I recently had one of those discussions with someone who had an idea for an app, all planned out, hard work was done and he was at the point where he “just needs someone to code it”. If only it were that simple.
Many people with more experience than me have written about the hard part of writing an app being writing the app, not having the idea, and that’s certainly true from my experience. No matter how well developed the idea in your head, reality will be different when code hits the simulator, probably dramatically so if you’ve never developed an app before.
If you have a great idea for an app, that’s fantastic, and I wish you all the luck in the world with it - however, it’s really important to have fully researched your idea before you talk to a developer, or ask them to sign an NDA (tip, never ask them to sign one, as it’s a waste of time and will put your prospective developer off working with you. The developer will have a bunch of ideas of their own that they don’t have time for, they aren’t going to steal yours.)
You need to research what the difficulties are around producing your app - and there will be difficulties, much as there’s a perception of app production being quick and easy. If there are no other apps like yours in the app store, why is that? Is there (or was there, given the last WWDC API bonanza) a technical limitation which prevents the class off app from being built? If there are loads of apps like yours, what have they overcome, and what are you going to have to overcome to do what they do better than them?
Ideas for an app’s overall functionality really are the easy bit. The hard bit is refining it, turning it into reality while keeping it true to the initial idea and useful to your customers. You’ll be involved in this process, intimitely involved if you choose to be, but if you want someone to build it for you, they will be doing the bulk of this hard work. There really aren’t a load of talented app developers with the skills to build an app sitting around with nothing to do for a lack of ideas - ideas are in surplus and developers are scarce.
If you want a great app that your customers will love to use, you need to hire a creative professional who knows how to achieve that. These people are scarce, and hiring them costs money, you need to be prepared for that - they are, after all, doing the hard work of getting your idea into the app store. Contracting rates in the UK start at £300/day, so read into that what you will. You likely also need a designer, who will charge their own rates as well. If you want a great app and you’re not prepared to potentially spend thousands getting it built, you are in no place to be talking to a developer - maybe learning to do it yourself is a better route?
Remember, you can have it fast, cheap, or good, pick any two.