Terms
"I worked as an accountant for 8 years and used Microsoft Excel every day for many hours," starts 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 but had never done any spreadsheet-related work.
"Pretty very early on in my career, my boss was asking me to perform a lot of tasks using Excel such as 'Combine the tables', etc. - but I was doing all of it manually!" His boss showed him some formulas that could help save some time and Ben realized then and there that a core skill in any kind of finance-related profession is being able to work with information.
"The those who are able to do it really well are leagues ahead of those who just stumble through," Ben continues. I figured, "Right. I'm going to need to brush up my 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 currently, however in Excel, 15 years ago."
The more Ben studied spreadsheets and formulae, the more enthralled he got: "It was this rabbit tunnel that seemed to go further and deeper." He realized that applying some of the training in coding that he had received in college could be a good way to combine other databases-related programming languages including VBA.
In over the span of his professional career as a professional accountant, he ended up becoming more interested in technology and less interested in accounting and finance. "After eight years I decided, 'I've had enough!'. I was unsure of what my next step was however one of my initial ideas was to change careers and become an engineer," Ben tells me.
Ben L Collins speaking at an event
He completed some classes then began to apply for jobs. "It wasn't a huge success, at the time, but I was creating my own website as well as writing posts. Some of the early articles I wrote about Google Sheets and were those that were noticed by Google Search." These led to a number of clients requesting and paying freelance work.
"In 2014 and in 2015, there was a trickle of inbound traffic saying, 'Hey, can I get help in building the dashboard using Sheets?' Or "Can you look at my company spreadsheets and assist me in figuring out ways to improve these formulas ?'."
The project involved Excel, Google Sheets, SQL and Tableau. "It was any work really but it was an indication to think, 'Maybe there's something here. Perhaps I could be a freelancer instead of returning to my old job' . I did not want to go back to accounting!" Ben smiles. "I would like to stay up in the field of technology and innovation."
Goodbye accounting, hello education
At this time, the education website General Assembly was just a startup and was launching training courses specifically for developers and data analysts. "They introduced a part-time data analysis course. Since I had taken a class together as a student for one of their developer classes, I knew the team at the time. When they introduced this course on data, they were recruiting for instructors and it included Excel, SQL and Tableau," Ben continues. "I I thought, 'Oh this is exactly my job for the last eight years !'." He went through the application process, and was offered the job and he taught the course for several iterations in 2015.
"That got me interested in teaching once more," Ben recalls. "I'd taught at the college level as a tutor for youngsters when I was in the final year." Ben began including company training in his online offering, including selling courses and tutorials. "As I started to grow an audience, in 2017 I decided to create my own course and test the waters."
) A course on the Query function in Google Sheets
The course's teaching was received very well, enough to encourage Ben to create a follow-up course. "I made use of a website known as Teachable because I was looking to create an intimate relationship with my audience and be the one to own that relationship instead of handing it over to an online marketplace such as Udemy."
I would do some research and the name that kept popping to mind was the person who is the editor of the tech news magazine Stratechery, Ben Thompson. Ben Thompson is known as the OG!" Ben laughs. "I signed up for some memberships myself to see the way other companies like Flowing Data and Craig Mod did it." Ben had been receiving their newsletter free for a long time and wanted to know the ways they'd implemented their membership businesses. I was like, "I want mine to be just like that.'. I was awed by 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
In context, Ben's subscription service currently comprises premium (or "gated") content located on WordPress and an email newsletter sent through emails through Kit (formerly ConvertKit). For information, it's based on Google Sheets which includes products features, updates and other information - and tips to get most value out of the software.
"The next newsletter is a deeper dive into certain new features which Google released in the last season," Ben adds. These are extremely useful features for manipulating data so there'll be a tutorial about that with a link to a Google Sheet template that people can then download themselves. In addition, there will be a live discussion on this. "I utilize newsletters to announce details about times and also the Google Meet link for the live session."
If asked about the future of his business, Ben believes that membership will become the core of his business. "I definitely would like to get many more members since I'd like for the membership to be the primary product," he says. "I have that model of a library of free content but you also have the option to join as a professional member to help me out and receive the extra material."
0.WZ6fYkdbv3adzawtsO The simulation of a game of Chess using Google Sheets
He also explains how he has used to give consultations and even put ads on his newsletter, but now he wants to stop doing this: "if I can build the number of subscribers to become large enough, it would be wonderful to let go of all that other stuff. There's a couple of small issues to be worked on, but increasing the number of members is crucial. "
He says he's got diverse ideas of expanding his offering. "I've got some ideas currently and I'm thinking of doing more effectively broadcasting these live sessions, and we've got initiatives to bring members in coming in the next calendar year. The service itself will develop. I don't think it'll be radically different however we'll be doing more live things."
The member also states that he would like to come up with a more effective method for members to share the sorts of data problems they're working on and what they'd like to do about it for the future "That might be through 'office hours' or an easier way for them to submit questions" - so long the method is efficient and sustainable manner for everyone concerned.
Ben says that at the moment all interaction with his followers is carried out via email newsletters. "I recommend that people respond with a message saying 'Hey, tell me what you're currently working on'. I enjoy it because it's manageable.
He used to offer forum chats and "cohort courses" that involved working through Google Sheets issues online together as a group. "We did two of them in 2021 when they were all the rage. The course was very successful However, it felt extremely stressful for the entire five weeks of the course that was a "firehose of questions. I haven't done this community like that yet since I'm apprehensive that once I've switched on the system, it will be impossible to really switch off. I'd like to think it through and figure out how to accomplish this in a sustainable way?
"I didn't have any live sessions when I first started, as I was thinking, 'Just launch and observe what the response will be. Check if I like doing it before I promise all the time. The launch is going well! The man is keen on adding live sessions "They're entertaining and people get a lot of value out of the sessions. It will be interesting to see what happens!"
Ben hosting the Zoom sessions for his participants
"Right right now, I'm teaching subjects: I'll pick a topic and we'll cover that for the live class," he continues. In the course with cohorts, the format was more of an open discussion: "People would come in and ask, 'Hey, there's a formula that I'm stuck on I'm stuck on this formula', and we'd discuss it live and other people could observe. That's something we'll look at doing next year; it's the perfect way for students to participate."
As a final thought, he believes the possibility of a Discord Q&A forums is an option, however he states: "I just want to ensure that I am able to do this in a manner that doesn't overload me." It sounds like Ben has already started in the process of establishing an ongoing and solid connection with his community. The ability to sustain the relationship is the key to successful participation "Little actions - we'll build it up over time!" he smiles.
More information
Ben Collins is an educator, writer, developer and co-founder of The Collins School of Data. He creates online courses and writes about Google Workspace tools. I focus on data analysis and automation using Google Sheets and Apps Script.
Ben L Collins' website
He enjoys creating lightweight and data-driven apps to the Google stack. Some of them include Google Sheets, Looker Studio, Google Apps Script, Forms, Docs, Gmail and more. To learn more, go to benlcollins.com.