Mobile … Moolah!!! Report Says Mobile Apps Saved Small Business $17.6B

Small business leaders are always looking for a way to cut costs and maximize revenue. And it’s no secret that technological innovations are the preferred way to do just that.

But it’s still a little surprising just how much savings the right piece of technology can yield. According to a recent report by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, mobile apps are helping small business leaders save a bundle, enabling smaller companies to “cut 725.3 million annual employee hours by using mobile apps, equaling $17.6 billion in savings.”

“It’s amazing how you can create something in a couple of hours that would have taken a company $10,000 and six to eight weeks to develop,” says Nick Galiano, a realtor who built a mobile app for his Louisiana-based company using the Appsbar website — a free service, as opposed to the $30,000 that more professional developers were ready to charge him.

Other companies like MyAppBuilder, AppBreeder, AppsGeyser, Mobile Roadie, and Socialize, maker of the AppMakr tool, are on that list of smaller-level developers frequently able and willing to do the same thing as high-cost developers, but for free.

There is a hitch. With Appsbar, which knowingly seeks out the small and mid-sized businesses that can best profit from its services, there’s no fees, but “clients must agree to let the company place ads inside apps available through online bazaars, such as Apple’s App Store.”

Why Apps?

Why do small business owners need apps? “In 2011, about 70 percent of small businesses used mobile apps for operations and almost 40 percent said it would be difficult to survive without them,” the report explains.

And, according to a report by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council last year, those mobile apps help small business leaders save, on a weekly basis, about 5.6 hours. On an annual basis, mobile apps save entrepreneurs “373.8 million hours of their own time and 725.3 million employee hours.” Those employee hours equal about $17.6 billion each year.

What do you think? Have you integrated do-it-yourself mobile apps into your small business? If so, has it been successful, and are your savings on the level of those described here? Sound off in the comments and share your thoughts and experiences with the rest of the Executive Street community.

This topic and more are included in the Vistage Connect™ peer advisory sessions. Learn more.

6920 views