Both apps sound like good ideas to me. Apps that just exist to promote a business or brand are not welcome anymore on the App Store, and no one has a reason to download and use such apps anyway. But it's certainly possible to promote your services if you give away or sell a useful app, especially if that app is suited for use on a mobile phone. I'm not convinced that a mobile phone is the obvious place to go when you want to use a business planning tool, but who knows (that's something for you to decide).
The business model for apps generally works like this: You hire someone to develop an app for you (and with you). You sign up for the iOS Developer Program yourself and then publish this app under your own account when it's ready. (That costs you USD 99 per year.) The developer is then basically out of the picture, until you decide the app needs more work (a new version).
Generally, you pay the developer per hour or a fixed fee. Usually there is an up-front payment and subsequent payments in milestones. Most developers will hand over the source code once the project is done and you become its legal owner; you are then no longer tied to that developer.
There are some exceptions, though. I generally hand over the rights to the source code because it's meaningless to me and if I were the client, I'd like to have the source code too. Many developers, however, believe that this transfer requires additional payment. You should put something about this in the contract because otherwise the rights will remain with the original developer, not with you!
There are not many developers who will work for revenue sharing. Truth be told, most iOS apps don't make any money at all, not even enough to earn back their development cost. This is mostly because the client is cheap and hires a crappy developer, insists on a bad design, and generally doesn't understand that development is only the first step. Marketing and promotion is at least as much work as the development, and without it, no one will know about the app and you will have no customers. Simply uploading the app to the App Store and hoping that people will magically find it and buy it is not a very good strategy. ;-) If you want to work with revenue sharing, you'd better have a marketing plan that is good enough to convince the developer. After all, you're essentially asking the developer to invest in your business.
My minimum fee for working on an app is about EUR 5,000 if it's a fixed fee project. That gets you a very basic app with a few screens and not many bells and whistles. An average app is between EUR 10,000 and 15,000. Anything more complex that requires a lot of custom programming and/or design work easily starts at EUR 30,000, especially if a server component is involved. Many of the top apps easily cost over EUR 150,000 to make. If you also expect me to deliver the graphics, it will be extra because I either need to buy them or subcontract to a designer. For some jobs I insist on an hourly rate, which is currently EUR 80. However, for a fixed fee project my effective hourly rate tends to be a bit lower.
That probably seems expensive to you (as it does to most people). But understand that writing a good app is a lot of work. I wrote about that on my blog:
http://www.hollance.com/2011/05/developing-software-is-expensive-because-it-is-hard/
It's possible to outsource development to a low-income country such as India and Romania. There are a lot of good developers in those places, but they are not the cheap ones. You get what you pay for and most of these guys produce really crappy software that will cause you more headaches than you'd like. Often people like me are asked to fix the mess, and that won't be cheap (it's often cheaper to simply rewrite the whole thing from scratch). On the other hand, if you can find a good overseas developer, then count yourself lucky -- but it still won't be cheap. ;-)
I estimate that both of your apps will be around the EUR 5,000 mark (no VAT). If you sell them on the App Store you get 70% of the sales price (slightly less for apps sold in the EU because of 15% VAT). Roughly, for a $0.99 app you get 50 Euro cents. You don't have to pay VAT on that, but of course you do need to pay income taxes etc. That means to break even for one for those apps, you'd have to sell 10,000 copies. Believe me, that is a lot. Most apps don't reach those numbers. Given their nature, your apps could probably sell for a higher price, though. Giving them away for free could also be a strategy if you want to drum up business for your normal activities, but think about how many users of that app will actually qualify for what you have to offer. Your app might become popular in Japan, for example, but how does that help your business?
I hope this gives you some insight into the process! Let me know if you have any more questions.
