HOW MUCH IS MY APP WORTH?

So I am developing my own software application. It's a medical app to help people with certain conditions. It's early days and I think it is possible.

I can't say exactly what it is but it could be mobile for use during the day, and an online interface for a more detailed view and review later. It had me thinking about how I would monetize it.

We buy the occasional app from the App Store for my boys, normally I get them to aim for free apps, but every so often there is one they want for 79p or £1 something. I think the most I have been persuaded to pay was £3.99.

Free is fine but it normally doesn't give all the functionality or has some features you want to be locked in till you pay an additional sum, or you are force-fed adverts with a banner or a video on a countdown timer. I don't like these so free is out.

If the default is 79p this seems ok, but how much would it really be worth at this price? A quick Google and the condition I am hoping to help people with affects 1 in 25,000 people. So in the UK, there are roughly 64 million people, which means there are possibly 2560 people that I could help.

This makes my app worth about £2000 in the UK assuming all want to buy in. But that is not realistic. If I am lucky I may get 5% of people buying my app which would bring my app value down to £101.12… How much?

I calculate it would take me about 1000 hrs to develop, and that value would give me an hourly rate of 10p an hour. Time to put the brakes on and have a re-think. If I reverse the calculation instead it may be better.

I'd like at least £15 per hour, So that would make my app worth £15000, so I would need to sell nearly 19000 apps to make it worthwhile at 79p.

Oh and I'm also forgetting I won't get all of the 79p, the app store will take 30% so that's it down to 55p, which is an app value of £70.40. That's even less! I would need to sell 27000 copies more than the people in the UK that would need it.


I could put the price up, and cost it per user for the development. Sticking with the 5% take-up of the people with a need in the UK which would be 128 people. To cost my app it would make each copy cost £117. And add on the 30% app store fee, which is up to £152 per user. Again I'm not sure this would fly. I need to think of a different way to monetize my app.

It's an interesting subject and I have only just scratched the surface here, I was at a tech meet-up last week, and this was one of the hot topics discussed. Which was how much is software worth. The feeling was that the perceived value of software is much lower today than it was a few years ago. This might have to do with the App Store and everyone buying some sort of software at the 79p and carrying it with them on their phone. Anyway, it's something that I am thinking of at the moment.

It's just a short one this week. I have been super busy. My first commercial website is almost ready to go live. I have gone through a few iterations of change with the client which has made it more polished and I am pleased with the result.

So thanks for your support and reading my posts. Living the dream now. So I have had a few more work requests come in this week and fingers crossed I will have some mega exciting news for next week.

I REALLY AM FREELANCING NOW!

So it's been a super busy couple of weeks. I've been to Business Gateway a few times, I've been fielding work requests, and I went for a sort of interview, not for a job but to attend an entrepreneur workshop.

Super interested, it will be 2 days a week for 12 weeks and I will be in Cohort 1 as it's the first time it's being run (another Cohort?). I don't want to say too much at this stage as it's just in the early stages and I may not get in or it may not get funding (it will be free if it does). Here's hoping it does as it should be a good experience and from what I have seen of the curriculum it will be great for Udny Solutions.

Speaking of Udny Solutions. In other news and this is a biggie… Udny Solutions received its first job last Friday. Hurray! we are up and running. It's not massive but it's a start and I'm feeling really privileged at the opportunity.

The job is to develop a new website for a local organization. A simple brief that needs it to be smart, colourful, and trendy, and I have to say I have spent all week working on it and have absolutely loved it.

I set myself up in my study at the beginning of the week and have lived the freelance web developer life there since Monday.

My boys are packed off to school for 9:00 am and I just start. I worked through till lunch, quick sandwich and then back to it till 3:00pm till I received the boys back from school. Once they are fed, homework is done, they are bathed, and off to bed, I have been going back to it for a couple of hours. I guess this is what work-life balance is all about.





I sent off the first draft of the site last night to my client and the feedback came back positive and they are chuffed to bits with what they saw. I will get full feedback including some changes next week.

I still have some things to do/update and complete the design document that I created. Yes, old habits die hard, I had to create a Software Design Document for the site as I worked through it. Mainly keeping track of all the design elements, login, passwords, and configuration choices I have made. This document will let me recreate the site in the event of a disaster, or more importantly, it will give me a good template for the next site. Acting as a prompt and memory jogger for all the things I need to do behind the scenes.

The postman also brought a good package on Tuesday. I had ordered via Amazon Prime a Digital Pen and Tablet for use with my Mac. Ordered it on Monday and delivered it on Tuesday, no fuss and I was home to receive the package.

The plan was rather than buying graphics and icons for my websites I would create my own (see above). And I have to say this pen and tablet was really cheap, but a real game-changer in terms of drawing things in a graphics package. The package I use is Autodesk Graphic, also cheap but with all the functionality I need. The pen gives more control when drawing than can be achieved with a mouse. I found myself quickly getting into the flow and swapping between the mouse and pen to make graphic elements for the website and I was really pleased with the results.

The postman also brought fake tattoo sleeves for the boys, I won't say why or bother linking these but hey young boys want things that young boys want.

In other news, I had to dig out my old Windows PC (what? Boooo!). A friend from way back has asked me to look at helping him provide support with a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) software package he sells. It runs on a Windows environment and not on Mac. So in going back to the dark side, I set up my old windows Dell Inspiron in my study. I know there are simulators out there to run Windows on a Mac, but I think this is a step too far at this stage.

If it takes off and I have to go out and provide field support I guess I will need to figure this out or even dare I say it buy a new Windows laptop.

Anyway, I need to install the software and play with it to see what is involved. I am looking forward to this opportunity too, web design may be cool, but I still have a soft spot for SCADA.

So spring is almost here and things are looking great. Till next week. Thanks for reading and massive thanks to the people I have met, been in contact with, and worked with this week, and here is a pic of some daffodils from my garden. Yea, I can go to the garden middle of the morning on a Friday. If it was warmer I could take my Macbook pro out there too. The postman also brought a wifi extender which makes this a reality for the summer.

I BUILT AN ELECTRIC CAR

I'm an engineer and have interests beyond coding and software. I like to get my hands dirty and build things mechanically too. So I built an electric car. It's a few years old now and has to be maintained and repaired occasionally but it gets good mpg and lots of use. It took quite a few skills to build it, including woodworking, welding, mechanical design, and electrical work.

I bought plans for the car as a kit back in 2008 shortly after Jamie was born. They came with a build manual and large A1 sheets of paper detailing the cutting patterns for the bodywork.

You have probably guessed by now from the pictures that the electric car is intended for kids. The plans came from www.toylander.com, which makes 1/3 scale replica Landrover and Jeeps. The plans I bought were for the Geepstar, which is a replica of Willies jeep from America.

They sat in my bookcase for a few years… Thomas was born in 2010 and I started to worry that I would be the dad that wanted to build a big project for my boys but leave it too late and they end up all grown up before I get round to it.

So in 2012, I made a start buying 2 sheets of waterproof 8mm MDF, and glued my A1 sheets to them, and jigsaw in hand I set about cutting out all the body parts. First up was woodworking and assembling the large pile of jeep body panels with glue and screws. It formed into a rigid structure that received a few coats of army green paint.

I started to stray off-plan at this point when I began looking at the running gear. The kit was intended to have a single 12v motor mounted on one side in the rear driving one rear wheel via a chain. It also had a boolean speed control of either on or off.

I wanted something better so spent quite a lot of time looking for motors on eBay. The gods of eBay were looking down on me and I was lucky to find the perfect solution. I found a transaxle from an American electric ride-on lawnmower. Apparently, a disaster of a product and one was scrapped for parts in the UK.

I managed to get the transaxle, motor, and two rear wheels. The transaxle came with a mechanical differential, twin pillow bearings, and a lever-operated drum brake. The motor is a whopping 900w and running on 36V (it was designed to transport and American adult)

Next up was welding, and I mocked up a ladder frame chassis from inch square steel tubing. (Another stray away from plan as the original had no chassis and components were screwed direct the MDF body). The transaxle was bolted to the chassis via the pillow bearings and an additional bracket added to secure the drum brake.

Upfront I spent a long while thinking up how to make the stub axels for the front wheels. Many sketches laying out Mechanical Design and much head-scratching were rewarded with inspiration while in a hardware shop.

Gate hinges bolted together in X, Y, and Z planes. These are eye bolts with a hole at one end and an M8 threaded rod at the other.

A quick and sturdy solution meant I had somewhere to attach front wheels, and at 90 degrees somewhere to attach to the chassis, and at another 90 degrees was somewhere to attach steering tie rods. For these, I used some M8 rose joints with some more M8 threaded rods to keep the front wheels parallel.

From here I made a trial fit of the body to the chassis and started to plan the steering column, brake, and accelerator pedals.

The steering column was an 8mm steel rod mounted to the body at an angle with some more pillow bearings. Threaded rod welded to the top to attach the steering wheel and an angle bracket at the bottom to make the steering functional.

For the brake pedal, I made a lever that takes forward motion and translates it into a reverse movement that then pushes a rod to the lever on the drum brake.

On to electrics. As the motor required 36 volts and was a 3 phase with hall effect sensor I found a 350W electric bike speed controller on eBay that came all the way from China along with instructions in Chinese. A bit of googling and I had a rough idea of what all the wires on the controller did. I needed a throttle pedal and did not fancy trying to adapt a throttle twist grip from an e-bike. I eventually found a 5V throttle pedal from the USA which was floor mounted and perfect for the jeep.

Batteries are 3 x 12V 12Ah batteries from a mobility scooter connected in series with fuse and isolation switch with a removable key from motorsports company. All electrics and batteries are located in a compartment below the seat which is self-contained and only accessible by removing a number of screws.

The first test was interesting as the speed controller had to learn the configuration of the motor. Pressing the throttle had the motor running in reverse and at constant low speed. By making and breaking the learn wire circuit it stopped the motor and another press on the throttle had it running forward and with variable speed. Yay! a big moment of joy.

Charging is taken care of with a mobility scooter charger with a dash-mounted connection and switch. It is connected directly to the batteries and when attached and the trickle charges the batteries when the jeep is not in use.

I wanted to add some lights and a horn so bought a 36V to 12V converter and added headlights, indicator lights, brake lights, and a horn with dash-mounted switches.

With everything put together and working it was time to put a nervous 6-year-old in the driver's seat, explain the controls, and set him off around the garden. Like a duck to water, Jamie was a natural and was soon running around the garden in circles getting faster and faster.

It can crawl along really slowly and can achieve a maximum speed of about 5 miles an hour (I have since fitted a bike speedometer to one of the front wheels) which is fast enough. The brake pedal will lock one of the rear wheels via the drum brake if pressed hard. The steering works well and can turn in quite a small space.

So the jeep has been on the “road” for over 3 years and still gets lots of use.

One massive benefit I did not envisage when I set out on the build was for Thomas. As discussed in other blog posts he was born with Cerebral Palsy and has difficulty walking. So when we go somewhere inaccessible for him I load the jeep in the trailer hitch up to my car and take it with us. Its been to Haddo House gardens, Newburgh beach, along the railway track, and regularly round our local pond. If we go to a car show or steam fair the jeep comes too and gets lots of looks. Thomas sits in the passenger seat and gets chauffeured around.

In tests, it will do about 2 miles and can handle almost any terrain it meets. It will spin a wheel rather than stall. It has a towbar on the rear which tows a garden trailer and has been used for collecting and moving logs around the garden. It also has a snowplow for the front which is raised and lowered via a linear motor, but that could be a whole other story.

So yea, I have built an electric car. Lots of engineering challenges involved but thoroughly enjoyed it, and am well chuffed that the boys have so much fun playing with it. And in years to come both Jamie and Thomas will hopefully have fond memories driving about in the jeep that Dad made.

Here they are at Newburgh beach >> Link

THE BUZZ OF BUSINESS GATEWAY

So this week I had a couple of meetings at the Business Gateway Hub in Aberdeen. A cool and trendy place for business startups. Bright colours, breakout spaces, hot desks, a cafe, and a real buzz. It's a fun place to visit and network with like-minded people.

I spent quite a lot of time there last summer before heading off to Edinburgh. But now I'm back and ready to do my own thing I can go back to attending the business startup seminars. These are great and free to attend in subjects related to setting up and running your own business.

The first one I attended last year was Business Startup Awareness. A very open and informal group of about 15 people was instructed on best practices on how to set up and start their own business. Lots of practical tips and hints starting from the minute you enter the room. Kickoff was a quick round the room with each person doing their elevator pitch. “Hi I'm Adrian and I'm a software engineer and I am going to change the world”

Other courses I attended were Business Planning, Marketing, Finance, Digital Marketing, and Bookkeeping. All super chilled, free, and really helpful.

So I was back to have a meeting with my Business Advisor about actually setting up on my own. A few key things to think about are whether to be a Sole Trader or a Limited company and whether to be VAT-registered or not.

First up, the initial plan is to make myself a Sole Trader as it is just me (for the moment) however there is one contract that I have discussed that will require me to be limited. If this does not materialize there seems to be little point in the expense and complexity at the moment.

The other VAT registration. If I have a turnover in a year of greater than £83,000 then yes I will need to register for VAT. However again it seems a long shot at the moment so best avoid the complexity for now.

So it will be me, Sole Trader, and not VAT registered to start.

Oh, and to keep my personal tax simple my first invoice date can wait till next tax year which starts on the 6th of April. It's good as I will be due a refund from the HMRC and will be claiming this back pronto in April. Having been a student for 4 months and not earning for some of 2016-2017 means that I have overpaid in the first 8 months of the year.

Udny Designs and Udny Solutions will be my trading names.

With matching websites:

www.udnydesigns.co.uk
www.udnysolutions.co.uk

(the second is still a work in progress).

Udny Designs will continue as a craft side hustle making things to sell to help pay for therapy for Thomas (my youngest son who has CP). I'm waiting to hear back from an accountant on this to see if there is any way that this could be in Thomas’s name and use his personal allowance to prevent paying tax on any income which in effect goes directly to his therapy.

Udny Solutions will be my main business offering freelance software and web design solutions. This will be me, my laptop, and my knowledge.

My second meeting at Business Gateway this week was meeting a business advisor who specializes in online presence for businesses. This was a great discussion and I showed them what I have been working on, discussed my time at CodeClan, and what I plan to offer as Udny Solutions. Positive points were using well-known online website builders is a valid solution to offer small companies, and the skills I have learned with JavaScript and Ruby on Rails means I can offer additional functionality above and beyond flat HTML and CSS if required. A critical point also discussed was to ensure I do not forget about Search Engine Optimisation and to include this in any estimates that I make.

So Udny Designs and Udny Solutions will be included in the Business Gateway startup list for 2017. Very exciting and I am among many others that are forecast to start this year. Apparently, the downturn in Oil and Gas has led to a boom in Startups in Aberdeen which is brilliant.

Anyway till next week, Best be off as I have a couple of Quotes to do… Watch this space.

>> My boys are making their own AWPR in Moonsand, a great sand-based indoor toy product that gets everywhere >>