One evening three and a half years ago, I sat on the couch feeling frustrated and depressed. I was facing another imminent lay off from yet another business development job.
My two youngest kids at that time were into playing ‘Mom’ with their dolls. So I started looking into virtual baby apps on our new iPad. It was a welcome distraction from my current situation and I assumed there would be a vast selection, as it seemed a no-brainer type of an app to make for kids.
To my shock there were none. The closest I could find was a ‘points based’ game and you never got to interact with the actual baby. I kept trying different search terms thinking this can’t be right, there must be something else.
Once it dawned on me that the app I imagined in my mind really didn’t exist, I thought to myself why not make one?
I had no knowledge of computer programming, no idea about how to run a business, no clue what it would all cost or if it would even be possible for me to do. But I was also about to be jobless and had an idea not yet attempted on the app store. If I could pull this off (before anyone else came up with the same idea) it could be great.
I promised myself one rule; I would not take any money that was ear marked for my family bills or day-to-day needs. I assumed it would take a few months and maybe one thousand dollars, I was wrong. One year, three programming teams and $6,000.00 later I finally launched ‘iMommy’ a virtual baby game.
I researched programming teams via Elance and got burned more than a few times during the building of the app. I created, sketched and altered ideas many times. Though it took a lot longer and was more expensive than I anticipated I never broke my rule. Looking back now I realize to get away with making an app for only six thousand dollars is incredibly lucky, the average app costs much, much more. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imommy/id432332572?mt=8