Mobile applications in the last decade began to play a big role in people's lives. Their functions often seem insignificant, but, nevertheless, they help smartphone and tablet users to solve various everyday tasks. Creating even a simple mobile application is painstaking and hard work, which takes a lot of time and effort and does not at all guarantee high profits in the future. However, really high-quality and necessary applications can “shoot” in the AppStore or GooglePlay and bring a lot of money to their developers. We offer aspiring entrepreneurs to pay attention to a typical business plan for the development mobile applications with the calculations presented in this material. First of all, he will help you navigate the financial side of the issue and understand whether the game is worth the candle.

Investments at the start of a mobile application development business will need to be made in the amount of 350 thousand rubles. This money is quite enough to build a stable business in this high-tech area from scratch. The source of initial investment can be both personal savings of a novice developer, and loan funds received from a bank.

Brief description of the concept

The business of creating applications for mobile platforms, an example of the organization of which is presented in this article, must be registered as an individual entrepreneur. The best form of taxation for such a business is the STS (“simplified”) with a tax rate of 15% (income minus expenses). Declarations in this system are filled almost intuitively, so the company does not need help professional accountant. The processing of financial reports is best done using the services of online accounting. Official registration of a business for the development of mobile applications will not do without choosing the appropriate OKVED codes:

• 62.0 "Computer software development, consulting services in this field and other related services."
• 62.01 "Development of computer software".

How much to invest in opening

The costs that are inevitable initial stage development of the mobile application development business are presented in the following table:

Not surprisingly, the main items of expenditure will be the purchase of computer equipment and licensed software. The specifics of this business obliges the entrepreneur to pay special attention to the quality of equipment and software. After all, the equipment on which mobile applications are developed must simply work stably and without failures, and information must be well protected.

Production plan

The office of the mobile application development company is a compact space, the area of ​​which does not exceed 40 square meters. There are no special requirements for the location of the office. It can be located both in a modern business center and in a semi-basement in the old part of the city. The main thing is that all the necessary communications and stable high-speed Internet are connected to the office premises.

Also, the entrepreneur should take care of ensuring the security of the office, as it will contain expensive equipment and important development data. You can conclude an agreement with a security agency or simply install strong bars on the windows and a solid metal door.

Marketing plan

As for marketing and promotion of mobile applications for smartphones and tablets, everything is extremely simple here - advertising can be ordered in the AppStore and GooglePlay at a very reasonable cost. Advertising on popular YouTube channels also has a good effect.

The cost of one download of an average mobile application is $ 1.5, or about 100 rubles. Good Applications quickly gaining popularity with users, and it is quite possible to hope that in a month they can be downloaded 5,000 times or even more. Accordingly, at such a rate, the monthly revenue of the developer company can be up to half a million rubles, and the annual "dirty" income - up to 6 million "wooden".

Staff

The work schedule of a mobile application development company is a standard five-day workday, but with some peculiarities. As a rule, at the final stages of mobile application development, work goes non-stop - without days off and almost without breaks. This nuance should be taken into account by the entrepreneur in order to appropriately reward dedicated employees in monetary terms. Below is the most best option work schedules:

• Monday - Friday: from 09:00 to 18:00.
• Saturday - Sunday: Closed.

The list of employees of the mobile application development company is given in the following table:

№	Position	Number of people	Salary, rub.	Monthly payment fund, rub.	Payment per year, rub.
1	Chief Developer	1	40 000	40 000	480 000
2	Programmer	2	60 000	60 000	720 000
3	Support Specialist	1	25 000	25 000	300 000
4	Marketing Manager	1	30 000	30 000	360 000
TOTAL				155 000	1 860 000

Calculations of income and expenses

With a list monthly expenses mobile application development companies you can find in this table:

The profitability of a mobile app development company is shown in this table:

According to our calculations, the amount of net annual profit of a company that develops mobile applications, after taxes, will be 2.8 million rubles. This is subject to the high quality of applications and the development time for each of them is no more than three months. Accordingly, the profitability of this business will be around 47% - an excellent result for a young ambitious company.

Possible risks

The mobile app development business is a very risky business. It is impossible to take into account absolutely all the pitfalls of this undertaking, and quite often the principle of "sink or miss" accompanies the creation of any application until the end of its development. Below is a list of the most obvious risk factors that could negatively affect the development of this business:

• Leakage of information about the features of projects and, as a result, the possible "borrowing" of their concept by other developers.
• The need to attract additional funding when launching expensive or time-consuming projects.
• Increased development time for individual applications, associated with additional costs.
• Insufficient level of qualification of employees, their incompetence in highly specialized aspects of working on the creation of mobile applications.

In conclusion, we note that developers who are passionate about their work and create really high-quality software products for mobile platforms never remain in the red. World practice proves this perfectly.

To assess the market, you must first determine the volume of planned investments and the niche that is most interesting to you.

It is highly desirable that this interest be supported by some theoretical, and even better, practical knowledge about the development process, available tools and methodologies. You can analyze the demand and the level of competition in the chosen niche based on the data provided by the rating agencies. In almost every segment, even such a highly specialized one as the development of online stores, there are fairly detailed ratings that compare flagship companies in terms of turnover, average bill, number of projects, and other parameters that give a fairly clear picture.

Competition

Our niche is highly competitive only at first glance. In fact, this is the same level of competition as between BMW and AvtoVAZ - segmentation is primarily determined by the price of services and the class of customers. It's no secret that the price range for the same site development can be from 5 thousand to 5 million rubles. It all depends on what needs to be done, what level of quality to ensure, what tools to use, how big a name the IT company has, how well-known clients are present in its portfolio.

As a result, if you work in the price range of 5-25 thousand rubles, companies with projects from 1 million rubles will obviously not be your competitors, and vice versa.

To get ahead of competitors, you must first determine in which price segment you will provide services. Then it is worth analyzing direct competitors from the same price segment that provide the same services: see what development tools they offer, what additional services they include in the development cost, what clients and projects they work with.

At the same time, it is quite important to objectively evaluate your own strengths - will you be able to ensure the quality is not worse? Can you offer similar services at the same price? Next, it's important to highlight your unique advantage over your competitors: how are you better? Why should clients work with you?

If you have formulated such an advantage on an intuitive level, without external confirmation, it is better to check it in advance: conduct a survey of friends, acquaintances, random interlocutors. Find out if they really care about this advantage, or if your hypothesis is untenable. The sample should be large enough to give the most accurate representation possible.

How to decide on a set of services that the company will provide?

It depends primarily on your level of knowledge about the field and technology, as well as on the level of initial investment. For example, the average salary of an experienced Symfony programmer is 80-100 thousand rubles, i.e. 3 months of his work will cost the company 240-300 thousand rubles. At the same time, projects of this level, as a rule, are complex, expensive and require not only a programmer, but a full-fledged team: a designer, tester, project manager, analyst, etc. It is highly desirable that at least one of core competencies the owner of the company had, otherwise it will be difficult to control the processes.

The most common situation on the market is when an experienced developer opens his own company, and rightly so. He already has an understanding of what pitfalls await him, what difficulties the company may face, how to properly build processes.

Important to remember: Additional services- this is good, but only when they do not divert most of the company's resources to themselves.

Sometimes occupying a narrow niche is more profitable than offering customers the widest possible range of services.

Who is the main target audience?

If we talk about the IT services market in general, then the target audience is almost any business, without restrictions. But to determine the target audience of your company, you need to create the most accurate portrait of the client:

• how much money the client is willing to spend on your services;
• what is the main service he needs;
• what additional services he may need;
• if you have a regional lock, from target audience with a high probability, most companies from another region will be eliminated;
• in what area your client works (often clients choose a developer who has projects in the portfolio made for the same industry);
• who makes the decision in the client company (if you work mainly with small businesses, these are usually the owners; if you work with enterprises, these are middle managers, and they have a completely different level of motivation to start development and finish the project quickly );
• whether there are requirements for the tools used in the development (some clients indicate as the main requirement what the development should be done on, for example, what programming language should be used, which graphic editor, which CMS).

Beginners should remember that reaching large customers without prior preparation is a very difficult task. Our target audience immediately became medium business who needs some non-standard solution for process automation.

The key difference between companies operating in a higher price segment is that customers stay with them for a long time.

The thing is that products in this segment are complex, they require support. Moreover, they rely on business processes, and this is a flexible thing, and over time it changes. Therefore, the product usually evolves with the company.

Investment size

To optimize the cost of an office, you can rent it in a place that is not very accessible, because. its location is not very important - customers rarely come themselves. Or you can act radically and abandon the office altogether, transferring employees to remote work.

But this option is not suitable for everyone. We decided to take this step only after we were 100% convinced that all our clients prefer meetings in their office or in a cafe, and also after realizing that all our employees have been working in the company’s staff for more than 2 years and are quite capable of doing their job responsibly without binding to the office chair.

Save on salaries if you want to provide high quality projects are not worth it. But it is possible to reduce costs if employees are involved in additional services on a project-by-project basis, paying them only for the work that was actually done, and using KPI to evaluate the work of full-time employees. All of our employees are somehow tied to the profits of the company.

The absence of an office and the use of part of the staff on a project-by-project basis allowed us to minimize equipment costs - most of the employees use their own computers, and we only bear the cost of their depreciation.

Step-by-step instruction

Having decided on a niche, having studied competitors, recruiting the first customers and renting a room, you can already proceed to the next stage of opening - the purchase of equipment. Mandatory equipment, without which we cannot imagine work:

• The company's own server (including for demonstrating work to clients and the operation of the project management system);
• Virtual PBX;
• Laptops or desktop computers of employees with sufficient power for the type of work performed;
• Office equipment.

It was quite easy to find suppliers, since many of them were eliminated at the stage of the first request - they did not answer for a long time, they issued an invoice for a long time, they could not competently answer our questions. As a result, those suppliers of equipment and services with whom we constantly work do not change for years.

For example, we maintain our own company server in the provider's data center, which has not been changed for 4 years. His prices are not the lowest, but the speed of response to our requests is no more than 10 minutes.

Thus, the main criteria for choosing suppliers for us are:

• The speed of response to our request (especially if these are permanent services);
• Equipment quality;
• Cost of equipment.

Of course, no equipment will work without specialists. For an IT company, they are the foundation of success. The number of employees of the firm depends on what services are key and how many projects are being carried out simultaneously. For example, we - technology company, and this means that programmers must have a high level of training, while there should be at least two of them in the state, and preferably 3-4, in order to ensure interchangeability and speed of project implementation. But only one designer is enough.

At the moment our staff consists of:

• sales manager;
• project manager;
• technical writer;
• Designer;
• Three programmers;
• tester;
• Copywriter and content manager.

Depending on the direction of the projects, the ratio of designers and programmers in the company may change, and some employees may combine several positions.

Often there is a situation when the project manager also performs the functions of a technical writer and tester. And HTML-layout can be performed, depending on the company and its business processes, by a designer, a programmer or an individual employee.

There is a big problem with highly qualified employees in the labor market.

It is very difficult to find such employees “from the street”, and the process of infusing them into the team is quite painful. You should always keep in mind that regardless of the skill level of a newcomer, he will fully join the work process only 1-2 months after the start of work. When hiring such employees, they go through several stages of selection. At the beginning, we look at resumes and study portfolios, then we give a test task. According to the results test task the applicant is interviewed by the lead programmer, and after it - an interview with the director.

The final hiring decision is based on the totality of the results of each of these steps, with the opinion of the lead developer taking precedence, since it is with him the new employee will interact first.

Low-skilled employees are much easier to find. We usually work with them on one or two test projects and only after that we hire them. The selection process in this case is different from the first option. At the first stage, we also look at the resume and portfolio, if any, after that the project manager conducts an interview and decides on cooperation. If the cooperation was successful, the employee remains on the staff or is entered into the database of remote employees and is subsequently involved in projects as needed.

The working hours of an IT company are determined depending on the working hours of the main clients.

The bulk of our customers are located in Moscow, so our working day is from 10.00 to 19.00 Moscow time, regardless of where our employees are located. Some employees can vary their work schedule, observing the rule - at least 8 hours a day, and some employees are deprived of such a privilege. If clients work from 10 to 19, sales managers and project managers must be in touch at the same time.

The execution time for one order varies from several days to several months, depending on the complexity, urgency and scope of the task. At the same time, you need to understand that not a single person will be able to work 24 hours a day, no matter how much the director of the company or clients would like. In order to avoid missed deadlines, overlapping tasks and constantly switching employees from one task to another, we use a planning system. Thanks to this, each employee knows exactly what he will do tomorrow, has a fairly clear work plan for the next week and an approximate work plan for the month.

All tasks received from clients are formulated in the system, assigned to a specialist and scheduled by date and time. The only exceptions are very urgent tasks:

if a client has something broken in a running project, this is a very good reason to postpone all other tasks and throw resources into fixing the problem.

Our practice has shown that the location of the office does not matter for clients, it is much more convenient for them to meet on their territory. The presence of an office in the center can confirm the high status of the company, but it is definitely not worth incurring huge costs because of this. Therefore, when choosing an office, one can only take into account how convenient it will be for employees to get to it, and it is quite possible to place it on the outskirts, but within transport accessibility.

If employees work in an office, it is also advisable to consider how convenient it will be for them to go to lunch - are there canteens, cafes and restaurants nearby, or is it easier to arrange lunch delivery to the office. It is highly desirable to have a cooler, tea, coffee and sweets in the office. The presence of a microwave and a multicooker is also not a direct necessity, but adds convenience.

We have given up the office and our employees are happy because they do not need to spend time on the road, and they are free to choose a place to work. ​​​​​​​

There are no requirements for IT companies in terms of layout and ceiling height, but the room should be bright and spacious enough so that employees do not sit on each other's heads. It is advisable to plan the placement of specialists in such a way that they have a sense of isolation from each other.

The maximum area depends on the number of employees simultaneously in the office and common sense. The office should be spacious and comfortable enough for all employees to feel comfortable in it. At the same time, people working on the same project should be directly accessible to each other.

As for contracts and documents for the premises, as a rule, an IT company chooses an office in office center, and there the owner of the premises or the management company deals with these issues. Therefore, an IT company only needs a lease agreement. However, this contract must be carefully considered when negotiating to avoid the pitfalls of a sudden increase in rent or an unexpected request to vacate the premises urgently.

Documentation

EmployeesIT companies produce an intellectual product, so it is necessary to resolve the issue of copyright for it.

When it comes to working with a customer, there are two options. In the first, we reserve copyright. And in the second, if an individual design or individual visualization elements is being developed, we transfer non-exclusive rights to them to the customer. That is, he can use them, but cannot resell them. In this case, the authorship remains with us. This is necessary so that we can add the work to our portfolio and put authorship on the client’s website.

Opening checklist

Is it profitable to open

In order to determine the cost of fulfilling an order, you first need to understand exactly what the cost of an hour of a company's work is. It consists of fixed and variable costs divided by the average number of working hours per month.

Knowing the cost is important, first of all, because at the initial stage of work, without a good portfolio, it will be very difficult to receive expensive projects and you will have to be content with little, and sometimes even give additional discounts. Knowing the cost, it will be possible to rely on it, understanding exactly how much you can move in price, incurring allowable costs.

The order fulfillment price is determined based on the costs that the company will incur for its implementation, the risks involved and the desired profit. With a long-term existence of the company and work on standard orders, some types of work can later be included in the price list, since the average cost of these works will be known in advance.

In general, the calculation is performed based on an estimate of the projected time for the project. For the most accurate estimate, it is important at the design stage to break the project into small tasks so that each of them takes no more than 8-12 hours. This will keep the chance of error to a minimum. ​​​​​​​

In general, our calculation looks something like this: the number of estimated hours * the cost of an hour of the company's work * 1.3 (corrective risk factor; may vary) * N, where N is the profit factor. The owner of the company determines it independently, guided by common sense and his own greed.

Very important aspect The work of the company is the preparation of technical specifications for projects. Determining the exact cost of a project without a detailed technical specification is the biggest mistake that company employees can make.

In our company, the work on the project is built as follows:

• Getting a problem statement
• Preparation of a proposal with a preliminary assessment
• Conclusion of a contract for TK
• Design, development of detailed TOR and project prototypes
• Coordination of technical specifications and prototypes
• Signing of closing documents for the development of technical specifications
• Preparation of a detailed budget for the project
• Signing a contract for the development of the project
• Execution of project work
• Signing the closing documents for the project.

Depending on the scope of the project, the work can be divided into additional stages performed under separate contracts.

It is very difficult to orientate by the number of orders and the average check, since projects can be of very different levels. Theoretically, 3 projects with a check of 150 thousand rubles will be equivalent to 30 projects with a check of 15 thousand rubles. But in fact, 2 projects of 300 thousand rubles each can be in operation at the same time. with a scope of work for 2 months and an even distribution of project amounts for this period, 3 projects for 100 thousand and 5 projects for 25 thousand each. All of them can be at different stages, performed by different specialists and form receivables that accumulate over time.

The payback period depends on the costs at the initial stage, as well as on the amount of operating expenses of the company, including the level of salaries of specialists.

It is important to realistically assess opportunities in terms of the number and level of projects that can be contracted at an early stage.

If you hired an employee with a salary of 100 thousand rubles, and sign 2 contracts per month for 25 thousand rubles, you will definitely not last long.

Another important point: the more complex projects you want to receive, the higher the cost of attracting a client and the longer the period from the moment of the first contact to the conclusion of the contract.

In this case, with the same employee on a salary of 100 thousand rubles, the following situation may arise: you have a potential client with a project for 1 million rubles, you happily hire an employee, pay him a salary of 2-3 months while you are negotiating with a client, and only after that you receive the first tranche from the client. Well, if he covers the costs incurred, but what if the deal falls through? This probability also exists exactly until the money arrives in your current account.

If you build processes as flexibly as possible and keep in mind the possibility of the described situations, the payback period may well be 3-4 months, or even less.

The main way to increase profits is to reduce development costs, reduce risks and provide related services to customers.

Debugging business processes allows you to reduce development costs. Each employee must know exactly what to do depending on the situation that has arisen, understand who is responsible and who to run to if something goes wrong. We have several simple regulations and a project management system for this.

Risk reduction occurs due to more thorough preparatory work with the client before the conclusion of the contract. We do not set ourselves the task of concluding an agreement at any cost. Our main task is to build long-term relationships with each client, and this is possible only when he trusts us as professionals, and we trust him as a customer.

There are several risks, we faced all of them:

• Insolvency of the client - the client starts a large-scale project, but in the middle of the project he runs out of funds, or the project becomes irrelevant. To minimize this risk, we break large projects into many stages with payment tied to them. This allows you to understand in time that funding is stopping, and to lose a minimum of time and money.
• Lack of technical specifications - sometimes sales managers have a great temptation: "Guys, we have a client for 500 thousand, let's work as soon as possible, sign an agreement, to hell with it, with technical specifications." And then it turns out that the client has a million Wishlist, and he refuses to pay for them, arguing this as follows: “But your manager promised me that everything would be as I want.”
• Incorrect estimation of the project - sometimes it happens that specialists are mistaken in estimating the scope of work. In this case, in order to save face and reputation, one has to work at a loss. Breaking up the project into small pieces is also great to eliminate this risk.

Many business owners today need additional interactive "assistants" that automate workflows. Mobile application development is the creation of algorithms that are used when writing software for wireless devices such as phones or tablets. How to choose the right developer company, what to pay attention to first of all?

1. Application types

Developer companies tend to specialize in creating one of three types of applications

1. Platform specific native apps (iOS, Android, Windows Phone)
2. Hybrid apps to run on any OS: development of such apps is based on Xamarin, React Native, Ionic and other technologies.
3. Cross-platform applications, web applications and mobile versions of the site.

When ordering, you should find out what kind of application you will receive as a result - if it is native app, then it will be impossible to painlessly expand it to another platform, if it is cross-platform, then, most likely, its functionality will be noticeably limited. Hybrid applications combine the advantages of native and cross-platform ones, but their cost is somewhat lower than the former. In general, if you compare the types of applications by cost, then in descending order you get: native, hybrid, cross-platform.

Hybrid applications are considered the best solution in terms of price/timing/quality (when it comes to development for two or more platforms). If you need only iOS or only Android - choose natives. If you just need to transfer the site mobile device- choose cross-platform.

2. Types of mobile app developers

Among the studios that provide services for the production of mobile applications, the following types can be distinguished:

• Freelancers. These are lone professionals (or non-professionals). The signed contract obliges to complete the work on time. Using freelance services is more risky and less reliable.
• Companies that use templates and constructors. Studios create applications based on already developed layouts with individual variations.
• Custom development firms:

The last type of companies can be divided into two subtypes:

• Working with the involvement of outsourcing specialists. In this case, the studio attracts outside performers to perform some stages of production.
• Having their own team of full-time professionals. The staff of designers, programmers, designers and full-time testers is at the service of the customer.

The choice of one or another type of developer depends entirely on the tasks that you assign to the application. It is important to take into account not only the current wishes, but also the prospects for the development of the product in the future. A simple application with common features can be made on the constructor by freelancers. A complex application with unique functionality that requires integration with the internal system of the enterprise is a matter of solution by a serious qualified team of developers, designers, layout designers. In this case, your choice is a full cycle studio.

The question whether the studio resorts to the services of outsourcing specialists or not should be asked without fail. The use of outsourcing services adds an additional link to the development chain, which, on the one hand, can increase the speed of development, and on the other hand, increases the risk of failure to complete tasks. Here you need to carefully study both the company and its partners, so as not to make a mistake with the choice.

3. Development of mobile applications: a range of services

Modern studios offer services such as:

• designing applications for Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Apple Watch;
• adaptation of application interfaces for various platforms;
• creation of mobile versions of sites;
• building programs for small business with connected databases;
• marketing and promotion of business ideas and applications.

When choosing a company, take a look at its portfolio and find out its areas of expertise. Perhaps, mobile development is not the main activity of the company, the team consists of specialists of a wide profile. This should be reflected in the cost of raarbotka - the narrower the specialization of both the entire company and the members of its team, the better and more expensive final product.

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In 2008, the first iPhone was in the hands of Maxim Voloshin. New Product Apple liked it so much that, together with his colleagues, Maxim decided to start developing applications for the Apple App Store. In the first three months, the mobile IQ Test brought developers $4,000. Several games followed. But when large gaming companies entered the app market, sales from the startup fell. Then Redmadrobot decided to create custom mobile applications. Today, among the company's clients are publishing houses, cellular operators and banks. This year, the revenue should amount to 90 million rubles.

Redmadrobot

field of activity: mobile application development

Date of creation: November 2008

Start money: 50 thousand rubles

business idea

Maxim Voloshin

Founder of Redmadrobot

When I was 18 years old, in the evenings I studied engineering at MIREA, and during the day I worked as a courier in a design studio. I was enterprising, so I soon became an assistant manager, then a manager, by the age of 25 - a project director. We developed corporate identity, logos, brand books and more.

In the studio, I met Alexander Alekhin, a web interface specialist, and Nikolai Satunkin, a project manager, with whom we later launched Redmadrobot.

In 2008, the first iPhone was released, we immediately ordered three pieces from America. A couple of months later, the App Store launched. It was almost empty and we thought why not make a couple of apps for the iPhone.

Success and disappointment

The simplest thing you could think of is a mobile IQ Test. There was no need to invent anything here: a ready-made algorithm, an easy interface. We found a programmer, bought him a white MacBook for 30 thousand rubles (it is impossible to write code for iOS without a MacBook) and paid 20 thousand rubles for development. This was our starting capital.

It turned out to be easy to register an account in the App Store, but it was more difficult to issue documents for receiving money from downloads. Organizational and legal issues took three months. We sold the app for $1.99, of which Apple got 30%, minus tax, and we got the rest. In three months, the application was downloaded by about 3 thousand people.

I still remember the moment when I received a long SMS in English. I was driving around the city and did not immediately understand what was the matter. It turned out that 4 thousand dollars came to my account from the installations of our application.

At that moment, it became clear to us that you can earn money on applications. We released several arcade and adventure games and came up with Redmadrobot. We liked the word "robot" very much, "Red" is our favorite color, "Mad" is a rejection of stereotypes. From the sale of our applications, money began to drip, and we left the studio. But after a couple of months, large gaming companies rushed to the App Store, which invested 500 thousand dollars in the development of their products. It became clear that we would not build a business on gaming applications.

Growth problems

By 2011, media holdings, banks and mobile operators decided at once that they needed a mobile application. Everyone was in a hurry to beat the competition. Some did something on their own, others turned to offices that promised to do it quickly and cheaply. And so and so it turned out badly. Then they began to look for outsourcing companies that have a staff and at least some portfolio, and often found Redmadrobot.

We got a dozen orders. At first we were delighted, but quickly realized that we could not cope. Our experience and team was not enough. Big customers assumed a completely different level of development, which we did not really correspond to (at that moment no one on the market corresponded to it). For example, just for proper testing of applications, it was necessary to increase the team by a third, which we could not afford right off the bat.

Deadlines flew by, applications “fell”, customers were indignant. The situation was critical. We urgently needed programmers, designers, test engineers, business analysts, high-level managers.

Before that, we subcontracted part of the work, with the advent of large companies, it became clear that this was a mistake: subcontractors without strong internal expertise cannot be controlled either in terms of time or quality. We abandoned this scheme and promptly hired a powerful backbone of the team - top managers with experience in large IT companies who built up the staff and built our production processes. And we began to work faster and better, but a new problem arose - the threat of a cash gap.

Large client companies work without prepayment. In fact, we had to lend free of charge to projects for these monsters of the market. All the money that we earned on small orders immediately went to cover salary gaps in big projects. The company was on the brink of survival. But there was no other option: we understood that if we didn’t get involved in a big game, we wouldn’t pump ourselves.

Market and competition

Entering the mobile app market today is easy. Tools for the basics of iOS and Android development are free: online courses, books, forums. According to our estimates, there are already a couple of hundred small companies on the market that are boiled in one "soup" - they fulfill small one-time orders for the development of corporate and promotional applications. The competition among these companies is very high.

A separate story is the professional industrial development of mobile business applications. I mean long-term projects with millions of users in different regions. Here we need experts in the field of coding and usability, as well as an infrastructure that can carry out complex integration with all systems of the client company, provide technical support and develop a mobile product.

There are three or four companies in the Russian market that can take on such projects, including Redmadrobot, and there is no serious competition in this market. There are enough clients for all of us. For example, now all 60 of our employees are busy, and if tomorrow comes new client, we will need to find resources for it. Among the clients are Beeline, the Life group, Publishing House"Kommersant" and others.

Of course, those companies that are now stewing in the general "soup" understand that they need to reach a new level. But I do not think that they will pump at once and begin to compete with us.

Plans

By the end of this year, our revenue will amount to 90-100 million rubles. By the end of next year, we plan to reach 150-170 million rubles. Of course, our company can grow into a factory with a staff of a thousand people. At the same time, the risks of losing quality are high. Finding even 50 professionals of the level we need in the labor market is a difficult task. We'd rather lead 10-15 clients a year and make really cool products for them with a team of 100-150 people.

Our global goal is to increase the value of the company while retaining the existing staff. This will become possible if we make a profit not only from the development of mobile applications, but also from the sale of our own products.

Yes, we have already started electronic library"Business.Books" for mobile platforms - a joint project with Alpina Publisher paid off in eight months. It is an open access reader and a corporate solution. To order, we create branded applications with a set of books that companies need. We have more than 50 contracts with leading pharmaceutical companies, retailers, banks, carriers, telecom operators.

Through such projects, over the next five years, we want to receive capital that we can invest in educational and scientific projects, among other things.

PHOTOS: Anton Berkasov

Zhdanova Ksenia Denisovna

Faculty of Mathematical Economics, Statistics and Informatics, PRUE G.V. Plekhanov Moscow, Russia

Annotation: “Have you ever faced such a problem: your parents use Viber, your friends use WhatsApp and Telegramm, and your work colleagues use exclusively Facebook? If your answer is yes, then our &WVTF app is just for you! The value of this idea lies in the fact that a person using several software products at once, such as Viber, WhatsApp, Telegramm and Facebook, will be able to communicate with all contacts from one application, without having to switch between several programs.

Keywords: Business plan, Business model A. Osterwalder, mobile application, Investment, innovation model

Developing a business plan of mobile applications &WVTF

Zhdanova Ksenia Denisovna

Faculty of Mathematical Economics, Statistics and Informatics Plekhanov Russian University of Economics Moscow, Russia

Abstract: The purpose of the project is to create a unique mobile application to aggregate messages from different messengers. "Have you ever faced such a problem: your parents use Viber, WhatsApp and friends Telegramm, and colleagues are extremely Facebook? If your answer is "yes", then our application "& WVTF" especially for you!" The value of this idea is that a person using multiple software products, such as Viber, WhatsApp, Telegramm and Facebook, will be able to chat with all your contacts from a single application, without the need to switch between multiple programs.

Keywords: The business plan, business model of A.Ostervalder, mobile application, investment, innovation model

1. PROJECT SUMMARY

The business idea is to create an application that aggregates the most popular instant messengers.

Our enterprise will be engaged in the production, implementation and maintenance of the &WVTF mobile application, which will aggregate several popular messengers at once, such as:

1) WHATSAPP,

2) VIBER,

3) facebook,

4) TELEGRAM

The goal of this project is to create a unique mobile application for aggregating messages from different messengers.

Our customers will be people who use several instant messengers at once, because the interlocutors use different programs (due to the peculiarities of the phone's operating system and preferences). Thus, people will be able to communicate without having to switch between different programs and windows. The buyers will be both IOS users and Android users. The age segment of buyers is from 7 to 99 years.

We will communicate information to customers via the Internet, namely through the AppStore and GooglePlay applications. Advertising using the Vkontakte group and Yandex.Direct

Our competitors are the Nimbuzz and Snowball apps. The main difference is the messengers included in our application. These are the most popular messengers.

Long term perspectives are:

• Increasing the number of clients
• Adding the most popular and demanded messengers to our application, i.e. mobile application development.

Initial funding needs and income after project implementation:

Starting capital = 300,000 rubles

For the first MONTH of work, it is planned to sell 5000 paid versions of the application at a price of $1/version. Thus, the sales income for the first month will be 300,000 rubles.

When selling free versions in which pop-up ads appear, the income for the first month in the amount of 100,000 rubles is planned.

Suppose that starting from the 2nd month from the start of sales, it is planned to sell 2500 applications per month, the income will be equal to 150,000 rubles + sales income of 100,000 rubles = 250,000 rubles per month. TOTAL \u003d 400,000 + 11 * 250,000 \u003d 400,000 + 2,750,000 \u003d 3,150,000 rubles

Organizational and legal form of the enterprise - Individual entrepreneur

To implement the project, it is planned to attract 5 employees:

1. Chief programmer,

2. Programmer,

3. Technical support specialist (2 employees),

4. Manager.

2. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The type of our investment project is the creation of a project from scratch, because the project is innovative and has no previous versions.

At the moment, the project is at the stage of “Gathering a team” and “Creating a concept”.

At the time of launch, it is planned to implement the project throughout the Russian Federation, and after a successful launch, we plan to expand the coverage area and allow our application to be used all over the world.

The goal of this project is to create a unique mobile application for aggregating messages from different messengers.

How our business idea was born: “Have you ever faced such a problem: your parents use Viber, your friends use WhatsApp and Telegramm, and your work colleagues use only Facebook? If your answer is “yes”, then our application “& WVTF" especially for you!"

The value of this idea lies in the fact that a person using several software products at once, such as Viber, WhatsApp, Telegramm and Facebook, will be able to communicate with all contacts from one application, without having to switch between several programs.

To achieve the goal of our project, it is necessary to sign contracts for the provision of servers for Viber, WhatsApp, Telegramm and Facebook. This will be done through the API (Application Programming Interface). The API defines the functionality that a program (module, library) provides, while the API allows you to abstract from how exactly this functionality is implemented.

The term for achieving the goal of the project - from the beginning of the creation of the application to the publication of applications in the AppStore and GooglePlay will not exceed 2 months.

3. INFORMATION ABOUT THE MAIN PARTICIPANTS OF THE PROJECT

Story:

There is no history of the borrower, because this is the first startup.

The main participants of the project:

• Chief Programmer
• Programmer

The order of interaction in the project- the founder of the business (he is also a manager) concludes a contract with the above specialists, specifying their job responsibilities.

The manager is obliged to write a TOR in accordance with GOST No. 34 and transfer it to the chief programmer, as well as conclude contracts for access to WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, FaceBook servers. In turn, the main programmer brings the programmer up to date to start creating the application. After the allotted time, programmers are required to show the preliminary version to the manager for approval and further work.

Organizational plan:

Starting capital of 300,000 rubles is required, which will be financed by the founder of the business.

The first 2 months will be spent start-up capital, then the startup begins to make a profit.

Table 1. Calculation of required investments

Staff costs
	Position	Sum wages per month, rub
	Chief Programmer
	Programmer
	Technical support specialist (2 people)
	Sales/Contract manager
Total staff costs
Equipment costs (not included)
Rental expenses (not included)
Contracting costs (server access)
	whatsapp
	Telegram
	Facebook
Total expenses

4. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Product program:

We offer you a new &WVTF messenger:

1) Convenient intuitive interface

2) Ability to purchase a free version

3) Save battery and memory in your smartphone using one messenger instead of 4!

4) Our app is available for Android and IOS smartphones

5) The ability to use one application instead of 4 without losing the functionality of all programs

We will provide 2 view of our application:

a. Site iphones.ru is free(under testing)

b. Website appleinsider.ru/obzory-prilozhenij - for a fee

c. Appstudio.org/ios-apps - for a fee (7000 rubles)

2) For Android users:

a. Site androidinsider.ru - for a fee

b. Site ferra.ru/ru/apps/ - for a fee

c. Site android4all.ru/soft - is free

1. Gathering a team

2. Payment for programmer services

3. Writing applications for operating systems iOS and Android

4. Obtaining a patent for the application

6. Implementation of applications in Google Play and AppStore

7. Development of a marketing strategy to attract new customers

8. Technical support users

9. FINANCIAL PLAN (OUTLOOK REPORTING, INDICATORS)

Project performance indicators:

1) DPBP (DISCOUNTED PAYBACK PERIOD). This is the time for which the reduced to current moment The (discounted) net cash flow of the project will exceed the initial investment. This indicator reflects the period at the end of which all the money invested in the project is returned, provided that the discount rate is chosen correctly. The indicator should not exceed the duration of the project, otherwise the project will be considered unprofitable.

2) NPV (NET PRESENT INCOME). One of the key indicators of the project, which is the current (discounted) amount of net cash flows from the implementation of the project (the difference between all cash inflows and outflows), calculated taking into account the expected change in the value of money. Shows the absolute value Money(income) that a bank or investor will receive from investing money in your project. Allows you to compare projects of equal duration and takes into account their scale. For a project to be considered profitable, this indicator must be at least greater than zero.

3) IRR (INTERNAL RATE OF RETURN). Along with NPV, it is one of the key indicators of the project and characterizes the degree of return on invested money, taking into account the time factor and subject to full coverage of all project costs from income. It is calculated as a barrier rate - a discount rate at which the NPV of the project is 0. IRR allows you to compare the effectiveness of investments in a project with alternative financial investment options (for example, in other, more profitable projects) and shows the relative profitability of the project per unit of invested funds. This figure must exceed the discount rate.

4) PI (PROJECT PROFITABILITY INDEX). It is also one of the key indicators of the project and is calculated as the ratio of NPV to the initial investment. Shows the relative profitability of the project compared to other projects with a comparable amount of initial investment. If the index value is equal to one or lower values, it loses to other projects and investments and actually makes the project of little interest to the bank or investor.

Investment size: