Let’s face it, Canada. We’re a nation of cell phone addicts. A recent study from global payments leader PayPal found Canadians (on average) spend at least $2,500 annually on cell phone apps. Whether we’re ordering dinner, reserving a cab, or stocking up on pet food, we’re increasingly comfortable spending money through apps. With spending increasing each year, Midnight Drive Apps spotted their opportunity to enter the marketplace.
The Role of Midnight Drive Apps
While you might think it’s global businesses like Amazon and Starbucks that dominate the app landscape, the reality is quickly shifting. Small businesses are increasingly launching their own dedicated apps, thanks in large part to the assistance of businesses like Midnight Drive Apps.
Founded six years ago by Brittany and Chris Clarke, Midnight Drive Apps is an app development company based in Coquitlam that’s on a mission to level the playing field and allow small businesses to launch their own professional apps that will grow their business.
“Large businesses and corporations have been investing in mobile app development for over 10 years now,” Brittany explains.
“This has allowed them to enhance their customers’ mobile experience while increasing profit, customer engagement and efficiency. Meanwhile, small businesses have been priced out of the app market thanks to the large financial barrier they had to overcome just to get started. We wanted to help our local small business community gain the same advantages these large businesses have enjoyed, so we created our membership program.
How the Program Works
Building an app from the ground up is a difficult endeavour. To deliver an experience customers will enjoy it requires time and investment to do it justice. Midnight Drive Apps created an innovative solution that levels the playing field. Their subscription-based membership program amortizes the value of the app over a term period, removing the need for a large upfront investment.
“Our membership program allows us to develop and maintain custom-branded customer-facing mobile apps for small businesses here in BC.
“This allows them to develop better relationships with their best customers to increase revenue and profitability, at a price that makes sense for small business budgets.”
How Small Business BC Helped
Like any other business owners, Brittany and Chris faced a challenge in identifying their target audience and how best to reach them. They turned to Small Business BC’s market research expert Mark Eversfield for assistance. He produced a prospect list that allowed them to focus on the types of businesses who would benefit from their innovative service.
“Being a small business ourselves, we only have so many work hours in each day. This gave us limited time to address a rather large marketplace,” said Brittany.
“Trying to get the attention of everybody can quickly become very expensive and time-consuming. SBBC really helped us with our market research to better understand the market we serve and narrow down who would most benefit/profit from having an app.
“The Prospect List Mark produced gave us great insight into the makeup of the local business community, in terms of ownership and financial needs. This allowed us to focus our marketing efforts on those who would most benefit from our groundbreaking service.”
A Word of Advice
Finally, what advice would Brittany give to those looking to get their own business off the ground?
“While acknowledging it’s always a primary need to get bills paid to stay in business, it’s almost equally important to keep an eye to the horizon to do what you can to prepare for the business environment of tomorrow. Try to stay ahead of customer expectations and what your rivals are doing. This will go a long way to maximizing customer retention and growth.”
Here to Help
No matter what stage of business, or what problem you face, Small Business BC offers a range of seminars and one-on-one advisory sessions to suit any business.
