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"I worked as an accountant for 8 years, and used Microsoft Excel every day for hours," starts Google Sheets and Apps Script expert educator Ben L Collins. "Almost all my work was performed in Excel but I did not have any knowledge of. I had coded a few things, but I'd not done anything using spreadsheets.
"Pretty at the beginning of my career, I had a boss who requested that I do various tasks using Excel such as "Combine these tables" et cetera - and I did everything on my own!" His boss showed him a few formulas to make things more simple and Ben could see that the most important quality of a finance-related profession is being able to handle information.
"The ones who know how perform the task effectively are ahead of the ones who just stumble through." Ben continues. I was thinking "Right I'm going need to brush up my abilities. So I checked for a few websites on the web, such as mrexcel.com and chandoo.org These sites did exactly the same thing I do now, but using Excel fifteen years back."
The more Ben was absorbed in calculations and spreadsheets, the more intrigued he was: "It was this rabbit tunnel that seemed to lead further and deeper into darkness." Ben recognized that applying certain aspects of his coding training that he received in college could be a good way to mix the various programming languages with databases like VBA.
Over the course of his career as an accountant actually became much more interested in technology and less interested in accounting or finance. "After 8 years of working I believed that I was finished!. I wasn't quite sure what was next. However, one of my first thoughts was to become a developer," Ben tells me.
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He completed some classes then began applying for jobs. "It wasn't a huge success at the time, however I started creating my own site and also writing articles. A few of the first posts I composed were on Google Sheets and they're those which were eventually included in Google's Search." This resulted in a variety of clients asking for and paying freelance jobs.
"In 2014 and 2015 there were some calls which asked "Hi, can I get help in building this dashboard using spreadsheets?' Or 'Do you want to look over my spreadsheets on behalf of the company, and help me in finding methods to improve these spreadsheets ? '."
The task involved Excel, Google Sheets, SQL as well as Tableau. "It wasn't really work at all but it was an opportunity to consider"Maybe there's something to find in this area. It might be possible to become an independent contractor, instead of returning to my old job' . I don't want to go back to accounting!" Ben smiles. "I am looking forward to staying ahead of the curve in technology and innovation."
Goodbye accounting, hello education
In the beginning, the educational website General Assembly was just a beginning and offered professional courses to developers as well as data analysts. "They were introducing the possibility of a data analysis part-time course. Since I had been in their class as a participant in one of their developer courses and was acquainted with the staff that was there. The first time they offered this course, they were in data and were looking for instructors. The class was Excel, SQL and Tableau," Ben continues. "I was thinking, 'Oh this is exactly the job I've done for the last eight years! '." He went through the interview process, and eventually got the job. He also gave the course in a couple of iterations throughout the year 2015.
"That inspired me to get into teaching," Ben recalls. "I'd done some teaching at the college level, as tutoring younger students during my final year." He added corporate training to his online offering, including the sale of tutorials and courses. "As I started to grow audiences, in 2017, I figured I'd test my own course to test the results."
) A course on the Query function in Google Sheets
The class was well-loved and appreciated and it was enough to get Ben to develop a second course. "I utilized a platform named Teachable as I was looking to have an immediate relationship with my audience and manage this relationship, rather than transfer the course to an online marketplace such as Udemy."
I looked up some information and the name that kept popping to mind was the person who runs the tech newsletter Stratechery, Ben Thompson. Ben Thompson is known as the OG!" Ben laughs. "I have joined a few subscriptions to see how other people such as Flowing Data and Craig Mod had been doing this." Ben was reading their newsletters as a youngster and I was interested in the way they created their membership-based business. I thought "I want mine to have the same experience.'. The sign-up process it was easy and seamless and I thought"I want to have this member experience.'
Going forward in a sustainable manner
For reference, Ben's membership offering currently is comprised of premium (or "gated") information that is hosted on WordPress and an email newsletter, which is delivered via emails through Kit (formerly ConvertKit). For content, it centers on Google Sheets that includes product features as well as updates, and other details as well as tips for getting the maximum value from the application.
"The coming newsletter will be an in-depth review of some of the new functions that Google introduced in the last season," Ben adds. These are really useful functions that allow you to alter data, and so there'll be a demonstration about the subject, as well as a link to the Google Sheet template that people can then download themselves. The speaker also says there will take place a live chat about the topic. "I utilize the newsletters to communicate details about dates and times as well as to provide with you the Google Meet link for the live event."
If asked about the future, Ben believes that membership will be the primary focus of his firm. "I obviously wish to attract the majority of people to sign up because I'd prefer that it be my primary product," he says. "I am able to offer an online library with free content that you can then upgrade to an official member, and assist me with my work and also receive additional content."
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He explains that he used to provide consulting services and included ads in his no-cost newsletter, but now he wants to stop doing this: "if I can build an adequate audience then it's a great idea to stop doing other aspects. There are some small areas to tackle and enlarge the scope of the community is vital. "
He says the ideas he has are diverse in the expansion of his services. "I've thought about it in the present and am contemplating improving the quality of broadcasting these live sessions as well as launching initiatives to bring in new members during the upcoming calendar year. The services itself will grow. It's unlikely to change much, however there will be more live events."
The member also wants to find a more effective method for members to discuss the problems with data and issues they'd like to overcome --- "That might be through 'office hours' or a better means for them to send queries" In the sense that it's a sustainable and valuable way for all parties affected.
Ben affirms that, at the moment his interactions with his community are done by way of electronic newsletters. "I suggest that people reply to me with a text message that reads 'Hi Tell me what you're doing'. I love it because it's easy to manage.
He had a reputation for facilitating discussions in forums as well as "cohort classes", working though Google Sheets issues online together in a team. "We took two courses in 2021 when Google Sheets were the talk in the city. The course was extremely successful, but it felt very intense for the initial five weeks of the course which was an "firehose of questions. This is my first time participating in such a course yet since I'm apprehensive that after I've turned on the light the course, I'll not be able to truly shut off. This is something I'd like consider, and how could accomplish it without sacrificing my own sustainability?
"I wasn't even planning to commit to live sessions when I first started. I was thinking, 'Just start and see what response it gets. Find out if it is fun to make it work before I make commitments all the time. This is working! He's eager to add live sessions in the mix "They're fun and participants are able to get value out of these sessions. Let's see how it goes!"
Ben hosting the Zoom sessions for his clients
"Right currently, I'm teaching subjects: I'll pick a topic and we'll cover that for the live lecture," he continues. In the course with cohorts, it was more of an open forum "People were able to come in and tell me, 'Here's the formula I'm having trouble getting my head around this formula', and we'd discuss the issue live and other students could be able to watch. This is something we'll look into future cohort courses. It's an excellent way to allow individuals to get involved."
As a final thought Ben is of the opinion that the possibility of the Q&A forum model is a possibility, too but states "I just want to ensure that I'm in a position to complete the job without having to overburden me." It sounds like Ben is already on the road toward establishing an ongoing and strong relationship with his group. Being able to keep the relationship is crucial for a group to be successful "Little things - we'll do additional ones over time!" He smiles.
Further details
Ben Collins is an educator and also a programmers, writer along with co-founder of The Collins School of Data. Ben Collins creates online classes and write about Google Workspace tools. My focus is on the studying data and analysis and automation making use of Google Sheets as well as Apps Script.
Ben L Collins' website
He loves creating apps that are light that use data to drive the Google stack. These include: Google Sheets, Looker Studio, Google Apps Script, Forms, Docs, Gmail and more. For more information go to benlcollins.com.
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