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"I worked as an accountant for 8 years and utilized Microsoft Excel every day for long hours" begins Google Sheets and Apps Script an expert teacher Ben L Collins. "Almost all my work was done in Excel but I did not have any background. I'd coded however I had not completed any work with spreadsheets.
"Pretty at the beginning of my job, my boss was asking me to complete a variety of things in Excel such as 'Combine these tables' et cetera - and I was doing it all by hand!" His boss showed the formulas he could use to save some time and Ben realized then and there that the most important skill to have for any finance-related profession is being able to alter data.
"The those who are able to perform this task effectively can be miles ahead of those that are a mess," Ben continues. I thought, 'Right, I'm going to need to brush up my skills' so I found a bunch of websites online like mrexcel.com as well as chandoo.org - these people did exactly what I do today, only in Excel fifteen years ago."
The more Ben was able to look at spreadsheets and formulae, the more enthralled he got: "It was this rabbit hole that was just getting deeper and deeper." Ben realized that applying some of the training in coding that he had received in college could be combined with different programming languages that work with databases like VBA.
Over over the span of his time as a professional accountant, he was actually more enamored in technology and less interested in accounting and finance. "After 8 years of working, I was like I'm done!'. I wasn't quite sure what I could do next However, one of my original ideas was to become a developer." Ben tells me.
Ben L Collins speaking at an evening event
He completed some classes then began to apply for jobs. "It did not really take off, however, I began creating my own website as well as writing posts. A few of the first articles I wrote about Google Sheets and they're the ones that got noticed by Google Search." They brought about a lot of requests from clients and paid freelance work.
"In 2014 and 2015 there was enough of some inbound calls saying, 'Hey, can I get help in building this dashboard using spreadsheets?' Or "Can you look at my company spreadsheets and help me figure out ways to improve these formulas? ?'."
The project involved Excel, Google Sheets, SQL and Tableau. "It wasn't really work at all but it was an indication to think"Maybe there's something to be found here. Maybe I can be a freelancer rather than 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
In the beginning, the education site General Assembly was just a company that was just starting and had plans to launch professional courses for developers as well as data analysts. "They introduced a part-time data analysis course. Because I'd done a course in their class as a participant for one of their developer courses, I knew the team that was there. In the beginning, when they announced this data course, they were recruiting for instructors and it was Excel, SQL and Tableau," Ben continues. "I I thought, 'Oh, that's like my job since I was eight years old. !'." He went through the application process, and was offered the job and 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 taught at college, as a mentor for younger students when I was in my final year." He started by adding corporate training to the online offerings, such as offering tutorials and courses. "As I started to grow the number of people who were interested in my content, I thought I should test my own course to 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 launch a second course. "I made use of a website called Teachable as I was looking to create an immediate relationship with my audience and manage that relationship instead of transferring it to a marketplace like Udemy."
I would do some research and one name that kept popping up was the guy 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 it." Ben had been reading their newsletters for a long time and was curious about the way they implemented their membership businesses. I was thinking, "I want mine to be just like that.'. I really loved how signing up was simple and easy - I was thinking"I would like that membership feeling..'
The goal is to continue moving forward with a steady pace
In context, Ben's subscription offer currently includes premium (or "gated") content hosted on WordPress as well as a premium electronic newsletter that is sent via email through Kit (formerly ConvertKit). As for the content itself, it is centered around Google Sheets - including products features, updates and other information - and how to make maximum value from the software.
"The coming newsletter will be deep dive into the latest features that Google came out with this year," Ben adds. These are extremely useful features for manipulating data so there'll be a video tutorial on that along with a link to a Google Sheet template that people could download for themselves. He adds that the live session about the topic. "I utilize the newsletters to communicate the time and to share the Google Meet link for the live sessions."
If asked about the future of his business, Ben thinks membership could become the core of his business. "I certainly would like to draw more people in because I would like that membership to be my only product available," he says. "I have that model of a library of free content, and then you can join as a professional member to support me and get more information."
Z6fYkdbv3aadzawtsO Simulating a game of chess with Google Sheets
He says that he was able to provide consulting services and also include ads in his no-cost newsletter, but now he wants to move away from this: "if I can build the membership to be big enough, it will be great to rid of all that other stuff. There are a few small areas to be worked on, but increasing the number of members is crucial. "
He mentions that he has various ideas for expanding his offerings. "I've had some thoughts in the present that I could do more effectively sharing these live sessions and we've also got plans to bring members in coming up next year. The product itself will evolve. It's not going to be radically different however, we'll continue to do live stuff."
The member also states that he would like to come up with a more effective method to allow members to discuss information about the kinds of issues they're working with and the issues they'd like to resolve - "That might be through 'office hours' or a better way for them to submit inquiries" - so long that it's done in a viable and beneficial way for everyone concerned.
Ben affirms that, currently, all the interactions with his community are carried out via electronic newsletters. "I recommend that people respond with a message saying 'Hey, let me know the things you're working on' - I like it because it's manageable.
He was known to facilitate forum conversations and 'cohort courses' in which participants worked through Google Sheets issues online together as a group. "We took two of these in 2021 when they were all the rage. It worked really well, but it felt very intensive for the first five weeks of the course - it was a 'firehose' of questions. I haven't done this community like that yet since I'm apprehensive that once I've switched it on, I can't really switch off. I'd like to think it through: how would I do it with a long-term perspective?
"I didn't have any live events when I first launched, because I thought"Just go live and see what the reception will be. See if I enjoy performing it, before I commit to everything.' But it's going well! He's keen to include live events "They're entertaining and people benefit out of these sessions. We'll see how that goes!"
Ben hosting the Zoom sessions for his clients
"Right this moment I'm teaching topics that I've chosen and we'll cover that for the live session," 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 having trouble understanding' and we'd work through the problem live. Other people could observe. This is something we'll consider in the coming year. It's the perfect way for students to get involved."
In closing, he thinks that perhaps a Discord Q&A forums is an option, however he clarifies: "I just want to be sure that I'm able to handle it in a way which doesn't overwhelm me." It sounds like Ben has already started in the process of establishing a long and stable relationship with his community. It is our opinion that maintaining a relationship over time is the key to successful community membership "Little steps - we'll just build it up over time!" he smiles.
More information
Ben Collins is an educator as well as a writer, programmer and founder of The Collins School of Data. He develops online courses and blogs about Google Workspace tools. I focus on data analysis and automation, using Google Sheets and Apps Script.
Ben L Collins' website
He is a fan of building light and data-driven apps to the Google stack: Google Sheets, Looker Studio, Google Apps Script, Forms, Docs, Gmail and more. For more information go to benlcollins.com.