Custom Apps for Small Businesses
A business app is software built around one job the company does over and over: taking bookings, tracking jobs, letting customers see where their order is, giving the crew in the field something better than a text thread. Be Apped builds custom web and mobile apps for small businesses to run the business, built to that company's needs rather than to a template.
Do you need an app at all?
Only if there is a repeat action a website handles badly. If customers visit occasionally and read, a website is enough and cheaper. If they, or your staff, do the same thing every day and it needs a camera, a login, offline use or a notification, that is an app. The costliest mistake in this business is building the app before the audience exists.
The longer version, with the signs on each side, is on website or app?. Read it first if you are not sure. If you are sure, the rest of this page is about what makes an app project succeed or fail.
What "customized to the business" means
The app is built around the way your company already does the job: the steps, who does each one, what they need to see, and what goes wrong. Off-the-shelf software makes you work its way. A custom app makes the software work yours, and leaves out everything you do not do.
In practice that starts with watching the job happen, not with a feature list. A booking app for a mobile groomer and one for a tile installer are different apps, because the day is different: one has a route and a van, the other has a site visit, a measure and a quote. The scope is written from that, and so is the app.
It also means the app stays small. Most small businesses need one thing to work reliably, on a phone, for people who did not sign up to learn software. Every screen that is not that one thing is a screen someone has to be trained on.
Why do app projects go over budget?
Almost always because the scope was never written down. Features get added one at a time, each one reasonable, and the launch date and the price move with them. A written scope is the single thing that prevents it, and it is the document a price should be attached to.
A useful scope for a business app is short. It contains:
- Who uses it Customers, staff, or both, and on what device. A crew on phones in the field is a different app from an office at a desk.
- The one job What the app must do on day one, described as the task, not the feature. "A tech can close a job and the office sees it" rather than "job management module".
- Must have at launch, and can wait Two lists. Everything in the second list is where the budget goes when nobody wrote it down.
- What it connects to Payments, your accounting system, a calendar, an existing database. Every integration is real work and should be named.
- What you supply Logins, data to import, a logo, someone who can answer questions within a day.
If a developer will quote without asking for most of this, the quote is a guess and the overrun is already built in.
Web app, iPhone, Android: which one?
The platform follows from who uses it and where. The cheapest right answer is usually the one that reaches your users with the least to build and maintain.
| If the app is mostly | The usual fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Used at a desk, occasionally, by staff or customers | Web app | Works on every device from a link. No app store, no install, one codebase to keep. |
| Used on phones daily, needs the camera, GPS, offline use or push notifications | Mobile app (iOS and Android) | Those features need the phone itself. Expect app store accounts, review, and updates as part of the ongoing cost. |
| Used on phones, but it is forms, lists and lookups | Web app, made installable | A web app can sit on the home screen and work like an app without the store. Cheaper to build and change. |
| For customers who do not yet use you weekly | Website first | Nobody installs an app for a company they use twice a year. Earn the habit, then build for it. |
What happens after launch?
An app keeps costing money after it ships, and the quote for the build is only part of what it costs to own. Before you sign anything, ask what it costs per month to keep running and who does what when the phone operating system changes.
Be Apped can maintain the app for you long term, or hand it off to you. Either way it is built on accounts in your name, with code you can open, so the choice stays yours later.
- Hosting and services. The server, the database, maps, text messages, payments. Each has a bill, and each should be in an account you own.
- App store accounts. Apple and Google each charge a developer fee, and each reviews updates. The accounts should be in your company's name.
- Updates. Operating systems change yearly and an untouched app eventually stops installing. Know who is responsible and what they charge.
- The code. In a repository you can open. If the developer vanishes, the next one needs to be able to pick it up.
When not to build an app
- You want an app because competitors have one, not because customers asked for something a website cannot do.
- The business has fewer than a few dozen repeat users and no budget for keeping the app alive next year.
- An off-the-shelf tool does the job at a subscription you can afford. Custom software wins when the tool makes you work its way and that costs you more than the software would.
- The process the app would automate is still changing every month. Fix the process first; software freezes it.
If any of these is you, say so in the first email. The honest reply might be "not yet", and that reply is free.
Questions people ask
Can you take over an app someone else started?
Sometimes. It depends on whether you have the code, whether it is in a standard technology, and whether the accounts it runs on are yours. If the previous developer held all three, the first job is getting them back, and the honest answer may be that rebuilding is cheaper than untangling. Send what you have and you will get a straight assessment.
Do I need both an iPhone and an Android app?
Only if your users are split across both and the app needs the phone's hardware. Many business apps are better as a web app that works on every phone from a link, with no store at all. If it must be native, it is possible to build for both platforms from one codebase, which is cheaper than two separate apps.
How long does an app take to build?
A small app with one clear job and no integrations is a different project from one that logs in customers, takes payments and talks to your accounting system. The written scope is what makes a timeline honest. Anyone who gives you a date before the scope exists is guessing, and the guess is usually optimistic.
Who owns the app and the code?
You should, and the contract should say so. The code in a repository you control, the app store accounts in your company's name, and every hosting and service account paid by you. Check this before work starts, whoever you hire.
Do you maintain the app after launch, or do I?
Either. Be Apped can maintain it for you long term, or hand it off to you. Ask which you want before the scope is written, because a hand-off should include a walkthrough and documentation, and that belongs in the plan.
What if I only have an idea and no spec?
That is normal. Write down who would use it and the one thing it must do on day one, in plain words. Turning that into a scope is the first step of the project, and it is where the real decisions about cost get made.
Tell us what the business needs it to do
A short message is enough to start: what the company does, what the website or app has to do for it, and when you need it. You will get a reply from a person.