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> What does that have to do with selling BCC? Nothing at all. Just a general observation. I just find it interesting that he couldn't apply the very skills he

> What does that have to do with selling BCC? Nothing at all. Just a general observation. I just find it interesting that he couldn't apply the very skills he has (which he is certainly talented at - no doubt) to save his business. I wish he would do a detailed writeup about why. He makes it sound like neglect (only spending a few hours on it last year) and opportunity cost (his booming consulting work), but I wonder if he tried to slow down / reverse the declining revenue and just failed or whatever.

TylerE 11y ago
I'm not sure "saving his business" really applies. I mean, it's Bingo Card Creator, that's not exactly a $10b market.
JamesBarney 11y ago
It probably takes a similar amount of time to increase BCC, Appointment Reminder, or a medium sized SAAS company revenue by 10%, so it didn't make sense for him to work on it anymore.
jdietrich 11y ago
>I wish he would do a detailed writeup about why. He makes it sound like neglect (only spending a few hours on it last year) and opportunity cost (his booming consulting work) I think the answer is perfectly simple - he's making much more money from Appointment Reminder, launching Starfighter will take up a great deal of his time, and he has just had a baby. Selling BCC now makes more sense than just letting it wind down through neglect. According to his last Year in Review, BCC accounted for only about 15% of his income. Selling up strikes me as a classic Patio11 optimisation. http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/12/22/kalzumeus-software-year-in-review-2014/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/12/22/kalzumeus-software-year-...
- StavrosK 11y ago
  Selling BCC would make a lot of sense if he didn't spend his equivalent of $90k to make $57k. I don't understand how it makes financial sense now, though.
  - tertius 11y ago
    He may charge $30k per week, but he doesn't get gigs 100% of his available time.
    - StavrosK 11y ago
      He has said he could, if he wanted to.
      - kasey_junk 11y ago
        Full time consultants do not charge their bill rate 100% of the time they are working. A very good number is 70% of the time and this is in the case where you are NOT spending time finding your next client. The other 30% goes into time spent that would be problematic to bill for. Writing notes, updating documents, attending conferences, doing specs for the next projects etc. Finally, even if you can keep your stack full of work, a few things are always true in consultancies: 1) Once you stop it takes some time to fire the machine back up. Patrick has said he hasn't been doing this work. Getting the consultancy started up again would most probably take more than the 3 weeks selling Bingo Card Creator did. 2) You are, of necessity, working on projects for other people. If you've got a burning desire to work on your own projects, you simply can't and keep the consultancy going. 3) Once you become your own boss, the idea of "down time" or "idle time" where you can devote resources to things you aren't interested in or aren't your focus (like Bingo Card Creator) becomes much less concrete. If you truly choose what hours you work and what you work on, why would you spend any of it on work you don't want to do or that is not driving forward your primary goals. Consulting gets in the way of that.
      - runako 11y ago
        Is this hard? Consulting at premium rates usually involves travel. If you have a newborn and are CEO of another company, travel (likely international) is not appealing. Is this really so difficult to understand?
  - jsmeaton 11y ago
    He didn't though. For one, patio no longer does consulting work. For two, just because he is capable of earning $90k in 3 weeks doesn't mean that's how much that specific 3 week period of time is worth to him. Imagine this scenario. I consult at $1000/h. On the weekend I need my lawn mowed which will take an hour. Should I do it myself, or pay someone $100 to do it? I guess you could make the argument that if I was consulting all weekend then I could pay someone else to do it. But the likely scenario is that I'm going to carve out an hour of personal time and do it myself. If Bill Gates drops $1000 on the sidewalk it does make sense for him to pick it up (though whether or not he'd notice..). The 3 seconds it takes him to pick it up isn't actually costing him anything, even though his passive income/worth might be more than $1000/3-seconds. Opportunity cost is only a cost if there is an opportunity foregone. And sometimes you might come out financially worse, but in a better position strategically, socially, or personally.

TylerE 11y ago

I'm not sure "saving his business" really applies. I mean, it's Bingo Card Creator, that's not exactly a $10b market.

JamesBarney 11y ago

It probably takes a similar amount of time to increase BCC, Appointment Reminder, or a medium sized SAAS company revenue by 10%, so it didn't make sense for him to work on it anymore.

jdietrich 11y ago

>I wish he would do a detailed writeup about why. He makes it sound like neglect (only spending a few hours on it last year) and opportunity cost (his booming consulting work) I think the answer is perfectly simple - he's making much more money from Appointment Reminder, launching Starfighter will take up a great deal of his time, and he has just had a baby. Selling BCC now makes more sense than just letting it wind down through neglect. According to his last Year in Review, BCC accounted for only about 15% of his income. Selling up strikes me as a classic Patio11 optimisation. http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/12/22/kalzumeus-software-year-in-review-2014/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/12/22/kalzumeus-software-year-...

StavrosK 11y ago
Selling BCC would make a lot of sense if he didn't spend his equivalent of $90k to make $57k. I don't understand how it makes financial sense now, though.
- tertius 11y ago
  He may charge $30k per week, but he doesn't get gigs 100% of his available time.
  - StavrosK 11y ago
    He has said he could, if he wanted to.
    - kasey_junk 11y ago
      Full time consultants do not charge their bill rate 100% of the time they are working. A very good number is 70% of the time and this is in the case where you are NOT spending time finding your next client. The other 30% goes into time spent that would be problematic to bill for. Writing notes, updating documents, attending conferences, doing specs for the next projects etc. Finally, even if you can keep your stack full of work, a few things are always true in consultancies: 1) Once you stop it takes some time to fire the machine back up. Patrick has said he hasn't been doing this work. Getting the consultancy started up again would most probably take more than the 3 weeks selling Bingo Card Creator did. 2) You are, of necessity, working on projects for other people. If you've got a burning desire to work on your own projects, you simply can't and keep the consultancy going. 3) Once you become your own boss, the idea of "down time" or "idle time" where you can devote resources to things you aren't interested in or aren't your focus (like Bingo Card Creator) becomes much less concrete. If you truly choose what hours you work and what you work on, why would you spend any of it on work you don't want to do or that is not driving forward your primary goals. Consulting gets in the way of that.
    - runako 11y ago
      Is this hard? Consulting at premium rates usually involves travel. If you have a newborn and are CEO of another company, travel (likely international) is not appealing. Is this really so difficult to understand?
- jsmeaton 11y ago
  He didn't though. For one, patio no longer does consulting work. For two, just because he is capable of earning $90k in 3 weeks doesn't mean that's how much that specific 3 week period of time is worth to him. Imagine this scenario. I consult at $1000/h. On the weekend I need my lawn mowed which will take an hour. Should I do it myself, or pay someone $100 to do it? I guess you could make the argument that if I was consulting all weekend then I could pay someone else to do it. But the likely scenario is that I'm going to carve out an hour of personal time and do it myself. If Bill Gates drops $1000 on the sidewalk it does make sense for him to pick it up (though whether or not he'd notice..). The 3 seconds it takes him to pick it up isn't actually costing him anything, even though his passive income/worth might be more than $1000/3-seconds. Opportunity cost is only a cost if there is an opportunity foregone. And sometimes you might come out financially worse, but in a better position strategically, socially, or personally.