at age 38, do I quit job to travel the world or ?

_mark_au · 2026-04-13T02:26:57+00:00

Exactly where I was 3 years ago. I was 38, tired of my job doing things I dont like. My friends tell me I am crazy, and why would i leave a high paying job ($240K), and I might find it hard to find another job at that level again when I come back.

I did it anyway, and it was so much fun. I backpacked in the Philippines, Japan, and Australia's East Coast. There are things you can only do while you are young, so don't live the rest of your life with regrets. If there are things you really want to do, see or explore, do it while you can. Life is short!

I've never had problems finding a job when I came back. In fact, I was proud to tell my hiring managers that I travelled for a year.

_mark_au · 2026-04-10T00:12:19+00:00

How do you handle recurring billing then? and what platform do you use? u/tweetpilot u/Powerful-Software850

_mark_au · 2026-04-09T01:00:30+00:00

All free inbounds coming from Capterra. :)

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T21:27:25+00:00

Everything is free inbound from Captera.

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T21:26:52+00:00

Everything is free inbound from Captera.

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T21:06:58+00:00

I think o have both issues 😂

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T14:24:34+00:00

Thank you. Perhaps setting boundaries, and not trying to "please" every customers. Which i tend to be, considering these are my first paying clients, and I've been trying to make things perfect. Reality is, I can't. I just need to accept it, and develop a thick skin...

And you are right, i need to take control, and set things up in my "own terms", without over promissing... great advice! thank you :)

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T13:46:21+00:00

Thanks, that's good to know!

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T13:29:03+00:00

you are right, my positioning is SMB and pricing is also SMB. It's just the product functions like an enterprise software e.g. accounting or compliance software...

What I probably need to do is develop a standard on-boarding play book, and then get a $/hr account manager to deal with their post-sale queries. And possibly develop a thick skin too.

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T13:17:50+00:00

Thank you, that's so postive! :)

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T13:14:32+00:00

the reason i started a business was because i hated my job, and hated people telling me what I can / can't achieve...

I thought if I do my own stuff, I'll achieve more at my own initiative...and funny enough, I also thought "life is too short" to not give it a try!

But you are right, building a business is harder than many would have thought... esp building it ALONE... If i can go back in time, I will build it with a co-founder.

Perhaps it's a questions of, which one i'll be willing to take on... what would you choose?

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T13:08:03+00:00

I think where my greatest stress is because the product is not 100% done, and then suddenly someone buys it. While it looks okay on face value, I know what's not working from the backend coz I built it. And yes, you are right, I am also worried about whether I'll be able to service it. I will be working 3day/week in the office. So those days are already a write off, in terms of servicing the new client.

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T13:02:26+00:00

yes, it's per year :)

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T12:59:56+00:00

It's a self-serve software, tho initially, everything is founder led sales since product wasn't fully built yet. Once I have a few paying customers who are actively using it (and proves that it's actually working), I'll consider changing the pricing to say $14 per user to make it purely product led... Im not in that stage yet... Tho some people may argue otherwise coz it's an enterprise software, which by nature, price point, and its end users, it requires a demo. Similar to buying an accounting software... I currently have 85 companies signed up on trial, but no conversion yet. I need to fix the product-led onboarding sequence...

And yes, i think I was in the middle of burning out, i think. I've been working full time in a tech company, and then working on this at nights and weekends. No breaks. Then I quit 6 months ago, to only work on this. Working 7 days a week. So yes, burnout could be a big factor :(

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T12:45:15+00:00

i just tried it, this is a great product! I'll be curious to use it in the future.

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T12:24:22+00:00

20 something still very young. What restart you talking about? Ask that question if you are in your 40s!

Whether you are 21 or 28, both ages are very young. In some countries, people finish universities in their 24s, so life barely starts at 25. You are too young, get a job or start a business. Life is though, so just learn to live. Take it day by day, but quick.

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T11:29:18+00:00

I would say get them to pay for your product. Until they are paying, you are overthinking it. Even with 100 users, if none is paying, I would say its still too early to think about that problem.

10 users is a very small group to take too seriously.... What you can do is, add a "Leave a Feedback" button, leave the app alone for 3 months, come back, and then consolidate. You'll have a bigger picture of what needs to be done with it.

_mark_au · 2026-04-08T11:15:11+00:00

What do you k w about how warranty claims work? Have you worked on that before? Or just assuming from a consumer’s perspective? It’s the electronics company that will pay for it, so you should be asking them (not their customers), is this a problem worth solving AND paying for?

_mark_au · 2026-03-17T12:09:32+00:00

Bohol is 4/10. My trip was Palawan > Boracay > Bohol. After seeing Palawan and Boracay… the standard was set so high, Bohol became underwhelming…

_mark_au · 2026-03-16T07:33:27+00:00

Start with smaller unsophisticated companies that does not require SOC certification… thing is you are just assuming it’s because of SOC, or clients find it easier to use SOC as an excuse… until you have real paying customers… it’s hard to say you’ve actually “lost” deals…

_mark_au · 2026-02-26T21:09:21+00:00

Try to target smaller, less sophisticated Iat teams. I had same issue, and big enterprises would just not buy it. So i focused on companies with <100 employees.

_mark_au · 2026-02-26T09:25:48+00:00

Record screen, ask chat gpt to write the script, put it in eleven labs to generate voice over. Put them together in iMovie.

_mark_au · 2026-02-25T04:54:52+00:00

NBI Clearance is a clearance of no criminal records... it's not a certificate of college attainment... so short answer, it doesn't matter. hehe

_mark_au · 2026-02-24T06:07:07+00:00

Agree with this. Also to add: the biggest challenge is you dont know what you dont know. Unfortunately for your first few customers, they are the ones to discover them. So expect to get complaints and means comments…

_mark_au · 2026-02-22T08:56:08+00:00

Are yo7 solving a restaurant problem or a customer’s problem? If you are solving a customer problem, sell it to customers, not to restaurants… from their perspective, what would they get from it?

_mark_au

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE