Selling mobile apps to small businesses is an old model that keeps working, because the demand is real and the supply is bad. A restaurant, a gym, a clinic or a local shop wants to be on a phone. A quoted custom build is five figures. The gap between those two numbers is the business.
This is what the model actually looks like, including the parts that go wrong.
What you are really selling
Not an app. Nobody wants an app; they want the thing the app does — repeat customers, bookings without phone calls, a way to reach people who already bought once.
That matters for pricing. "An app for £400" invites comparison with every other app for £400. "Your regulars get a notification when the new menu goes up" is a different conversation, and it is the one that closes.
It also decides which feature matters most. For almost every local business, it is push notifications. A shop with a thousand installs has a channel that costs nothing per message and does not depend on an algorithm. That is the whole pitch.
The two shapes of this business
One-off builds
Charge a setup fee, deliver the app, move on. Simple to sell, simple to understand. The problem is that you start every month at zero, and app stores require maintenance — new OS versions, expiring certificates, policy changes. If you have not charged for that, it comes out of your own time.
Setup plus a monthly fee
A smaller setup fee and an ongoing charge covering hosting, updates and changes. Harder to sell — small businesses resist subscriptions — but it is the version that is still there in year three, and it is the one that has a sale value.
Most people who last in this market end up at the second. The first is how you learn what the second should cost.
What it actually takes
- A platform that builds the apps. Either a hosted subscription or a self-hosted script. The economics differ sharply once you have more than a few clients — the comparison is in how to compare website-to-app converters.
- Developer accounts. Apple's programme is 99 USD per year, Google Play is a one-off registration fee. Decide early whether apps go under your account or each client's. Under yours is faster; under theirs means they own the listing, which is easier to explain and much easier to hand over if they leave.
- A way to publish without a Mac, unless you have one. Cloud CI handles it — see publishing an iOS app without a Mac.
- Something to show. Two or three real apps in the stores beat any amount of description. Build them for businesses you already know, cheaply or free, and agree up front that you can use them as references.
The mistakes that cost the most
Pricing from your costs instead of their value
If the platform costs you a little, it is tempting to charge a little. But the client is not comparing you to your costs; they are comparing you to an agency quote. Price against the alternative they would otherwise buy.
Promising App Store approval
Never guarantee a date or an outcome. Apple rejects apps that add nothing beyond the website, and that rejection lands on you, not the platform. Build the native features that get apps through and set expectations before signing — the detail is in why the App Store rejects website wrappers.
Taking clients whose website is bad
A wrapper inherits the website. If the site is slow or broken on mobile, the app will be too, and the client will blame you — reasonably, since you sold it. Check the site on a phone before quoting, and either fix it as part of the job or decline.
Per-app fees you did not multiply
A monthly per-app fee is nothing at three clients. At forty it can exceed what you collect, especially if some clients pay annually and churn. Build the spreadsheet before the pipeline.
Holding the signing keys without a plan
If apps are published under your developer account, you control whether they can be updated. That is convenient until a client leaves and wants their app. Decide in advance what happens then, and write it into the agreement.
A realistic first ninety days
- Pick one industry you already understand. Generalists have nothing to say in a first meeting.
- Build two apps for businesses you know, at cost, with permission to show them.
- Work out the price from what an agency would quote them, not from your costs.
- Sell the notification channel, not the app.
- Only then decide whether the platform you are renting still makes sense at your client count.
The last point is the one that decides whether this becomes a business or stays a side line. Everything else is sales.