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"I worked as an accountant for the past eight years and utilized Microsoft Excel every day for lengthy lengths of time" commences Google Sheets and Apps Script the highly skilled instructor Ben L Collins. "Almost all the tasks I worked on was completed with Excel but I did not have any previous knowledge. I had written some code, however I didn't have any experience with spreadsheets.

"Pretty during the first few weeks of employment, I was contacted by my boss to complete a variety of assignments using Excel such as "Combine these tables" or "Combine these tables. - but I had to finish it all with my hands!" The boss explained to him how formulas can be used to accelerate the process. Ben recognized right then one of the essential skills for anyone working in finance is the ability modify the data.

"The people who have the capacity to excel within this field are a considerable distance over those that seem to be chaotic," Ben continues. I was thinking "Right now, I'm going require improvement in my capabilities and I discovered a variety of sites on the web such as mrexcel.com and chandoo.org The people who used these sites did similar to what I do today, employing Excel in the past 15 years."

The more Ben could study formulas and spreadsheets as he became more enthralled was: "It was this rabbit tunnel which was becoming increasingly engrossing." Ben realized that some of his coding training he'd taken in the college days could be incorporated with programming languages that integrate with databases, like VBA.

During his career as a certified accountant an expert, the accountant was mostly fascinated with technology but less so in financial or accounting. "After more than eight years in a profession I adored, I felt as if I had finished!. I was unsure of what my next step was. but one of my initial ideas was that I wanted to become a programmer." Ben tells me.

     Ben L Collins speaking in an evening event    

He took a few courses, then started applying for jobs. "It wasn't an all-encompassing launch, but I started to create my own website, and began writing material. The first few articles I created were about Google Sheets and they're the ones that were spotted by Google Search." Google Sheets brought in a number of client requests and even pay-per-hour work.

"In 2014 and in 2015, there were a number of outbound calls asking, "Hey can I get help making my dashboard with spreadsheets or spreadsheets?' In other words "Can you look at my company's spreadsheets and help me determine how to make my spreadsheets better? ? '."

The task comprised Excel, Google Sheets, SQL along with Tableau. "It was not an actual work, but was an example of think"Maybe there's something found within this field. There is a possibility that I'll be working as a freelancer, rather than going back to the position that I before . It's not my intention to go back to my accounting job!" Ben smiles. "I want to be up to date with the latest technological advancements in research and development."

Goodbye accounting, hello education

The initial education site General Assembly was just a venture that was just beginning and was planning to launch courses for professionals in programming as well as data analysts. "They have created a class part-time on data analysis. Since I had taken one of their classes as part of one of their classes designed for developers, I was aware of the students of students during the course. The moment they announced the course on data they began to recruit for instructors. The curriculum consisted of Excel, SQL and Tableau," Ben continues. "I was thinking"Ooh it's exactly what I did when I was 8 years old. ! '." The candidate went through the process of interviewing then was eventually hired, and became an instructor on the course for a variety of times in 2015.

"That led me to becoming once more a teacher" Ben recalls. "I'd taught at the college level, as a mentor for youngsters before I started my last semester in college." He began by adding corporate training into the online courses, including lessons and tutorials. "As I noticed that I was increasing the amount of people interested on my site, I decided I'd develop my own courses and test to see if it was possible to make it work."

) A course on the Query function within Google Sheets

The course's instruction was well received, and that was enough to inspire Ben to create a second course. "I utilized an online platform called Teachable to discover a way to build connections with my students and as and maintain the relationship rather than transfer the relationship to an online marketplace such as Udemy."

I searched and found that the name always popping up in the internet was person who runs the tech news publication Stratechery, Ben Thompson. Ben Thompson is known as the OG!" Ben is laughing. "I have been a member for a couple of memberships to learn how fellow members like Flowing Data and Craig Mod did the same." Ben was studying their newsletters for quite some time and was interested in knowing the methods they used to run their businesses based on membership. I was thinking to myself, "I want mine to appear similar to the ones they have.'. I was amazed by the fact that it was easy and simple to do. I was thinking"I want this membership feel..'

It is crucial to maintain the speed of development

The reason for this is that Ben's current subscription includes the highest quality (or "gated") information available on WordPress as well as an electronic newsletter that is high-quality and goes out via email through Kit (formerly ConvertKit). In terms of the content, the focus is Google Sheets that include features, updates, and other features - as well as what you can do to get best value out of the software.

"The coming newsletter will offer a comprehensive examination of the most recent tools Google released in the past year." Ben adds. They're extremely helpful features for manipulating information. This is why there will be an instructional video as well as a URL to the Google Sheet template that people might download to themselves. In addition, the speaker states that there will be an discussions about the topic which will take place. "I use newsletters to provide information about the subject and also to give you the Google Meet link for the live meetings."

When asked concerning the direction in which his business is taking, Ben thinks membership could be the basis of his organization. "I sure would like to gain new members and I'd prefer membership to be my only alternative," he says. "I am already a member of an online library, with no cost content. If you want to join, sign up as a professional to help me with my job and be informed of any additional info."

Z6fYkdbv3adzawtsO A simulation of the chess game made with Google Sheets

The author claims that he's been able to provide consulting services and also to add ads in his free newsletter. He hopes to improve his approach to the former "if I am able to grow my membership to be big enough, and then take away all unnecessary issues. There are several things you could tackle however, increasing the size of your membership is crucial. "

He says he's got various ideas in mind that could help expand the coverage of his services. "I've thought for a long time about when I'd like to enhance my broadcasting capabilities in these live events, especially since we're hoping to get new members up this year. The service itself will change. The final product will not alter much, however we'll continue doing live things."

He also states that he'd like to create a system that lets members to share information about the types of problems they're facing and the problems they'd like to solve Then "That could be accomplished through "office hours or another method to inquire" provided it's conducted in a feasible and beneficial way for everyone concerned.

Ben affirms that as of currently, all interaction with his customers is through emails. "I would recommend you reply with your text message using the subject line : 'Hi, I'd like to hear of what you're developing'. I prefer this approach as it's simple to handle.

He was known as an instructor on discussion forums as well as for facilitating 'cohort' sessions' where participants solved Google Sheets problems online as part of a larger group. "We went to two of these courses in 2021. They were extremely well-known. It was an amazing experience however, it was extremely challenging for the first five weeks. The experience was like a "firehose full of" questions. This is my first experience in a similar group since I'm apprehensive that after switching on the light it's difficult to completely turn off. It's something I'm thinking about: how would you approach it in the long run?

"I didn't had any live events prior to the beginning when I first started the company, however I thought"Just perform it live to see how reception is. Find out if it's a delight to do it before I decide to commit to anything.' It's working! The owner is keen on including live events "They're entertaining and people get satisfaction from these events. Let's see where this is happening!"

Ben manages the Zoom sessions with his clients.

"Right this moment, I'm teaching the subjects I've chosen and teaching in live classes," he continues. But in the cohort courses there was more of an open discussion "People were in the room to ask 'Hey, this is the equation I'm having trouble getting my head around.' We'd discuss the issue in real-time. People could watch. This is something we'll think about during the upcoming term. It's an excellent opportunity for students to become involved."

In conclusion, Ben believes it would be feasible to develop Discord forums for Q&A as another option. But, he says "I simply want to make sure that I'm prepared to tackle the problem in a manner that isn't overpowering me." It appears that Ben is well on his way to establishing the base of an ongoing and solid partnership with his staff. We believe that maintaining the connection throughout time is vital to the success of a participation in the community "Little activities - we'll work on building this as time goes by!" he smiles.

More details

Ben Collins is an educator and writer as well as a programmer. Ben Collins is the founder of The Collins School of Data. Ben develops online classes and blogs about tools of Google Workspace tools. My primary focus is on analysis of data, and automating procedures using Google Sheets and Apps Script.

Ben L Collins' website

He's a fan of creating simple, data-driven programs to the Google stack. It includes Google Sheets, Looker Studio, Google Apps Script, Forms, Docs, Gmail and many other applications. For more details, visit benlcollins.com.

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