[Jipha]

> Why did he abandon BCC?

To spend more time on Starfighter I'm guessing: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2015/03/09/announcing-starfighter/

> Reminds me of Tim Ferris and Rich Dad Poor Dad.... those guys make their money selling their brand, seminars, ebooks, etc. and not via the methods/techniques they preach.

What does that have to do with selling BCC?

[anon8418]

> 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.

[jdietrich]

>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-...

[StavrosK]

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.

[jsmeaton]

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.

[StavrosK]

I really don't understand this argument, sorry. People tell me I should clean my house, but if the cleaner charges $20/hr and I charge $50, and I don't enjoy cleaning more than twice as much as I enjoy my work, why would I clean my house myself?

This is an actual situation that happens to me, by the way. I don't understand why people suggest this, it makes no sense. Bill Gates also ostensibly enjoys picking up his money more than not, so it's no trouble for him.

[clarky07]

I also charge a high hourly rate, and yet I still clean my house and mow my lawn. As it happens, I don't have enough work to fill up 24 hours of each. Also, I don't have any desire to work all 24 hours of each day. Why is this so hard for people to grasp?

Just because Patrick can charge 30k a week, doesn't mean he necessarily had a client lined up to give him 30k that week. Also, when these numbers get thrown around, there is legwork that happens ahead time that isn't actually getting counted (at least not when you state 30k/week rate). It might be a month of discussion and emails and phone calls and proposals and then 30k for a week of "work". Also, sometimes those emails, and phone calls, and proposals get turned down and that time ends up being $0/hour.

Finally, HE DOES CONSULT ANYMORE! He's the CEO of a new startup, and going forward he likely wants to focus his energy on that, and not on BCC.

[mistermann]

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

[jsmeaton]

> People tell me I should clean my house, but if the cleaner charges $20/hr and I charge $50, and I don't enjoy cleaning more than twice as much as I enjoy my work, why would I clean my house myself?

You don't have to do it yourself. You might decide that it's worth paying someone else $20/hr so that you can do something else with your time, whether that is working, spending time on a hobby, or just sitting in front of the tv relaxing. One of those 3 scenarios is better financially, the other 2 are worse off financially but may be better for your health or happiness.

FWIW, I also use the services of a cleaner every couple of weeks because I judge that a worthy expense.

I was trying to make the point that not every hour of every day is "worth" exactly the same financially. My very last sentence was key, and probably should have been more prominent.

> And sometimes you might come out financially worse, but in a better position strategically, socially, or personally.

[viraptor]

That works assuming you have your week completely full, every time. There's no time in the whole week where you don't sleep or have some other activity for a total of 30min. Honestly, I don't think that's the case for majority of people. (but that doesn't mean I think you shouldn't pay for a cleaner instead - that's just personal choice)

[PopeOfNope]

You seem awfully obsessed with those numbers. What kind of answer are you looking for, here? You certainly seem to be looking for something, but I'm not sure what. Are you looking to understand why somebody like Patio11 would make a tradeoff that seems so alien to you?

[tertius]

He may charge $30k per week, but he doesn't get gigs 100% of his available time.

[StavrosK]

He has said he could, if he wanted to.

[kasey_junk]

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]

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?

[TylerE]

I'm not sure "saving his business" really applies.

I mean, it's Bingo Card Creator, that's not exactly a $10b market.

[JamesBarney]

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.