Custom App Development for Small Businesses
Internal tools, customer portals, custom CRMs and field apps, built around how your business actually runs. Web apps and iPhone and Android apps. Projects start at $10,000.
Get Your Free Growth Plan
Sound familiar?
Your business runs on spreadsheets and sticky notes. Jobs, customers and paperwork live in five different places, and one person is the only one who knows how it all fits together.
The software you pay for almost fits. You have bent your process around a tool that was built for somebody else’s business, and you are paying per user for features you never touch.
You have an idea for an app and no one to build it. Offshore shops quote low and disappear. Big agencies want six figures and a three month discovery phase before they write a line of code.
Apps built around how you work
We build custom apps for small and service businesses. You tell us the job the app has to do, who uses it and what it has to connect to, and we build exactly that. No templates and no per seat software bill that grows every time you hire.
The same team that builds your website builds your app, so your forms, CRM and app all talk to each other.
What we build
- Internal tools. Job tracking, scheduling boards, inventory, inspection checklists and dashboards that replace the spreadsheet your business outgrew.
- Customer portals. A login where your customers see their project status, documents, invoices and messages without calling the office.
- Custom CRMs. When an off the shelf CRM does not fit your pipeline, we build one that does. If a standard CRM will do the job, we will tell you, and our CRM and lead tracking setup covers it.
- Field apps. iPhone and Android apps for crews on site, with photos, GPS, signatures and offline use.
- Paperwork automation. Upload a form, a photo or a spreadsheet and get the finished report, filing or data entry done for you.
- Apps you sell. Software products with sign up, billing and the admin side to run them.
First question: should this be an app?
A lot of app ideas are better solved with something smaller. Before we quote, we check whether your problem needs a full app at all.
| If the job is mostly | We build |
|---|---|
| Capturing leads, booking and follow up | A website and CRM automations |
| Data entry a few people do at a desk | A web app that runs in the browser |
| Reading and quick edits on a phone | An installable web app, no app store needed |
| Work in the field that needs the camera, GPS, offline use or push alerts | A native iPhone and Android app |
If something cheaper solves it, that is what we will recommend.
How an app project works
- Scope call. We go through the job the app does, who uses it, the data it holds and what it connects to.
- Written plan and fixed price. You get the screens, the data, the first version and the price in writing. Nothing gets built until you sign off.
- First working version. We build the smallest version that does the job and put it in your team’s hands within weeks, not months.
- Build from real use. Your team uses it, we watch what they need, and we add features in short rounds.
- Launch. We release it to your users, and to the App Store and Google Play if it is a phone app.
- Support. We host and maintain it, or hand it to your team with full documentation.
What’s included
- A written plan with screens, data and a fixed price
- Logins and permissions for each kind of user
- A design that matches your brand and works on any screen
- Connections to your CRM, payments, email, text messaging and other tools
- Testing on real phones and browsers
- Hosting setup, backups and security basics
- Code in a repository you own
- Launch support and a handoff guide
Pricing
App projects start at $10,000. The price depends on how many kinds of users the app has, how many systems it connects to, and whether it needs phone app store releases. Every project gets one fixed price after the scope call, so you know the number before we start.
Who builds it
Will Lockard runs Lockard Design Co. and leads every app project himself, from the scope call through launch. We are based in South Jersey and work with businesses across New Jersey, Philadelphia and the rest of the country.
Start with the free growth plan. Tell us what you want the app to do, and we will tell you whether it should be an app, what it takes to build and what it costs.