When Everything Feels Like It’s Happening At Once | My App Journey

So here’s the thing about building apps when you’re trying to do it all at once.

You’re working on multiple projects, you’ve got client work, you’re trying to protect your intellectual property, and somewhere in the middle of all that, you’re supposed to remember to, you know, live your life. It’s a lot.

I’m realizing that maybe I need to get better at the whole prioritization thing because right now everything feels equally urgent and equally important and that’s just not sustainable.

Juggling Multiple Apps and Reality Checks

Let me back up a little bit. I’ve been working on this small wins app, and I’m also building out a food safety app that uses government inspection data. Both of these are pretty far along, which is exciting, but they’re also both demanding attention at the same time.

And then there’s the book I wrote to go with the small wins app, which I’m trying to get printed into a book, and a whole bunch of other things that keep popping up that need to get done.

The food safety app, I’m not gonna lie, it’s been taking up more mental space than I expected. I’ve been working on these onboarding screens and making sure the database updates every single day with the most recent inspection data.

I manually run the script every day and it takes less than five minutes, which is actually really nice and comforting because this is gonna be a recurring thing. Eventually, I will run cron jobs.

But I’m definitely pushing the release date back because I need to make sure it’s tested properly. I don’t want any huge issues when people actually start using it.

I’m still hopeful for early November but it’s very likely that won’t happen just because I’ve been spreading my time across different apps and different things.

For the Small Wins Method app, I’ve got the home screen done. The filters are done. I added some different insights. The profile screen is looking good.

There’s not much left to go before I send for review, it’s more about testing it to make sure it’s doing what it’s supposed to do so that when I release it to the public.

The Book Situation and Those Surprise Costs

I have pretty much finished the Small Wins Method book, which I’m very, very, very happy about. I reached out to a printing shop to get quotes and when they finally sent it back to me, it was $300 for 10 copies. 10 copies. That’s $30 per book just to break even. That’s crazy. That’s not gonna work.

I’ll figure it out, I always do, but man, that was not the number I was hoping to see.

Here’s where it gets complicated.

I’m trying to decide when to actually release the book because right now the app is only on iOS and in the book I say you can get it on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. But that’s not true yet because it’s not on Android.

So do I wait to publish the book until the Android version is out? Or do I just get it out there and then republish later?

I’m not sure what the rush is, honestly. Well, I sort of understand the urgency. But the only deadline I have is one that I set myself, so I can push it back if I need to and make sure everything is actually ready.

The Android thing has been interesting. I’ve been using a new Samsung Galaxy S23 phone to test out the Android version and I have a basic version working, I just need to figure out the logistics of actually publishing something to Google Play because it’s a different setup than the Apple app. It’s on the list. Everything’s on the list.

When Trademarks Get Expensive Real Fast

I was doing some trademark research because I wanted to trademark the name of my small wins app. But here’s the thing, someone already has a trademark for that name for apparel. A clothing company. Which means I can’t put the name on t-shirts, I can only use the small wins icon.

But I can get a trademark for the app and the book. Great, right? Except trademarks cost between $350 each just to file. That’s not even including attorney fees. And if I’m gonna do this, I want to trademark my company name, the app, the e-book, and the food safety app. That’s four trademarks. I’m expecting the attorney fees to be like three or four grand.

Eventually, I had a conversation with my partner about whether this is gonna cut into our house savings and she just said, you gotta do what you gotta do, invest in yourself. And that’s such a beautiful thing, to have somebody that believes in you like that.

And I believe in myself too, so I’m gonna call around and see what these attorney fees actually are.

The whole process takes six to eight months to get processed, which is crazy to me because why. Literally why. I don’t understand the timeline but that’s what it is.

I spent a couple hours over the weekend diving into common law trademark stuff because I needed to understand how this all works before I spend thousands of dollars.

And I learned that if someone is using a name before you do, they have priority even if they don’t have a trademark yet. Which is why I ended up changing the name of my app and book from Small Wins Tracker to Small Wins Method.

I was gonna just add “my” to the front of the name, but someone already has a domain name with that version and based on common use law, they’d have priority over me. So after some thought, I changed it to a completely different variation.

I did a search and I haven’t seen anything with that name yet, so we’re in the clear so far. But I still want to do a full clearance search, at least to the best of my ability, before I think of getting an attorney involved.

I decided to publish the e-book on a platform just to have a date of publication that I can use for common law. That way I have proof that I’m using the name, and as long as I have it somewhere out there and I’m actively using it, I’ll have priority over someone else if they try to come in later.

It’s all very strategic and very necessary and honestly kind of exhausting to think about.

The Day Job and Marketing Plans

My full-time job has been happening too. I have to do another training for a company in a couple of weeks.

I haven’t really been looking at other jobs much this week. I think I’m sticking with the idea that I didn’t get that other position for a reason, and the reason is to work on my apps. Which I do every day. Which I love. So there’s that.

I’ve been using Claude to create marketing plans for both apps, which has been super helpful.

I need to know exactly who I’m targeting when I make social media accounts and all that stuff.

I watched this video a while ago about selling feelings and not features, and I’ve been trying to get back to that mindset when I write copy. It’s not about what the app does, it’s about how it makes people feel. That’s what matters.

Making a Plan (and Maybe Taking a Break)

I think what I need to do is write out a rough plan for the rest of the year. That’s what I actually need. Because I definitely wanna spend about two weeks doing nothing after I get the food safety app and both the small wins app and the book published.

I probably need to take a break before all that because it’s about to be Christmas time.

I’ll just make my plan and see what happens.

Lots of great things happening. Lots of things to figure out. But it’s all moving forward, and that’s what matters.

KAYJO.

Download the Small Wins Method app on iOS.

Buy the Small Wins Method book from My Shop.