Mobile App Development for Businesses - Can We Do It Ourselves?

These days it's not enough just to have an established business, what you need is an established DIGITAL business, the difference being that people can find you online. In the last 20 years the internet has vastly improved within its technical capabilities, and thank God we don't have to listen to that classic old school dial up tone, whilst it takes an hour of your life away as it tries to connect. For those who don't remember that, it was painful! Thanks to technological advances we can now access internet on the move whether this be from a smart phone, tablet or smart watch. Although we use the internet for various tasks every day, most people would probably agree that we actually use our mobile, tablet and smart watch apps more. So when it comes to digitalising your business a lot of organisations are now turning to mobile app development solutions, to make their businesses more interactive and efficient for their customers, but also to make them look more "On Trend". My Situation... By day I'm a Digital Apprentice, and by night (outside work hours) I'm a Personal Trainer. As I can't currently commit to full time personal training, because I need to eat and provide a roof over my head, I've been thinking about ways I can still maximise my training business, whilst still continuing my Apprenticeship. After months of deliberating, the other day a light bulb went off in my head. What if rather than me physically training individuals, people could download my workout programmes from my online business instead? This would be a great way to maximise my income, however this has some slight faults, as I'm trying to provide an overall service, not just taking people's money and letting them get on with it like some trainers do. After a bit more thought and research I found myself staring at an app development web page. Maybe an active app will allow me to keep track of my client's progress after they have downloaded my app, so I can still give them that 24hr support? This would allow me to expand on my client portfolio whilst providing them with a 24hr service. The Outcome... So after deciding I wanted to build an app, the research began. I soon learned that you had to figure out what type of mobiles this would be responsive to. For example iOS mobile apps are only suitable on Apple products, and Android apps are developed to be utilised on Android devices. If I wanted to develop an iOS app I could download the programme Xcodefrom the App Store, and then use step by step tutorials to develop my app to my requirements. Alternatively, if I wanted to create an Android app I would need an SDK (Software Development Kit) to provide me with the right tools to be able to build it. I then realised that no matter which route I chose, the process will be quite time consuming and I'm not sure where I would be able to get the time in to work on it, when I work 9am - 5.30pm and I usually PT people around my full time Apprenticeship. Also I'm not entirely sure of either process and I really don't want to waste money on something that could go terribly wrong. What I decided I would do, was extend my research further to find a Mobile App Development Solutions Company that might be able to do it for me. Hopefully they would be able to find a way to make the app responsive on both iOS and Android, or maybe not. Either way they're the experts, and they will know what they're doing which saves me all the hassle and stress. As it stands due to workload I still haven't had the chance to have a proper look for an ideal mobile app development company, but I plan to do so when work eases up in the New Year.