By: Hillel Fuld

Before I begin, I want to clarify one thing. I have never built a business or a product from scratch. I am not an entrepreneur (yet) and there is nothing more annoying than a person who preaches out of lack of experience. Having said that, due to the nature of my work, both as a blogger and a marketing guy, I meet a lot of mobile companies on a daily basis. I hear their challenges and thoughts, and it always occurred to me that the average app developer goes through what every business owner goes through, only on a smaller scale.

Ever since I started working at inneractive helping mobile developers generate revenue from their mobile apps, I work closely with these developers, both small companies with one or two apps, and large studios with hundreds. These guys have one thing in common, well maybe more than one, but they are all extremely driven individuals. They all had a vision of one or many apps, and they followed through, developed it, and brought it to market. Before I get into the other things you can learn from app developers about creating a business, the first thing we all have to take away from these guys is drive.

Whatever type of business you are creating, you need to have a product you truly believe in, without that, nothing is going to work, not the development of your product, not the sales, and definitely not the marketing. Once you have something you truly believe in, you need drive and stamina. If you have those things, you are more than half way there, and you already have a huge head start on many other entrepreneurs who are doing what they do for all the wrong reasons.

The following are some lessons I have learned from mobile developers and their journey, about entrepreneurship and creating a successful business:

1: Research Required: One of the blatant characteristics of the whole app ecosystem is its super competitive nature. What you might be able to get away with in other  industries will not fly in the world of apps. A critical step I have found that many app developers miss is the whole market research thing. We all probably have an idea for  what we think would make an awesome app, and if not, we know someone who does.

What most of us do not do however, is check if that app already exists. The number of people that have told me they have a killer idea for an app, that turned out to be an idea  implemented tens of times already, is truly astounding (I actually signed an NDA for a person who had an idea to make a messaging app for iPhone, as if there are not enough of those). If you are serious about creating an app and making your idea a reality, step one is checking if the app exists, and if  not, what are the closest things to it. Obviously, a business that does not know its market or competitors is a business doomed for failure.

2: Define Target Audience: Yet another mistake I have encountered countless times. If you are creating an app, one of the first things you need to do, at least in your head if   not on a piece of paper, is define who your audience is. If you are creating an app for middle aged women who enjoy cricket and read cricket blogs, you might want to reconsider broadening that audience.

In fact, no need to go so far. If you are creating an app that targets the tech community, it might be worth considering if there is something you can do with your app to  increase its appeal to more people. The important thing is that everything you do from day one is based on the fact that you know who your audience is. If it is the tech  community, then you know your app has to be top notch since chances are, your users have seen a lot of apps. I think you get the point.

This is a crucial point for developers and it is magnified when you are talking about a full fledged business. A developer can always tweak the app a little to better match the  audience, that becomes a little more difficult when you are talking about a venture with overhead, employees, and an entire business infrastructure. It is important to do it  right from the get-go.

3: Focus: If you have ever read any of my posts about apps, you probably know I am a fan of app simplicity. Take a look at some of my favorite apps: Flipboard, Dropbox,  Instagram, Viber, and of course Angry Birds. Each one of these apps serves a completely different purpose, but they all have one thing in common, simplicity. The creators of  these apps could have easily integrated more features into the apps but instead they decided to focus on one specific type of value, and to excel at it. Whether it is displaying  your content, enabling you to share your photos, or killing pigs, each one of the above apps excels at one thing.

When creating an app, many developers have the misconception that the more features you stuff into your app, the more downloads it will get. This is not only misguided and  incorrect, it might actually be the opposite from the truth. I have found that the simpler and more straight forward the app, the more traction it gets. Once again, this is an  important lesson for entrepreneurs. Focus on what you do best, and if you have ideas for extra added value, there is always the next release of your product, or for that  matter, you can always release another product. The important thing is that you focus your product on its strengths and not get carried away with bells and whistles.

4: Implementation: When creating a mobile app, it all starts with an idea. The problem arises when the developer wants to get that idea on the shelves of the respective app  store as soon as possible at the cost of its implementation. If there is one thing that is a result of all the competition in the world of apps, it is higher standards. Consumers  want and expect more, and if your app does not deliver, there are no second chances. This is true when it comes to the design and user experience of your app, which I  believe to be even more important than the original idea.

It is true that with the speed at which this industry developers, you do not have time to waste, and you need to release your app asap. However, if the choice is between  releasing the app now with an inferior user experience, or in a few weeks time with a more solid interface, I say wait. Again, this point applies for anyone creating a business,  but generally speaking, in almost all other industries, you have more time to invest. There are almost no industries as competitive as the mobile one, and so it is important  that you develop your product until it is ready to be released, and not release it a second before.

5: Consistency: Based on my personal experience meeting hundreds of mobile developers over the years, I can safely say, that most of them make one fundamental mistake.  They think that the process of developing a mobile app ends once it is released, when in reality, that is only the beginning. Of course there are the very few apps that have  made the news because of overnight success. Apps that have sold millions in two weeks are not the norm, and if you think they are, you are in for a nice surprise. That should  by no means be your strategy because nine out of ten times, it won’t happen.

What does happen more often is that a superior product hits the market and slowly starts to build up traction. If the developer invests time in engaging his/her audience by  releasing regular updates, the results are more downloads and more exposure. If you are creating a business, getting the product out the door is half the battle at most. You  need to plan for the day after and how you intend on retaining your customers.

How are you going to keep them coming back for more? How are you going to make sure they become your evangelists? Most importantly, how are you going to keep them  happy and satisfied? For app developers, this is fairly simple. Release a new product every so often with just one new feature and some bug fixes and you will keep your users  interested. If you have a developed business, it is slightly more complicated, but worth the effort.

To summarize, I have had the opportunity to meet some of the greatest mobile developers out there, and besides the obvious advantage of seeing new and exciting technologies before they launch, generally speaking, the developers I have met are some of the most motivational and inspiring people I have ever met and I have learned a lot from them. I hope I succeeded in passing on some of those lessons to you.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter.