Can I design, develop, and market an iOS app all by myself or should I hire staff?
I'm a UX/UI Designer with some knowledge in computer science, I know how code works, how database works, etc. I just need to learn more in deep to being able to do the things my app needs to accomplish.
With that being said, do you think it is a crazy idea to do it all by myself?
- Design -> I definitely can do it
- Development -> I'll figure out with trials and errors
- Marketing -> I know how to create landing pages, Facebook ads, and Google Adwords, how to create email campaigns.
Or do you advice that I must hire staff? Problem is, I don't have the financial capacity to hire staff. What approach you think I should take, the same if I want to move to web apps?
Expert Answers
Sort by Date
Sort by Votes
Sep 19, 2014
You do what you're good at and hire staff for everything else. If you have the finance for long run, hire an specialized agency or a freelancer on a fixed cost basis for the project. For example you can outsource the development part to an agency like ours or you can find a lot of agencies from elance or moisaichubs hirerequest section like Kimberly suggested.
Sep 19, 2014
Hi Javier,
If you do want to take the route of breaking it up into small projects to hire developers for, you can also find really skilled mobile developers right here on mosaicHUB! This is the link to our project board if you're interested: http://www.mosaichub.com/user/hirerequest
Best,
Kim Lombard
Community Manager
Sep 19, 2014
Funny thing I have been in the same boat. I think it's important that you know where your skills are like you outlined above.
You will need to team up with or get educated on these things. Those are your only options. I do not believe in hiring full-time. You break each piece up into a smaller project and use places like fivver, elance and odesk to do each part individually.
For marketing you again can get people or get trained. There are many great marketing coaches out there who can guide and help you.
In the end I do not believe in hiring staff unless you have an established company with constant money coming in. There are a lot of virtual assistants and freelancers out there that can help you.
Sep 19, 2014
Javier ...Do you have to hire staff? Absolutely not. Not in the beginning. Not ever. Or, if you so choose over time as the business grows then you can hire staff if you so choose to.
In the meantime, there are a variety of methods. You can hire coders, marketing people and alike on a contractual basis using Freelancer, Elance, ODesk, Sologig and a host of other platforms. You could develop strategic alliances with professionals or companies with the experience you need.
This is where having a well thought out business plan is essential. You need to do a SWOT analysis which it looks like you started to do. You need people around you that compensate for your weaknesses while enhancing your strengths.
Sep 19, 2014
check out eLance -- i've used it in the past to hire freelancers to write code for me (and I know how to design software...it was just really cheap to get them to do it).
If the project is well-defined you can get stuff done for pretty cheap. I had a guy do probably 3 days of work on a fixed price project, and it cost $50. This may be a great option if you already know how to do the design. You will probably find issues in the stuff they produce, but you can always send it back and get it done again. The way elance works, the money is held in escrow until you're happy with the result, so you dont pay if the work sucks. Plus you can see reviews, so if someone has 4-5 stars you should get a pretty good product.
NOTE: I don't make any money, nor am I affiliated with eLance in any way.
Thanks Ryan,
Definitely this is a solid option to consider, you may also learn how to delegate tasks, review work produced, and learn a lot during the process of working with remote professionals which is great too.
I'm also would like to hear stories of people how achieve all that alone, I guess they are just a few crazy ones, I've found it fascinating doing all alone it could be a great adventure or a total waste of time.