After spending 7 years and counting running a successful mobile app business and getting some tremendous results (7 figure revenue, installs & selling numberous mobile apps). I am doing consulting as well and the clients have found my industry experience extremely valuable.

TIPS WITH EXAMPLES

NICHE - What is your specific market. Being a consultant in general really can say to others you are not specific in what you are consulting in. Find a niche you focus to sell on and then add additional services on the backend.

Example - I do an assessment on your mobile app business. Then share what the small tweaks you can make to improve your mobile app. Personally, I would guarantee if I can't find actionable items as I know my value or money back, I am not saying you should do the same unless you truly believe you can (most wont and it is a bold move).

If I went in and said I can do business consulting on your mobile app business, that can mean programming, design, monetization, marketing, building teams etc..... It is saying the same thing, but I am niche on the business assessments.

NETWORK -

You really need to start and talk to the people you know. This can be personal, Facebook, LinkedIn, companies you have worked at etc...

Example - Take your phone out of your pocket, go through each contact and see how can they help you or who they know.

CONTENT & ADDING VALUE

Creating content and showing yourself as an expert in salesforce consulting. Creating lots of content and sharing it on LinkedIn, Youtube etc... This is a time-consuming process, but so is everything else, just do it :)

Example - Writing this post, I am creating this post which my goal is to overdeliver value. It may help someone reading it, the more value I can bring to other people (paying or not paying today), I believe in the end will help my position.

YOU or AGENCY

You can start as an individual consultant or an agency. When it comes to scaling and demanding more money, an agency in the way to go. You will get bigger and better clients, however, the demand level is high as well.

Example - When you set your branding and website, make it about the company, not you.

I hope that helps, of course, if you want to jump on a call let me know.

Cheers,
Mukul
http://mokoolapps.com/

You have got some solid advice here. I would not be your guy to jump on the call, however will chime in with a couple extra things to keep in mind.

Only 2 points I would add.
1. It is you 4 VS growing the company. Not VS each other.
2. None of them are wrong, it is just different ways (balancing the way it was vs growth)

Good luck, handle it fast or lots of time and resources will be wasted.

Udemy

Udemy is a great starting point (you can see mine at https://www.udemy.com/user/mukulverma) since you can get your course online in days, however if you are serious about doing courses online, you will have to have your own website (does not have to be fancy, thanks you Wordpress and Fiverr, most people can do it cost effectively).

I am not convinced you need an investor for what you are doing. Why give up part of your company and someone else having a say in your dream.

I would start with some simple videos at Udemy, going through that you will learn a lot and move up from there.

You may also consider a local intern to help you sort through the material and put it online.

Anything with a physical location or a local service-based business. Reviews are CRITICAL.

A bad review won't hurt you as much as how you have handled the bad review. If you are honest, own up to any mistakes and try your best to make it right and other customers see this, they are more likely to see this as favorable.

Good for you 3 to take the initiative.

Creating something based on a personal skill is a huge advantage and helps through the grinds. Every business I have created has been based on using our personal skills and it has paid off.

You may look at a digital consulting firm or one that manages everything website relate for clients.

The other option is a online business with some more technical knowledge required. I have started (and sold) several businesses that solved a personal problem that you feel.

The data Antalyst is important in building the systems for the business and making sure everything runs smooth. Example is removing repetitive manual processes which can be handled my software.

Two extra tips
1. When I started a business I looked at personal needs and wants, problem I can solve, my skills and business pontential to grow. Be clear on all requirements and evaluate a business based on that.
2. You 3 are experienced and successful. To get to the pay you have now will take time. I see this all the time, where someone earning a good salary expects that return from biz on day 1. It does not work like that. Speaking from my experience before I left my job in 2007, I had a solid side business with good income, but did take a short pay cut and worked up.

Cheers,
Mukul

If I can help, call me

I have created over 200 mobile apps for Android, so I think I can help on how to prepare a budget and have some thoughts on investors.

First, the investor. I prefer not to use an investor, I took our initial $3,000 which has personally made me over a million dollars in the app space. However, I think the experience for you to meet one will have a lot of good learnings, just be very prepared.

Preparing a budget. So create a spec document, be clear on your app and the vision (this will help or should have been done for an investor). Then reach out to a bunch of outsourcing companies (upwork, PeoplePerHour etc...) and get a good understanding of the cost to develop your android app. You will be shocked to see how the price difference is depending on where you get it developed. This will give you an idea on the cost.

Then once you know the budget and if it is high, go with an investor, if it is not then dont. My first app, I got quotes for $300 and $10,000. I spent $300 by a buy working on the side of his day job plus the work I did myself to create the app and later sold it.

The $3,000 to start was spent on $2400 went to training/mentors and $300 to set up a company. Good mentoring and training matters from experienced professional.

Cheers,
Mukul

If I can help, call me

Hello,

Congrats on creating your own agency.

Software developers and clients often speak 2 different languages and your job is to communicate between then effectively.

For your questions
1. This can happen, the agency is the project manager. Manages requirements, user needs, spec document, milestones, payments and everything outside coding. On the next project, they will see your value.
2. I would not mention it, it gives you less flexibility, if you have to change teams or something happens. I don’t see a reason for mentioning it
3. Everything outside the coding - getting clients, creating the spec document, customer care, making sure project on schedule and budget, launching the product, working with design teams
4. The most value a agency can provide is what I call a brain. When things go wrong (and they will) who can solve that problem. The programmer will hit some tough spots in a project and come to you to solve it. You need to know how to handle it and keep the project going. Now if the client worked directly with the agency, this is where your value came in.

Last, I would suggest to get into each conversion and understand how everything works, it will help you build a better business, good luck.

Cheers,
Mukul

If you need help, call me

This is a lose-lose approach

If this happens and I think most talented developers will not do this (not all, you may find someone sold a company and is looking for something new and likes the idea, never know). If you get someone to agree, they may not be up to par on what you need to scale this business to be big.

A Business is not built just on ideas, they are created on how hard and smart the team works. So I think if you really believe, look at investors and hire more talented people.

Cheers,
Mukul

If you need help, call me

Firebase (Google Analytics) will help you to start. It has a feature where you can see how the user moves through your mobile app.

This can be very valuable on how your users use your app. You can also set up events to track any particular events in the mobile app.

In one of our apps, I used Google Analytics then (Firebase now) and found we had lots of users going to a screen on our app, I added some monetization and this helped increase revenue 25% overnight.

Looking at this data can be very helpful in taking you to the next level.

Cheers,
Mukul

PS - If you want help looking at the data or more tips, call me