Aspiring to create a product but lacking a technical background is a common situation creative people find themselves in, to say the least. The general assumption when I tell people I made a mobile game is that I must have had a technical background. When I had absolutely no background in design, animation or programming. Before I started the process, I did not know what a line of code meant or looked like. If that is your situation, you don’t have to let these constraints stop you from showcasing your original ideas and creativity to the world. Below I will describe my approach and learnings while making Cheeku Slings with the help of outside talent, including how I kept my total production cost to ~$3K. The learnings, while focused on individual entrepreneurs, can also be applied by start-ups with talent/budget constraints looking to make a new product or add-on features to existing products.
The easiest option when you want an app/game made is to of course outsource the entire process to an agency. This is costly. You are likely looking at a quote of $50K+ for a simple app. I emphasize simple here, as the total cost will be a multiple of that depending on the complexity of your app. Outsourcing the entire process also robs you of the learning process! If it’s your first product, chances are that this learning process gained during going from an idea in your mind to actually launching a product, will be even more important. You want to gain the execution expertise that you can apply for your future ventures.
Outside of hiring an app agency to create the entire product, you can find freelancers for your desired skillset. There are sites such as Upwork and Freelancer with literally millions of freelancers globally. I went with Upwork as I was already familiar with it from having worked there. There are many agencies on Upwork as well but I preferred forming direct relations with individual freelancers. You have more leverage in the process this way, as you can hire multiple separate freelancers with no relation to each other. An agency that has already started working on your product and thus has all the leverage can come back with a revised estimate when you are already invested with them.
As mentioned, my total production cost for making Cheeku Slings & launching on iOS was $3,100. During this process I worked with four freelancers (two developers, one gaming animator & one illustrator). To keep costs low, you will have to be flexible on the types of freelancers you are willing to consider. Freelancers in places like the U.S., Canada & Western Europe will obviously cost more. If keeping an eye on costs is a priority, your best value will be freelancers in Eastern Europe, South Asia, South East Asia etc. You will need to be willing to accept attributes such as less than perfect English. In terms of experience, I stayed in the middle. I personally did not go for the freelancers with the highest amount of experience on Upwork (and thus usually the most expensive), but also avoided those who had no work history on the platform. You want to work with freelancers who have accumulated at least some work history and reviews/ratings. This way you know they are less likely to drop your project mid-way and disappear, as they already have something invested in the platform. You can always go with U.S. freelancers with the highest experience of course, which is still a cheaper option than outsourcing the entire process to an agency here.
Managing the production yourself and working with multiple freelancers requires you to become a master product manager & a QA tester. You cannot leave it to your developer to think of your app’s user experience from a customer standpoint. It is your responsibility to continuously test your app, get outside feedback, find bugs and always be thinking from a user’s perspective. You will also need to get good at giving thorough instructions. My personal approach before having any new work started was having a call with my freelancer and following that up with a detailed Word doc. Repetition in instruction works when the task is complex. If your instructions are vague, you will find yourself in an endless loop of frustration and back & forth with your freelancer. You also realize pretty quickly as an entrepreneur that you are the only one that gives a crap about your product. So take ownership of everything.
Take the app development process as far as you can before bringing in freelancers. Let’s say you are not a good programmer and are making a mobile game in Unity, you can still A. start the project B. make things such as the terrain C. create the basic UI D. search the Unity marketplace for assets and so on. This is what I mean when I say, “do not outsource the entire process,” take your app as far as you can and then bring in freelancers for specific tasks you need help achieving. Additionally, all the thinking & planning has to be done by you beforehand, a prerequisite to being able to give clear & concise instructions. This approach will result in significantly lower development costs as well as you actually learning.
It’s not always plausible, and certainly not efficient, to try to do everything as a solo entrepreneur. There is simply too much to do. You have to be able to leverage the talents of others to get your vision fulfilled. Living in the U.S. (and the rest of the developed world) especially gives us the opportunity to tap into the cheaper global talent pool. It’s a win-win for both sides. The beautiful thing is, once you have the process established, it can be repeated. You can repeatedly engage in talent arbitrage, get products made in a highly cost-effective manner with the help of outside talent, and launch them for the world to see.
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