Over the past year I've been starting my own side business developing mobile applications. Over the last year I've done a lot to make it work and I've made a few mistakes. I'm going to use this blog post to talk about what I didn't know I then that I know now.

Identity. This is extremely important. You need to create a seperate identity for your business. That means a web site shouldn't be your personal blog. Your company email account shouldn't be your gmail account. You should setup an identity just for your business. Google and Amazon are places you've already mist likely have accounts setup. Do you want to be a one person company? If not then you probably shouldn't tie your personal gmail account to your app market account unless you want your employees to see your market purchases like apps, books and movie rentals. Think up a company name then create a gmail account, twitter account, facebook page and web site. You'd be surprised how annoying it is to see comment spam emails from your business web site in your personal email account. I know I'm happy all the app store spam emails go to my business email account.

Have a plan. Seems simple and not even a tip but it is important. The plan should be simple and easy to track. I have several... seriously. I use an app to track all my crazy ideas. I list out improvements I want to make then cross them out. I even sometimes give tasks complete by dates. I used to always fill out these binders with notes and features. Now I use a note app and use tags to organize them. I find this best to help manage my ideas. Some ideas are larger than others and just require more time to mature into a viable solution.

Beta.  I'm a big fan of rolling out your app to a small audiance first. My advice is roll out a beta with its own beta package name to make sure it works and you don't get the dredded one star review because you never tried your app in landscape. Test the app in a temporary package name then when you are ready release under a new name. You can notify users of the new version and get them to migrate over to the final version.

Tracking. Get an analytics tool up front. I love my google analytics. It shows me the features users love and the ones they ignore. No need to spend time improving a feature no one ever uses. Its fun to see people use a feature I thought wouldn't be of value. Knowledge is power. Track your web site as well as your app to see what's used.

Communicate. I have a blog and a twitter account I use to announce updates. Links to the blog are in the market so people can view research the developer. I try to communicate new features and market updates on the blog and via twitter. I've gotten emails and comments on the blog asking for help and for new features. I try to reply immediately and be as helpful as possible.

Innovate. The goal is to be always looking for ways to I improve. Over the past year I've pushed possibly ten or twelve updates of my app. The only screens that haven't changed are the list screens for courses and rounds. I think the app is vastly improved and hope people enjoy the new features. There are always more apps coming out and its wise to make improvements to continue to compete.