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"I was an accountant for eight years and used Microsoft Excel every day for many hours," begins Google Sheets and Apps Script an expert teacher 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 perform a lot of tasks in Excel such as 'Combine the tables', etc. - but I was doing it all on my own!" His boss showed him some formulas that could help save some time and Ben was able to see that the most important skill to have for any finance-related profession is having the ability to work with data.
"The individuals who do it really well have a head start over all of us who just stumble through," Ben continues. I thought, 'Right, I need to really gen up with these abilities and I came across several websites on the internet like mrexcel.com and chandoo.org These people were doing what I'm doing today, only in Excel about 15 years ago."
The more Ben looked into formulas and spreadsheets, more fascinated he became: "It was this rabbit hole that was just getting into deeper than it was." He realized that some of the training in coding that he had received in college could be a good way to combine other databases-related programming languages like VBA.
Through during the duration of his career as an accountant ended up becoming more interested in technology and less interested in finance and accounting. "After 8 years of working, I was like"I'm fed up to have enough!'. I was unsure of what I could do next however one of my first thoughts was to become a developer," Ben tells me.
The YWYQFjXiawUjOZ9yPLo Ben L Collins speaking at an event
He took some courses, then began to apply for work. "It did not really take off, but through that time I started my own website and writing pieces. Some of the early articles I wrote about Google Sheets and these were those that were included in Google's Search." This resulted in a variety of client requests and paid freelance jobs.
"In the years 2014 and 2015, there was enough of an inbound flow of traffic saying, 'Hey, can you assist me in creating that dashboard in sheets?' or 'Can you have a look at my company spreadsheets and assist me with figuring out the best way to improve those formulas? ?'."
The task involved Excel, Google Sheets, SQL and Tableau. "It wasn't really work at all but it was enough of an indication to think"Maybe there's something to be found here. Maybe I can be a freelancer rather than returning to my previous job' . I did not want to go back to accounting!" Ben smiles. "I was determined to continue to develop my skills and technology."
Goodbye accounting, hello education
The education site General Assembly was just a start-up and it was offering vocational courses for developers and data analysts. "They were introducing an online data analysis program that was part-time. Since I had taken a class in their class as a participant on one of their developer courses, I knew the team that was there. The first time they launched the data course, they were recruiting for instructors and it was Excel, SQL and Tableau," Ben continues. "I thought, 'Hey it's exactly my job for the last eight years !'." He went through the application process, and was offered the job. He was the instructor for the course for a couple of times in 2015.
"That inspired me to get involved in teaching once more," Ben recalls. "I'd done some teaching at college, as a mentor for youngsters when I was finishing my year." He began by adding company training in his online offering, including the sale of tutorials and classes. "As I began to build the number of people who were interested in my content, I figured I'd test my own course to test the waters."
) A course on the Query function in Google Sheets
The course's teaching was received quite well - well enough to inspire Ben to launch a second course. "I made use of a website named Teachable since I was looking to create a direct relationship with my audience and manage that relationship rather than hand that over to an online marketplace such as Udemy."
I decided to do some digging and one names that kept popping up was the guy who manages the tech magazine Stratechery, Ben Thompson. Ben Thompson is the OG!" Ben laughs. "I signed up for some subscriptions to check out the way other companies like Flowing Data and Craig Mod had done the same thing." Ben had been receiving their newsletter free since he was a kid and I was curious about the way they implemented their membership businesses. I was thinking, "I want mine to have the same experience.'. I loved signing up was simple and smooth - I thought I want to have that feeling..'
Moving forward sustainably
In context, Ben's subscription offering currently consists of premium (or 'gated') content located on WordPress and a premium email newsletter that is sent via email through Kit (formerly ConvertKit). In terms of the content itself, it is centered around Google Sheets which includes products features, updates and other information - and tips to get the most out of it.
"The coming newsletter will be a deeper dive into some of the new functions that Google introduced last season," Ben adds. They're really helpful functions for manipulating data so there'll be a video tutorial on that along with a link to a Google Sheet template that people are able to download. In addition, he'll be hosting a live discussion on this. "I use the newsletters to share information about the date and time, as well as the Google Meet link for the live events."
If asked about the future, Ben imagines that membership will eventually become the primary focus of his business. "I obviously want to bring the majority of people to join since I'd like for the membership to be the primary product," he says. "I am able to offer an online library with free content which you then can be a member of the pro version and support me and get more material."
0.WZ6fYkdbv3adzawtsO Playing a game like chess on Google Sheets
He also explains how he has used to provide consulting services and also include ads in his no-cost newsletter but he aims to stop doing this: "if I can build an audience large enough, it would be wonderful to let go of all that other stuff. There are a few small areas to be worked on, but increasing the membership is key. "
He mentions that he has several ideas to expand the scope of his services. "I've had some thoughts in the present that I could do better at sharing these live sessions as well as we've plans to bring members in coming to next year. The service itself will develop. I'm not sure it'll be radically different but we'll do more live things."
He also says he'd like to discover a better method to allow members to discuss the sorts of data problems they're tackling and the problems they'd like to solve for the future "That may be through "office hours' or even a more efficient means for them to send inquiries" - as long that it's done in a efficient and sustainable manner for all parties involved.
Ben affirms that, currently, all the interaction with his followers is carried out via email newsletters. "I would actually suggest that people respond with a message saying 'Hey, let me know what you're currently working on'. I enjoy it because it's manageable.
He would offer forums chats and "cohort courses" in which participants worked through Google Sheets issues online together as a group. "We took two of these in 2021 while they were all the rage. It worked really well however it was very intense for the five weeks that the class was in that was a "firehose' of questions. I haven't done this community in the past since I'm concerned that when I turn on the system, it will be impossible to completely turn off. I'd like to think it through, how can I do it with a long-term perspective?
"I didn't have any live sessions when I first launched, because I thought"Just launch, and see what the reception is. Find out if it's something I'm interested in performing it, before I commit to everything. It's working well! The man is keen on adding live sessions "They're entertaining and people enjoy a lot out of the sessions. Let's see how it goes!"
Ben hosting an online session with his participants
"Right this moment I'm teaching topics such as: I'll choose a subject and then we'll discuss it in the live lesson," he continues. However, in the group courses it was more of an open-forum: "People would come in and ask, 'Hey, here's the formula I'm having trouble understanding' and we'd work through the problem live. Other people were able to watch. This is something we'll consider this year. It's a great way for people to participate."
As a final thought, he believes there's a possibility that a Q&A forum is definitely possible, but states: "I just want to make sure I can do the task in a way that does not overburden me." It sounds like Ben is already working towards establishing the longest-lasting and long-lasting friendship with his group. It is our opinion that maintaining a relationship over time is crucial to a successful community membership "Little actions - we'll add more over time!" he smiles.
Additional information
Ben Collins is an educator, writer, developer and the founder of The Collins School of Data. He creates online courses and write about 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 is a fan of building light and data-driven apps for the Google stack. These include: Google Sheets, Looker Studio, Google Apps Script, Forms, Docs, Gmail and more. For more details, visit benlcollins.com.