors will come to you. Until then, pursue your passion projects on nights and weekends. It’s how the creative class has always worked, and the rise of technology hasn’t changed that.
