For any business project, plans not only organize expectations but also aid in communicating with the development team, the investors, and eventually, the consumers.

When an entrepreneur in any field skips the business planning step, random decisions can prolong or even defeat their project’s intentions. 

Mobile app planning defines your project so you can make the most of your resources and create the most successful app possible.

Keep reading to learn about business plans for mobile apps, including what they are and how they’re useful in turning an app idea into a profitable, successful application.

Table of Contents

1. What is a Business Plan?
2. Why Do You Need to Plan a Mobile App?
3. Benefits of a Business Plan for Mobile App Developers
4. Attract investors
5. Define your strategy
6. Simplifies Decision-making
7. Enhances Team Collaboration
8. Contextualize your goals
9. Turn Your Idea into a Plan
10. Fund your idea
11. The Parts of a Business Plan for a Mobile App
12. Executive summary
13. A description of your business
14. Selling points and objectives
15. Business analysis
16. Monetization and funding

Chapter #1: What is a Business Plan?

A business plan isn’t only associated with organizing a business proposition, though that’s part of it. 

It’s also a way to organize your thoughts and the expectations of your investors, your development team, and your marketers to help them understand what the app will be used for.

The plan will guide these different people towards the same goal using the insight that you put into it. 

The best plans use clear language and well-organized expectations to get everyone on the same page.

PRO TIP:
Remember the audience that will read your business plan while you’re preparing it. Your plan should not only review your expectations for the app’s development but also the marketing and financial logistics that those team members should know before starting your project.

1.1 Why Do You Need to Plan a Mobile App?

A business plan is an essential part of developing a mobile app, for several reasons. 

To understand how crucial planning has become in this industry, first consider some statistics.

By 2025, the app market is projected to make $608,345m. 

Currently, according to the same statistics, advertising revenue exceeds $200,000m in this industry while the number of downloads exceeds 220,000m.

What this means is that a valuable mobile app continues to be more valuable, as well as more competitive.

 A successful app launch in the Apple App Store requires understanding this industry, now worth many billions of dollars, and creating a clear vision for how to fund, develop, release, and market your idea.

In that sense, a mobile app isn’t fundamentally different from any business venture. 

Planning is just as vital (or more so) since every aspect of a mobile app’s development is differently competitive.

Chapter #2: Benefits of a Business Plan for Mobile App Developers

We don’t want to talk only in abstract terms – a business plan for mobile app development provides concrete benefits to your team. 

By having a mobile app development project plan and getting everyone on the same page, many vital aspects of app development become easier.

Let’s take a look.

2.1 Attract Investors

A business plan shows investors that you’re serious about your app. This is especially important if you plan to form a new company around this app and need not only investors but company co-founders as well.

Since your ultimate goal is to attract funding and monetize this app concept, a coherent business plan answers the questions of potential investors. 

Photo Credit: mobileappdaily.com

Traditional business models can’t always handle the adaptations and iterations required to fund and develop a mobile app, so it’s crucial to lay out your plan in the context of a modern technology startup.

PRO TIP:
Incorporate the information that investors want to know in your business plan, including whether the app will be profitable and how, what its unique niche will be, how it will be marketed, and what its development plans are.

2.2 Define Your Strategy

A business plan defines your strategy for this mobile application to your development team, your marketers, and any potential investors. 

This helps everyone understand the market expectations and the game plan.

A well-defined strategy does more than that, however. 

It also lays out the plan that you’ll stick to, clarifying your goals and helping you delegate more efficiently.

Planning in the context of mobile app development is essentially identifying problems and predicting solutions. 

The problems that your target audience wants to solve should be at the top of your list of goals for your mobile applications and business plans.

2.3 Simplifies Decision-making

One of the often-overlooked benefits of a well-structured business plan is its ability to simplify the decision-making process.

A business plan acts as a roadmap for your mobile app venture, clearly outlining your objectives, strategies, and action steps.

When faced with operational or strategic decisions, referring to your business plan can offer immediate clarity.

Should you pivot your marketing strategy?

Is it time to seek additional funding?

The answers to these questions become significantly more accessible when you have a pre-defined plan in place.

2.4 Enhances Team Collaboration

Another major benefit of having a detailed business plan is the enhancement of team collaboration.

A business plan serves as a shared blueprint for your mobile app.

This collective understanding ensures that everyone on the team is aligned and moving in the same direction.

When everyone understands the broader goals and specific tasks at hand, collaboration becomes more seamless.

Team members can easily identify how their roles intersect and contribute to the larger objectives, fostering a sense of shared purpose and responsibility.

Photo Credit: thewebappmarket.com

2.5 Contextualize Your Goals

Your goals for your mobile application need to be put in context, for yourself, your dev team, and your investors. 

The main contexts you should address are market analysis, consumer analysis, and competitor analysis.

By providing these in your business plan, you show that you’re thinking ahead when it comes to your strategy for succeeding in the app industry and within your consumer niche.

2.6 Turn Your Idea Into a Plan

It may seem obvious, but not every idea has functional market potential. 

An idea will not secure investment or become the next big app without first being turned into a business plan.

Just seeing everything laid out, from your goals to your design intentions, is a huge benefit of making a detailed business plan for your app.

Chapter #3: The Parts of a Business Plan for a Mobile App

To be effective, a business plan needs to have specific parts that cover various aspects of marketing and development. 

Use this list as a basic template for your business plan:

3.1 Executive Summary

The most vital part of your business plan is called the executive summary. In it, you’ll describe your plan in certain terms to explain to the reader your goal for this project.

This is where you’ll describe the type of app you’re making, such as distinguishing your app between eCommerce, lifestyle, utility, or other service apps. 

This is also where you describe your company model, such as if you’re a startup, new tech group, or established brand.

Imagine the executive summary as a single picture of your entire plan. You can even summarize your team members and your plans for financing.

PRO TIP:
While the executive summary is the first order of business for the reader of your plan, it’s probably the last thing you’ll end up writing. This is because you’ll be summarizing every section of your plan after writing it all out.

3.2 A Description of Your Business

This section is where you make a detailed company analysis directed at potential co-founders and investors, depending on your logistical needs. 

Some important information to include in this section could be:

• Why you started the business, how long you have been running it, and the nature of your ownership
• The business’s accomplishments so far, including sales, on-land stores, brand deals, previous funding, awards, or anything you think is relevant
• Your company’s legal status, including how profits are managed, proprietorship, and any other entities that are consolidated into this one

The business description helps the reader define and understand how your business operates in order to place it in the context of your industry.

3.3 Selling points and objectives

This is where you can get into the nitty-gritty of your app, describing why the app is unique, what needs it fulfills, what solutions it offers its clients and more. 

The mobile app industry is so competitive now that establishing your app idea in the context of your target audience is vital to your investors’ confidence.

Some questions you can answer in this section include:

• What need does your app fulfill?
• Who is the target audience?
• How does your app differ from those already on the market?
• How will your app provide user feedback?

In this section, you’ll tell your investors about your app’s success factors, which are the reasons that this app will succeed in the current market. 

This could mean describing what your app offers that other native mobile apps don’t or using your company’s previous track record with similar applications as an example of predicting the success of the new one.

PRO TIP:
This section can also describe your strategy for how you’re going to develop this app. This includes not only your developmental strategy but also your promotional plans, your operational management procedures, your predicted development time, and your expectations for your consumers’ lifecycle.

3.4 Business analysis

In the business analysis section, you’ll place your app idea in the context of the current market. 

An investor will want to know how the app will stack up to its direct competition, including how you’ll market your app to beat that competition.

This in turn will help your investors understand the needs of the projected app users, their mobile devices, and how they will be fulfilled. 

A business analysis should examine three main subjects of your app’s usage: market analysis, consumer analysis, and competitor analysis.

This requires you to analyze consumer demand and how it impacts market trends. It will also lead you to define your competitor’s strategies and results and describe how your app has an advantage over theirs.

A business analysis accomplishes two vital functions for your business plan. It tells your investors that you know the market and it solidifies your objectives in the context of your target consumers’ needs.

3.5 Monetization and funding

Finally, a business plan should include a section about monetization and funding. 

Specifically, this section describes in more detail how much the app is projected to cost, how much funding you’ve already received, and how you plan to make money with the app.

For example, a lifestyle app that will only make back the cost of the app will have a different funding and spending structure compared to an eCommerce app, which makes money regularly.

This is the section where you define your profitability to the people who will potentially pay for your app to be developed.

Final Thoughts

Creating a mobile app is a competitive, costly, and time-consuming process. Doing so without a plan makes as little sense as it would for any complex business venture.

This is why a business plan is a crucial step in app development. 

To write one, you have to be able to summarize your business’s structure, your app’s objectives, the current market trends, your competitor’s performance, your funding and monetization structure, your marketing strategies, and more.

Sounds like a lot? Let us help.

Our Simple Starter package includes not only a detailed technical writeup of your mobile app, but also thorough market research and user analysis.

What’s keeping you from getting started on your business plan?