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"I worked as an accountant for 8 years and employed Microsoft Excel every day for hours," begins Google Sheets and Apps Script professional educator Ben L Collins. "Almost all my work was done using Excel however I didn't have a knowledge of. I had done some programming however I had not completed any work with spreadsheets.
"Pretty early in the job, my boss was asking me to do a bunch of stuff in Excel such as 'Combine these tables' et cetera and I was doing it all by hand!" His boss showed him some formulas that could help save some time and Ben was able to see that a core skill in every finance profession is just having the ability to alter data.
"The individuals who perform this task effectively have a head start over all of us that are a mess," Ben continues. I thought, 'Right, I'll need to build up on these skills and I came across a bunch of websites online like mrexcel.com as well as chandoo.org - these people were doing what I'm doing now, but in Excel fifteen years ago."
The more Ben studied formulas and spreadsheets, more enthralled he got: "It was this rabbit hole that was just getting further than it was." He realized that a portion of the coding education that he had received in college could be merged with other databases-related programming languages like VBA.
Through during the duration of his professional career as an accountant, he ended up becoming more interested in technology and less interested in accounting and finance. "After 8 years of working, I was like I'm done I'm done!'. I wasn't sure of what I could do next However, one of my original ideas was to move into becoming an engineer," Ben tells me.
It's yWYQFjXiawUjOZ9y Ben L Collins speaking at an event
He completed some classes and started applying for work. "It did not really take off, however, I was creating my own website and writing articles. The first article I wrote were about Google Sheets and they're those that ended up being included in Google's Search." This led to a number of requests from clients and paid freelance work.
"In 2014 and in 2015, there was an inbound flow of traffic asking, "Hey, could you help me build the dashboard using spreadsheets?' Or 'Can you have a review my spreadsheets for our company and assist me with figuring out the best way to improve those formulas ?'."
The project involved Excel, Google Sheets, SQL as well as Tableau. "It wasn't really work at all but it was an indication to think, 'Maybe there's something here. It might be possible to become a freelancer instead of returning to my old job' . I don't intend to go back to the accountant job!" Ben smiles. "I would like to stay up with the technology and development."
Goodbye accounting, hello education
The education site General Assembly was just a company that was just starting and had plans to launch vocational courses for developers and data analysts. "They had launched a part-time data analysis course. Because I'd done a course in their class as a participant in one of their developer classes and I was familiar with the staff there. In the beginning, when they announced the data course, they were recruiting for instructors. The course was Excel, SQL and Tableau," Ben continues. "I said, 'Hey it's exactly the job I've done since I was eight years old. !'." Ben went through the process of interviewing and got the job and he was the instructor for the course for a couple of times during 2015.
"That made me want to start teaching once more," Ben recalls. "I'd had a few teaching experiences in the college level as a tutor for younger students when I was finishing my year." Ben began adding in some corporate training into his online offering, including offering tutorials and courses. "As I started to grow audiences, I decided in the year 2017 I figured I'd try my own course and see what happens."
) A course on the Query function in Google Sheets
The teaching course was received fairly well. It was good enough to inspire Ben to offer a third course. "I used a site known as Teachable because I wanted to have an intimate relationship with my audience and manage that relationship rather than hand that over to a marketplace, such as Udemy."
I did some searching and the name that kept coming up was the guy who runs the tech newsletter Stratechery, Ben Thompson. Ben Thompson is one of the OG!" Ben laughs. "I have signed up for a couple of memberships myself to see what other members like Flowing Data and Craig Mod did this." Ben had been reading their newsletters for a long time and wanted to know how they had implemented their membership businesses. I was thinking, "I want mine to have the same experience.'. I really loved how the sign-up was so simple and effortless - I thought I want to have that experience..'
Going forward in a sustainable manner
In context, Ben's subscription offer currently includes premium (or 'gated') content which is located on WordPress and an email newsletter sent through emails through Kit (formerly ConvertKit). For information, it's based on Google Sheets - including new features for the product, as well as updates as well as tips for getting most value out of the software.
"The coming newsletter will be deep dive into some of the new functions that Google came out with last season," Ben adds. These are really useful functions to manipulate data, so there'll be a video tutorial on that and a link to the Google Sheet template that people are able to download. The author also mentions that he'll be hosting a live session about this. "I use newsletters to announce information about the date and time, as well as use the Google Meet link for the live sessions."
In response to a question about the future of his business, Ben thinks membership could be the mainstay of his business. "I obviously would like to get the majority of people to join since I'd like for the membership to become the only product available," he says. "I already have an online library with free content which you then can become a pro member and help me out and receive the additional content."
Z6fYkdbv3aadzawtsO Simulating a game of chess on Google Sheets
He explains that he used to give consultations and even put ads on his newsletter, but now he wants to move away from this: "if I can build an audience large enough, it would be nice to get rid of everything else. There are a few small areas to be worked on, but increasing the size of the group is essential. "
He mentions that he has various ideas for expanding the scope of his services. "I've had some thoughts currently and I'm thinking of doing better at broadcasting these live sessions, and we've also got plans to bring members in coming to next year. The product itself will evolve. I'm not sure it'll be radically different but we'll do more live stuff."
The member also states that he would like to discover a better method to allow members to discuss their data issues they're working with and the issues they'd like to do about it -- "That might be through 'office hours' or an easier way for them to submit questions" insofar the method is efficient and sustainable manner to everyone involved.
Ben says that for the time being his interactions with his community are carried out via electronic newsletters. "I would actually suggest that people respond with a message saying 'Hey, let me know what you're working on'. I enjoy it because it's manageable.
He used to offer forum chats and "cohort courses", working though Google Sheets issues online together as a team. "We did two of them in 2021, when they were all the rage. It worked really well, but it felt very intensive for the first 5 weeks It was like a "firehose' of questions. It's been a while since I've done a community in the past since I'm concerned that when I turn on the system, it will be impossible to really turn it off. I'd like to think it through: how would I manage it in a sustainable way?
"I was not even pledging live sessions when I first launched, because I thought"Just launch, and see what the reception will be. See if I enjoy making it work before I make promises about all the time.' But it's going very well! The man is keen on adding live sessions "They're fun and people really get a lot of value from them. Let's see how it goes!"
Ben hosting an online session with his members
"Right right now, I'm teaching subjects such as: I'll choose a subject and cover it during the live lesson," he continues. However, in the group courses the format was more of an open forum: "People would come in to say, 'Hey this is the problem I'm having trouble understanding We'd go through the problem live. Other people could observe. That's something we'll look at this year. It's a great way for people to be involved."
In closing, he thinks there's a possibility that a Q&A forum is definitely an option, however he says: "I just want to make sure I can do it in a way which doesn't overwhelm me." This sounds like Ben is already on the road to building an ongoing and solid friendship with his group. It is our opinion that maintaining a relationship over time is the key to successful participation "Little steps - we'll just gradually build up!" he smiles.
More information
Ben Collins is an educator author, designer, and co-founder of The Collins School of Data. Ben Collins creates online classes and blogs on the Google Workspace tools. I concentrate on analysis of data as well as automation, making use of Google Sheets and Apps Script.
Ben L Collins' website
He loves building lightweight apps that are data-driven that work with the Google stack. Some of them include Google Sheets, Looker Studio, Google Apps Script, Forms, Docs, Gmail and more. For more information go to benlcollins.com.