Almost every entrepreneur finds himself in this dilemma: you have an idea for an application or software, but you don’t know any programmers. How do I find an app developer?
Define your business needs
Before you start looking for programmers, ask yourself a few questions. What specific business challenge would I like to solve?
There are three typical scenarios:
- You already have an internal team but you need more specialists. Depending on the scope of the project, you can hire a professional, freelancer or programmer through an outsourcing agency. Outstaffing occurs when you hire a specialist from another company for some time.
- You want to implement a technology that you have never used before. For example, let’s say you want to rewrite a website in React. You can wait for programmers to learn to react, hire a new programmer, or hire specialists from an outsourcing company.
- You want to develop a project from scratch. This scenario is common for both startups and existing companies. Startup owners usually have budget restrictions and want to quickly enter their niche, which is why they choose outsourcing. Existing companies want to automate business processes and choose between employing their own or a dedicated team.
Extended networks
Entrepreneurs often do not notice how huge their personal network is. When I was looking for a programmer for the first time, the first one I contacted was a friend of my friend’s girlfriend. He wasn’t interested in this project, but he had some useful questions that allowed me to sharpen my vision even more. The key to using the web is to inform people about what you are trying to do and who you want to connect to.
Social Media
Application developers can be found in specialized web directories such as Make Make Apps, job boards such as Get Apps Done. Are you looking for an iOS developer? Try the iPhoneDevSDK forum. Are you trying to find an Android developer? – check the Android or AndroidPit forums. Here are more general communities if you need an application developer – Koding, Topcoder, NewAppIdea, Polycom. You can also check the official groups of Google, Facebook, Apple, Windows developers.
Searching for application developers is also possible via online services such as LinkedIn, Indeed, Upwork and even Reddit. Real skills, application designs, or developer code samples can be tested on the Gitlab and Github open source repositories. Use Clutch if you want to have a reputable software company. Your task is to search everywhere.
How much does it cost to build the application?
The actual cost of developing an application depends largely on what you are building, but in general you should be ready with several thousand dollars to run the ball and hire the appropriate application developers.
Next week I will explore more in depth how to choose the right programmer and the benefits / risks of outsourcing work to a foreign country. Until then, stay in shape, stay healthy and let the Entrepreneurship Gods smile at you.
