Launch day is exciting. The app is live, customers are signing up, everything works. You share the link, people start using it, and you feel like you have ticked a huge box for your business.
Then a month passes. Then three months. Then six.
The excitement fades, but the app is still running. Still storing customer data. Still processing bookings or tracking jobs. And at some point - quietly, without any fanfare - something needs attention.
A security update. A server restart. A bug report. These are not dramatic events. They are just the ordinary reality of running software. The question is: who handles them?
What “management” actually means
I am not talking about anything glamorous. It is the unglamorous, essential work that keeps things running.
Hosting. Your app lives on a server somewhere. That server needs to stay online, stay fast, and stay secure. Someone needs to keep an eye on it.
Backups. Your customer data needs backing up regularly - and those backups need testing. A backup you have never restored from is not really a backup. It is a hope.
Security updates. The frameworks and libraries your app is built on get security patches regularly. Applying them, testing that nothing breaks, and deploying the changes is ongoing work that never stops.
Monitoring. If your app goes down at 3am on a Tuesday, how quickly do you find out? If you find out because a customer tells you, that is too late. Proper monitoring catches problems before your customers do.
Bug fixes. Software has bugs. Well-built software has fewer, but nothing is perfect. When a customer reports something odd, someone needs to investigate, fix it, and deploy the fix.
Minor tweaks. Your business evolves. Maybe you need a new field on a form, or a slight change to how a report is generated. Small changes, but they still need someone to make them.
What happens when nobody manages it
When nobody is managing the app, things do not break dramatically. They degrade slowly - and then they break dramatically.
The security breach. A known vulnerability in a library your app uses gets published online. Automated scanners find yours is unpatched. Customer data is exposed. You find out weeks later when a customer asks why they are getting spam emails.
The busy period outage. Your app handles ten customers a day without issue. Then you run a promotion, fifty people try to use it at once, the server runs out of memory, and your busiest day becomes your worst day.
Data loss. Your database fills up and starts silently failing to save new records. Without tested, verified backups, your customer data is gone. Permanently.
Outdated dependencies. Your app was built with a specific version of a framework. Two years later, that version is no longer supported and your app stops working. Fixing it means rewriting significant portions of code - trivial work if dependencies had been kept current.
None of these are hypothetical. I have seen every one happen to real businesses.
Your options
When it comes to managing your app after launch, you broadly have three choices.
Do it yourself. This works if you have the technical skills and the time. For most small business owners, this is not realistic - and it is not why you got into business in the first place.
Hire someone when things break. You do not pay for management, but when something goes wrong you scramble to find a freelancer who understands your app. Under time pressure, with your business affected, you pay emergency rates for work that would have been routine if handled proactively.
Have it managed from day one. Someone is responsible for your app from launch. They know the codebase, they monitor the infrastructure, they apply updates. When something needs attention, they are already on it - often before you even know there was a problem.
”I’ll sort it out later” is the most expensive approach
This is the phrase I hear most often, and it is the one that costs people the most money.
“I’ll sort out backups later.” “I’ll deal with security updates when I get a chance.” “I’ll find someone to manage it once the business is more established.”
Later rarely comes. And when it does, it arrives as a crisis. The cost of fixing problems after the fact is always more than preventing them.
Prevention is not just cheaper than cure. It is calmer, more predictable, and far less disruptive to your business.
How I handle this
When I build software for a small business, management is included from the start. Not an add-on, not an afterthought, and not something you need to arrange separately.
Your monthly fee covers hosting, backups, security updates, monitoring, bug fixes, and minor tweaks. I know your app inside out because I built it, and I keep it running because that is part of the deal.
You focus on your business. I make sure the technology keeps working.
Want to know more?
If you are planning to build something for your business - or if you have already built something and realised nobody is looking after it - I would be happy to chat about what proper management looks like for your situation.
Get in touch and tell me where you are at.