App Trillionaires: How To Become An App Developer: Enjoy Life, Make Money, and Live Your Dreams! (2013)

5. OUTSOURCE OR DEVELOP?

So now that we have completed the first steps and setup a whole bunch of accounts and setup our business and have now got things running, we now need to actually create our first app.

There are two main ways to create an app. The first is to build it yourself by either using a special tool to make your app or learn programming. The other is to outsource development to others around the world.

Many people who are new to the app business will often ask this question: Do I learn to develop myself or do I outsource?

My programs specifically focus on learning to develop yourself, and the tools and software I am bringing out constantly and recommending in my programs will allow you to do just that by following along with my interactive tutorials which once again you can find on my website at http://www.gamescorpion.com.

Lets first go over outsourcing so you understand a bit more about what it is. After that I will go over developing yourself. Outsourcing may be a great option for those who may not like programming as much however I still recommend you learn some form of programming. Maybe take a crash course on programming online or at your local community college.

If you know nothing of programming, then many of these outsourced service providers may end up charging you a lot more money, and you may even have many project delays because you’d end up approving things incorrectly due to a lack of knowledge of common programming and technological terms. Suffice it to say that not knowing anything about programming will COST YOU!

OUTSOURCING OVERVIEW

From the previous steps we already setup two accounts on two highly recommended outsourcing websites. The first is Fiverr.com which is known for Micro-Services and the second is oDesk.com which is for larger projects like Apps and Websites.

Lets go over some of the pros and cons of outsourcing and some of the things you may run into just like I did when I first started outsourcing. This will save you a lot of time and headache by knowing this stuff upfront before even starting.

Firstly understand that when you are just starting out, your funds are going to be VERY limited. In fact as I said earlier, in order to run this business, you need to have a lot of apps, and a small budget will NOT allow you to outsource an amount of apps that generates enough revenue to cover your costs. For this reason I train new app business owners to become app developers first, and then later as their business grows, outsource to help grow even more.

I personally have outsourced several staff members as the business has grown and as things have become more challenging to handle just myself. However I still refuse to outsource my development to people I cannot trust as I don’t want my ideas stolen, but that’s just me. Even with all the NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) in place, if someone really wants to steal your idea, they are going to steal it, and it’s a big challenge and quite costly to start taking legal action over it (especially if the app is not a hit app anyways!).

HOWEVER what I like to do is split up the work into parts and hand it off to totally different outsourced staff so that even if someone had the intention to steal, they would require ALL assets of the app to really create the app, and that’s one method of deterrent along with regular NDA agreements.

So now onto the Pros and Cons of Outsourcing!

PROS OF OUTSOURCING

a. Less upfront learning

Usually outsourced workers handle all programming and technical details, so you can get up and running relatively fast rather than spending time learning programming.

b. Low cost of hourly staff compared to in-house staff

Outsourced staff can be as low as $1/hour depending on what needs to be done. You can also get the top of the line developers from Eastern countries for around $5-$10/hour.

c. No need to worry about common physical staff related issues

Outsourced workers are usually considered contractors. This means you won’t need to worry about health benefits, hours of work, lunches, etc. Many of them work a minimum of 5 days if not 6-7 days a week and you won’t need to worry about them as you would with physical employees. There is no physical office to open up daily and you can access your employees online from anywhere in the world.

d. 24×7 capabilities

Many of the outsourced service providers work while you are sleeping, thus giving you the benefit of a possible 24x7 operation. If you hire several outsourced service providers, you could have a full 24×7 operation with all the bells and whistles!

e. Automation

Yes the magical item I talked about earlier that doesn’t FULLY exist. You can’t automate everything, however you can automate several parts of this business to make your life easier and that’s where outsourcing has its real strength.

f. Faster Hiring and Firing than regular in-house employees

One of the great benefits of outsourcing is the fact that you can hire fast and fire fast. If you don’t like a contractors work, simply end their contract and hire another one. oDesk.com makes this fast and easy. No need for 2 week notices or uncomfortable situations. And most of the staff on oDesk end up finding more work through oDesk anyways as it is an open market. Rest assured you’ll always be able to get top talent without risking a lot of your time and energy.

CONS OF OUTSOURCING

a. Language Barriers

Not English specifically, but more about how English is spoken. Words and cultural rules are very different in other parts of the world.

b. Technical Barriers

Trying to explain to outsourced staff what you want will be a CHALLENGE and can take a lot of time. You may ask them for example to make a ladder, they may in turn create something different that just raises you higher off the ground but is not the same thing as a ladder. This is a common downfall of outsourcing and can cause a lot of confusion and lost hours.

c. Longer creation times

Creation times are longer due to either the outsourced developers having more projects, or the fact that there is a lot of back and forth communication to get things done.

d. Loss of developers over time

Over time you may loose important developers who either take on too much work, find higher paying companies or just leave you without a reason. Full apps can be deemed dead at this point as there is no code to update them and original developers who know the code or have the code no longer work for you. You’re left with a final version of an app that you either downgrade to a lower price due to no more upgrades, make free for helping grow your business, or take it off the market if the bugs are too problematic.

e. Management Issues

If you are not constantly keeping up with your outsourced staff, they tend to take a lot of time and in some cases stop working on the project. Always keeping up to date with your contractors is an important part of outsourcing.

f. Creativity issues and Quality Issues

Its no secret that outsourced work in general is of a lower quality than local and in-house employees. The only way to counteract this is to try and keep certain parts of the development IN-HOUSE or to outsource only to higher quality higher cost providers. For example you may want to outsource graphics to a dedicated Graphic Designer rather than leaving that up to the outsourced app developer.

g. Long term costs for many apps is ASTRONOMICAL!

One app alone will cost between $1500-$5000 realistically for a half decent app. Yes there are times you could get lucky and score a developer who may do something for $300 but those cases are rare if non-existent. In order to really do well in the app business you need to have many apps. If you outsourced that development that could run you into thousands if not HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS!

h. Data Security

Possible loss of sensitive and important company data and information is a very real issue. Always be careful when handing out passwords and important company information as every now and again there are scam artists out there looking to do damage.

i. Idea Stealing and Loss

This one happens all the time! Possible loss of company secrets and app ideas! NDA Agreements are written to try and protect you from this very bad practice, however it is a very real issue that does happen and the only way to protect against this is to either develop yourself for the maximum security of your idea or to break apart the outsourcing so as to make it harder for someone to create the exact same app.

j. Lack of Dedication

As many outsourced staff work with many customers, your projects may not get the full 100% attention they need!

k. Confusing Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)

Having to write and read very confusing Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) that may or may not work well in protecting your ideas depending on where in the world you are outsourcing to is a real downfall sometimes to outsourcing.

l. Sex Differences

I know this one seems kind of unusual, but trust me I learnt this first hand. Firstly if you are dealing with female employees around the world, in several cases I’ve had it be a ploy to hire their husbands or to try and gain work for OTHER contractors. Secondly if the female outsourced staff member was genuine, then cultural differences were an important factor. For example I remember one time I hired a PHP Developer from India who was female to help us in updating our website page. Because I asked her how her day was going, which is a common practice in North America to simply be kind and ask your staff how they are doing, she instantly quit stating that I was trying to court her! Sometimes sex related (Like male/female interaction) or cultural related issues can come up and can cause issues when working with staff from around the world which is another reason why outsourcing is a challenge.

m. Cultural Differences

Another experience I had was with another worker whom I simply asked for their opinion on one of the ideas I had for my website at the time. They instantly thought me incompetent to lead and ended the contract! Apparently where this contractor was from, if a manger or boss ever asked for a personal opinion from a staff member, then that manager or boss was not capable of leading. WOW what a difference! Where that contractor was from, every boss or leader ALWAYS apparently had all the answers and knew exactly what they wanted and that’s just the way it was. No one was entitled to an opinion other than the leaders. SO as you can see, you’ll be having a lot of cultural issues as well to deal with, so think about this when hiring as well. Where in the world you hire and who you hire can be factors in success in your business. Unfortunately we don’t all live in North America and cannot assume that it’s the same worldwide.

n. Technical and Other Unusual Differences

Technically speaking, contractors in India and China and other parts of the world do not have the benefit of 24x7 power that we are blessed with here in North America. We also have the benefit of safety from our local communities. I’ve had some of my own outsourced contractors have terrorists in their local areas and their internets go down or they weren’t allowed out of the house due to a state or city wide lockdown and curfew! I’ve also dealt with contractors who have had lower hardware systems to work with, such as slower computers or slower internet speeds. Other things for example are things like holidays, which in other parts of the world are much more frequent than in North America. Knowing that this exists will help you in your outsourcing expectations.

TIP: When outsourcing, go with an open and realistic mind with the new found knowledge you have just learned. Outsourcing is not perfect and requires some getting use to, however if done correctly can help you out in your business. I’ve noticed that the best priced English speakers who have some decent form of English capabilities come from the Philippines, where as those who have the most technical background are usually from India and China. I’ve also found that the most affordable and higher quality graphic designers tend to come from European countries. And of course the best and most expensive outsourced staff are from North America. Those are just my results and my own opinions at this time, however this is always changing and shifting so always keep up to date on the outsourcing market. A good thing to do before hiring any worker is to always see their portfolios and any reviews they may have had from other employers as that is always a solid indication of how good a contractor is.

SELF DEVELOPING OVERVIEW

Learning how to develop yourself is a challenge but also has the most cost savings and benefits for you in the long run. I highly recommend taking this course of action instead of outsourcing to start your business because you’ll learn hands on what your business is about. Just as there is no Captain of a ship who does not know every part of their ship, as a business owner it is your responsibility to know your business inside out. The best way to do this is to develop things yourself and over time from the money you earn, re-invest it into processes and procedures to start automating the process more. Not only will this help you at the beginning in keeping your costs down, it will also help you in the long run when you do start outsourcing as you would already know what goes into getting an app into the various app stores and how to program them.

However like I said earlier, I highly recommend this option, but it is nonetheless a recommendation. Let me go over the pros and cons so you can decide for yourself if this option is for you. I personally however highly recommend this course of action over outsourcing when you are just starting out.

PROS OF DEVELOPING YOURSELF

a. Minimal Costs in the long run

You can create as many apps as you have the time to create without worrying about price issues or contractor delays.

b. No issues about others stealing your ideas

Hence no need for extensive NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) as you are the only person touching the code and creating the base idea. Your ideas are protected by you and have less chance of being stolen.

c. Control over your own code

No issues of others re-using your code for other apps.

d. YOU GET the actual code, not just an app

This way you don’t have to worry about developers leaving you hanging where you cannot update your apps. You’ll always be able to not only update your apps but can also reuse your code to create even more apps!

e. Speed of creation

Everything gets faster with code reusing and there are no delays or higher costs for speed. As fast as you can code, is as fast as you can create. Various tools even exist that have a faster creation speed, but you don’t have to wait on other developers to get code to you. You also don’t have to worry about the back and forth hassle of trying to explain to other developers just exactly what you want. You can create EXACTLY what you envision rather than getting something that isn’t quite what you wanted.

f. No scams

No worrying about being over charged or scammed by shady app development firms who are taking you for a ride due to your lack of knowledge or experience.

CONS OF DEVELOPING YOURSELF

a. Time to Learn How To Program

Possibly up to six months just to learn how to develop apps on your own.

b. Upfront cost of software, tools and hardware

It costs money to become a developer, and the software and tools required as well as the licenses can cost several hundred if not a few thousand dollars initially. In my opinion however it’s well worth the investment for the long term gain you’ll achieve, but once again it’s my own opinion on it.

TIP: Use tools and methods that help to speed up the development process whenever you can. If you visit my website you can even sign up to my various programs and even purchase and obtain my special tools that I have available to help you in creating apps faster or in helping you run your app business much more easily. Once again the website is http://www.gamescorpion.com so check it out and sign up to the newsletter for up to date information on the app business.

“Learning without thought is labor lost.”

— Confucius