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"I was an accountant for eight years and used Microsoft Excel every day for hours," starts Google Sheets and Apps Script professional educator Ben L Collins. "Almost every task I worked on was performed using Excel but I did not have any knowledge of. I'd done some coding, but I'd not done anything with spreadsheets.
"Pretty at the beginning of my job the boss had asked me to perform a lot of tasks in Excel"Combine these tables' et cetera - and I was doing everything on my own!" His boss showed him some formulas that could help make things easier and Ben recognized right then that one of the fundamental skills in any kind of finance profession is just having the ability to manipulate information.
"The individuals who do it really well have a head start over those who are just bumbling through," Ben continues. I was thinking, "Right, I'm going to need to brush up with these abilities So I looked up numerous websites such as mrexcel.com as well as chandoo.org - these people had the same skills as I am today, only in Excel, 15 years ago."
The more Ben looked into formulas and spreadsheets, the more intrigued he was: "It was this rabbit tunnel that seemed to go further and deeper." He realized that a portion of the programming education from his college days could be combined with other programming languages for databases including VBA.
In during the duration of his professional career as a professional accountant, he actually became much more interested in technological advancements and less in finance or accounting. "After 8 years of working, I was like, 'I've had enough to have enough!'. I wasn't quite sure what my next step was, but one of my initial ideas was to become a developer," Ben tells me.
Ben L Collins speaking at an occasion
He attended a few classes, and began applying for work. "It wasn't a huge success, however, I started my own website as well as writing pieces. Some of the early articles I wrote were about Google Sheets and they're those that ended up being included in Google's Search." They led to a number of client requests and paid freelance work.
"In 2014 and 2015 there was just a trickle of inbound traffic saying, 'Hey, can you assist me in creating that dashboard in spreadsheets?' Or 'Can you have a look at my company spreadsheets and assist me in figuring out how to improve those formulas ?'."
The work encompassed Excel, Google Sheets, SQL and Tableau. "It was any work really but it was enough of an indication to think, 'Maybe there's something here. Maybe I can be an independent contractor instead of going back to the old job' . I did not wish to return to being an accountant!" Ben smiles. "I would like to stay up to develop my skills and technology."
Goodbye accounting, hello education
In the beginning, the education site General Assembly was just a startup and was launching training courses specifically for developers and data analysts. "They had launched an online data analysis program that was part-time. Because I'd done a course with them as a student on one of their developer courses I had a good relationship with the group there. When they introduced this data course, they were recruiting for instructors and it consisted of Excel, SQL and Tableau," Ben continues. "I thought, 'Hey it's exactly the job I've done since I was eight years old. !'." He went through the application process, and was offered the job. He taught the course for a couple of times in 2015.
"That made me want to start teaching again," Ben recalls. "I'd had a few teaching experiences in college, as a mentor for young students while I was finishing my year." He started by adding corporate training to his online offering, including offering tutorials and courses. "As I began to build audiences, I decided in the year 2017 I thought I should create my own course and test the waters."
) A course on the Query function in Google Sheets
The teaching course was received fairly well. It was good enough to encourage Ben to create a follow-up course. "I used a site known as Teachable because I wanted to establish an intimate relationship with my audience and manage that relationship instead of transferring it to a marketplace, such as Udemy."
I decided to do some digging and one name that kept popping to mind was the person who runs the tech newsletter Stratechery, Ben Thompson. He's one of the OG!" Ben laughs. "I have signed up for a couple of memberships myself to see how other people such as Flowing Data and Craig Mod had done this." Ben had been getting their free newsletter for a long time and was curious about the ways they'd developed their membership-based businesses. I was like, "I want mine to look like them.'. I really loved how signing up was simple and smooth - I thought I want to have that experience.'
The goal is to continue moving forward with a steady pace
To give context, Ben's membership service currently comprises premium (or "gated") content that is hosted on WordPress as well as a premium electronic newsletter sent through emails through Kit (formerly ConvertKit). As for the content itself, it is centered around Google Sheets and includes information about products features, updates and other information - and how to make the most out of it.
"The following newsletter takes an in-depth look at certain new features that Google released this year," Ben adds. These are extremely useful features to manipulate data, so there'll be a tutorial about that along with a link to a Google Sheet template that people could download for themselves. The author also mentions that the online session on the topic. "I use newsletters to announce information about the date and time, as well as the Google Meet link for the live events."
In response to a question about the future, Ben believes that membership will become the core of his business. "I certainly would like to get more people in as I want the membership to become the only product available," he says. "I have that model of an online library with free content but you also have the option to become a pro member and support me and get more content."
Playing a game like chess with Google Sheets
He also explains how he has used to offer consulting and include ads in his no-cost newsletter. However, he is now trying to get away from that: "if I can build the number of subscribers to become large enough, it would be nice to get rid of all that other stuff. There are a few small areas to work on but growing the number of members is crucial. "
He says he's got diverse ideas of expanding his offerings. "I've had some thoughts in the present: I can do better at broadcasting these live sessions, as well as we've plans that will bring new members to next year. The software itself will change. I don't think it'll change much, but we'll do more live-streamed stuff."
The member also states that he would like to come up with a more effective method for members to share information about the kinds of issues they're tackling and the problems they'd like to do about it for the future "That might be through 'office hours' or an easier method to ask questions" insofar as it is in a sustainable and valuable way for everyone concerned.
Ben confirms that, at the moment, all the interactions with his community are conducted via emails. "I recommend that people respond with a message saying 'Hey, let me know what you're working on' - I like it because it's manageable.
He would offer forums conversations and 'cohort courses', working though Google Sheets issues online together in a group. "We completed two of them in 2021 when Google Sheets were the talk of the town. It was a great experience, but it felt very stressful for the entire five weeks that the class was in It was like a "firehose' of questions. This is the first time I've participated in a group as such yet, since I'm apprehensive that after I've turned the switch on, I'll be unable to truly switch off. It's something I'd like to think through, how can I accomplish this sustainably?
"I wasn't even promising live streams when I initially launched, because I thought"Just go live and see what the reception will be. Find out if it's something I'm interested in doing it before I promise all the time. It's working great! He's keen to include live events "They're fun and people really enjoy a lot from the sessions. Let's see how it goes!"
Ben hosting a Zoom session for his clients
"Right right now, I'm teaching subjects such as: I'll choose a subject and cover it during the live lesson," he continues. But in the cohort courses it was more of an open forum: "People would come in and say, 'Hey, here's the formula I'm struggling with We'd go through the problem live. Other people were able to watch. We'll be looking into doing next year; it's the perfect way for students to be involved."
In closing, he thinks that perhaps a Discord Q&A forums is an option, however he clarifies: "I just want to make sure I can do the task in a way that does not overburden me." It sounds like Ben has already started in the process of establishing the longest-lasting and long-lasting relationship with his community. It is our opinion that maintaining a relationship over time is essential to the success of a participation "Little actions - we'll gradually build up!" he smiles.
Additional information
Ben Collins is an educator, writer, developer and co-founder of The Collins School of Data. He develops online courses and writes about Google Workspace tools. My focus is on data analysis and automation, using Google Sheets and Apps Script.
Ben L Collins' website
He is a fan of building light 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, etc. To learn more, go to benlcollins.com.