Your business probably needs an app. You know that. Maybe customers are asking for it. Or maybe you’re just imagining how much easier it could be with one.
Maybe you’re a coach, looking for a place to bring together your courses and group coaching work. Maybe you run a non-profit and need a space to coordinate the valuable services you’re offering to the community. Or maybe you run a restaurant, and are tired of spending all your time with the phone between your ear and your shoulder as you write down orders.
Whatever your specific business case is, there’s a good chance an app can make it better.
Having a great business app will not only give you a way to deliver your existing products or services, but a good app will also create new ways to deliver value to your customers. And with the many options out there to create a white-label app, it’s a great time to be launching one.
In this article, we’ll talk about what to think about as you make your own business app and how to choose a business app creator.
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Why you need a business app
If you landed on this page, there's a good chance that you already know you need a business app. Having a great business app is becoming vital to serving customers. A business app will let you reproduce a lot of the things you do with your website. But more than this, business apps will give you new ways to serve your customers and provide value.
When McDonald's launched their business app with mobile ordering, it was arguably not vital to their business. After all, they've had a solid drive-through model for years. But when they launched the app with mobile ordering, many of their stores saw 26% increase over a quarter.
That was during a pandemic when many of the locations were closed!
Having a great business app will not only help you to reproduce existing services, but it can also create opportunities you can't even imagine. And honestly, in many business cases, customers are just starting to expect it.
How to make your own business app
If you need a business app, there are a ton of options for creating one. Gone are the days when you would have to go and hire a developer to custom build your app. Most businesses are turning to what we call a white-label app solution. This means that you get all the features and functionality of a fantastic app, without the costs and headaches of running your own development and support.
If you're ready to make your own business app, here's a step-by-step guide to what you need to think about. For the purposes of this walkthrough, we'll assume that you are choosing to use a white-label solution rather than custom development.
Identify existing offerings you want in an app
One of the first things you can do is to take stock of the things you already offer and see if there is a way to offer them in an app. For example, if you already have a website with an extensive question-and-answer forum on it, that's something that can really easily be replicated in an app.
Plus, providing app access to this forum will also help customers get the answers at their fingertips without having to chase down their laptop to use it properly (let's be honest, it's probably pretty annoying to navigate a forum on your website with a mobile browser).
As another example, if you run a local business you might have a scheduling function on your website for people to book appointments. This is definitely something you can move to an app to make your customers' lives easier.
Start with figuring out what's working that you could serve up through an app.
Plan new offerings an app could give you
Just like the McDonald's example above, one of the most exciting things about making your own business app is the new things you can create. A great business app offers a ton of ways to add new value to your customers.
Just think about your favorite bookkeeping software. Although bookkeeping software has been around for years, many of them are now using apps to serve their customers better. With applications like taking pictures of your receipts or tracking your mileage with your phone's GPS, a bookkeeping app takes something you've probably used for years and makes it better.
This is step two of your research. Brainstorm ways that a business app could make your work better. A mobile phone has a camera, GPS, a voice recorder, video, and a bunch of other great features, how could those be put to work in the service of your customers?
Make a list of the features you need
Once you've done your inventory of existing services, and you've done some dreaming about new ways of serving your customers, make a wish list of things that you want your app to do. This will help you get some clarity on the next step.
Choose your white-label solution
With your list of dream features in hand, it's time to choose your white label app solution. It's important to understand that there are a bunch of different companies that will help you build your business app and that each has a different focus. Some are great for communities. Some are best for local businesses. Some specialize in serving huge companies.
We'll go over some of the options below.
Go through app development
The next step will be to actually develop the app. What this looks like will depend on the solution you have chosen to use. Some are labor-intensive on your part, and you will need to spend some time building it yourself. Some solutions will create your business app for you, and you do relatively little.
Test your app
Generally speaking, once your app is ready to go, the next step is to test it. Get some beta users who haven't used it before, and see if they can use it. Adjust accordingly.
Launch
Once your app is ready and tested, the time has come to launch it!
Read More: The ultimate guide to creating your own app
What to look for in a business app creator
Features
First and foremost, when choosing a solution to build your business app with, you will want to see what features it offers. Each solution has a different focus, serving a different type of customer with different specialties.
Find the one that lets you do most if not all of what you want it to do. There’s a really good chance there’s a white-label option for your needs, even if you haven’t found it yet.
Customization
This is supposed to be your app. You don't want it to look like everybody else's. So when choosing a white-label solution, pay attention to how much it will let you add your own brand.
This should go beyond simply uploading your logo, and you should be able to add your own colors, themes, features, and more. You want to make it your own.
Process
This one is key. There is a range of ways to make your business app, some of the solutions are extremely hands-on and labor-intensive, and some of them are pretty much ready-made.
You will need to choose the one that has the process that's right for you and your business. If you don’t have the capacity, don’t choose something that’s going to take months of time by you or your team when you don’t have time to spare.
Support
One final thing worth considering is what type of support you will have for your app. If anything were to go wrong it's great to have a company backing you, willing to do the work to address any issues you find. But even beyond troubleshooting, it's great to have a company that will help you succeed moving forward.
For example, we love to work with analytics and show relevant data to help our Mighty Pro customers succeed. Choosing a great business app creator isn’t just about a one-time exchange, it’s about finding a partner who will be in your corner for the long haul.
3 examples of business app creators
1. Mighty Pro
Mighty Pro is the business app creator for those who have a community-based business model. Mighty's powerful cultural software lets you create an engaging community platform for your business, from this you can add live events, paid Spaces, courses, and more.
It gives you all the power you need to build your business app under your brand, and it’s used by some of the world’s most amazing creators and organizations. For example, Adriene Mishler used Mighty Pro to create a business app to serve her 10 million YouTube subscribers with extra lessons, courses, and more.
As the business app creator for anyone who needs to bring people together, Mighty Pro will help you build engaged customer communities.
2. Appian
Appian is an app solution for medium to large businesses looking to build out apps for their internal functions. With specialties in different verticals like healthcare, manufacturing, and IT, Appian lets you build apps to solve problems most large companies have. This could be things like tracking supply chains, optimizing operations, or improving project management.
Appy Pie
Appy Pie is a great example of a business app creator for local businesses. It has a drag-and-drop app creator that’s made to meet the needs of bricks-and-mortars.
From restaurants that want to add menus and app-based ordering to dentist offices that want people to be able to book appointments and see their invoices, Appy Pie does it.
Conclusion
With the many options out there, there’s no reason that making your own business app needs to be scary. In fact, it’s never been easier.
And, if you have a community-focused business, and you're looking for an amazing business app to go with it, why not book a call with us and we'll show you what people are building with Mighty Pro?
