What's your personal background? What motivated you to start your own company?

My name is Jordan Kennedy and I’m from Nashville, TN, USA. I’m 30 years old. I have a bachelor’s degree in Visual Communications with a minor in entrepreneurship and minor in art. I have a full-time day job as a Graphic and UI Design Manager and I work on Balance Pro in my spare time on nights and weekends.

I’ve always been interested in technology, design, and entrepreneurship. For the past several years I’ve worked on many small start-ups on my own that have fizzled with not much success. But with each failure (which I don’t say negatively) I have learned and obtained a ton of skills.

Balance Pro is the first project I’ve worked on that has seen some success. It’s such a great feeling seeing people enjoy using my app.

What no code tools did you use to build Balance Pro and what purpose did each play in the final product?

I build Balance Pro with Bubble. It is one of the only no-code platforms have has a wide flexibility in doing exactly what I need to do to make my ideas come to life.

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What were the initial costs to get Balance Pro off the ground?

I wanted to make sure that I could build Balance Pro on a tight budget. I wanted to bootstrap the app — no loans, no outside investors. Just me. I also knew my app needed to be made available on the App Store and Google Play store. So, my initial budget for Balance Pro was $30 a month for my Bubble plan and a one-time fee of $329 to get my app converted to an iOS and Android app using The BDK.

What was the process of building your product from idea to launching?

Being a designer by trade, I am a very visual person. Luckily, I also have UI design experience as well. After jotting down some notes on how Balance Pro should work, I quickly opened up Sketch and started designing all the different pages and functionality. Once I had the design at a good place, I started building in Bubble and built workflows along the way.

How do you attract customers?

Since Balance Pro is a mobile app on the app stores, I initially got my first few customers through there. As I slowly accumulated paying customers I have put that money back into Search Ads to get more customers. Otherwise I did anything I could for free to promote my app—Twitter, posting to online directories, telling friends and family, and working on SEO for my website.

What are the biggest challenges you've overcome building Balance Pro?

Building Balance Pro was just really fun. I enjoyed every moment of it. Marketing is by far the toughest challenge with trying to grow Balance Pro. Any money I do make just goes back into maintaining my app and advertising.

How much money is Balance Pro making per month?

As of writing, I am making $165 per month. I build my app in public on twitter and I am happy to share my growth progress. I use Chart Mogul to keep up with my earnings over time.

What's your advice for non-technical people who want to start a company?

Just start. You’re not going to know how to do everything when you begin, and that’s OK. Learn along the way. The Internet is filled with resources to help you on your journey to build something great. Also, another piece of advice, just because you build something doesn’t mean customers will come. Have a plan to promote your company or project and keep going. Consistency is everything.

What are your future plans for Balance Pro?

I have been adding features every few months or so to make my app as useful as possible. I plan on continuing to listen to my user’s feedback and making tweaks and changes.

How do you think the rise of no code tools will impact entrepreneurship?

We are in the very early stages of what I think will be a revolutionary way for ordinary people to create amazing things without having to code. Anyone who has the drive to build something will be empowered to do so, which will make many people independent and self employed—a goal I am working towards as well.