I’m Andrew Kamfy. Yes, I’m Better Sheets’ resident Google Sheets wizard. Better Sheets is a collection of tools, templates, and tutorials for Google Sheets users.
The company generated total revenues of $200,000 in its first three years. It’s very high revenue month to month but usually averages around $5k and can go up to around $10k for months like Black Friday and when I raise the LTD price.
I recently added a $9/month membership after testing some other price points. My LTD is now over $200, so I wanted a better entry point into the world of Better Sheets in addition to free videos on YouTube and TikTok and paid courses on Udemy.
What is your background and how did you get the idea?
After 5 years of managing Google Sheets into a huge internal database and toolkit at startup, I started out on my own. But what did you do?
I started a newsletter about the influencer marketing industry. Then I sold it. Then try to start building a SaaS. We had a technical co-founder but never reached a sustainable profitable position.
Isn’t everything about Google Spreadsheet like that? never. I never thought I would be a Google Sheets expert. I still don’t think I am. But people kept mentioning how completely unique Google Sheets planners were. I can do things in Google Sheets that people can only dream of.
In April 2020, during the height of the coronavirus lockdown, I vowed to myself that I would launch something, anything. Within 24 hours I gave myself a deadline. Launch something!
The first idea for Better Sheets was Dribbble for Google Sheets. I wanted to create a bunch of cool Google Sheets. But I couldn’t find anything.
And then I thought well, maybe I can show people how to make a cool Google Sheets, and eventually there will be enough to show. I created 8 video tutorials in one day. Put 4 for free, and 4 behind a paywall. This was the first version of BetterSheets.
Launched on Saturday. The first sale took place on Monday. The second sale took another two weeks.
Initially I set it up as a side project. The launch itself was a success. I started it back then as a one time payment and to this day there is still a lifetime payment option. The price is now a little higher than it was when I only had 8 videos.
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Describe the process of launching and growing a business.
Launching within the first 24 hours is rather boring. I just made videos. Set up a Gumroad sales page and Carrd website. That’s it. I look back and think “Did this really take me a whole day?”
I think so because I can create a new card site in about 10 minutes now. Yes I think the writing, anxiety, and general insecurity of not having done this very thing before can take up a lot of hours of the day.
These days, I open a Google Doc, start writing, and I launched a Google Doc as a site over the past week. SellingSpreadsheets.com was available and matches the name of the next course I’m doing. So I just redirected the scope to a Google Doc that explains the course. It functionally took about 3-4 minutes. But yes, it took weeks to write and the experience I needed took years.
Over the past year you have made a major change or adjustment. I started making more tools for Google Sheets users.
I originally created Better Sheets as a library of tutorials, which has some structure. It revolves around courses in which you have to watch the videos in a certain order, and topics in which you can watch the videos in no particular order.
I was creating widgets in Sheets that were not intended for Google Sheets users but for users of other things. Like Better Letters is a set of sheets to help run a coordinated newsletter. 100 Twitter Templates is a sheet to help you tweet.
But starting in 2022, I’ve been building add-ons for Google Sheets and web-based tools. So far, I’ve published 6 Google Sheets add-ons in the Google Workspace Marketplace. Programs like Sheet Styles and Tiny Sheets have done well with thousands of downloads. They are all free.
In mid-2022, I started building web-based tools to help do more things with spreadsheets, like creating a copy of a url and a PDF export url.
I have also created Formula Generators, you can just explain your problem and it will generate a formula. Some of them are specific to REGEXMATCH or conditional formatting, but it’s also a universal Google Sheets formula builder that you can ask anything from.
What has worked well to attract new customers?
The number one thing that attracts new customers is its listing on AppSumo Marketplace. Once I was listed there I had lots and lots of clients. 80% of my customers come through the AppSumo Marketplace. I generate 85% of my revenue through AppSumo Marketplace.
They have been very good to me and me. Help me build quality links for my business and distribute my work. I’ve featured a pack of 19 Google Sheets templates on AppSumo and it’s been downloaded over 40,000 times. They have shown better papers in blogs and videos.
In the market, they take about 30% of the revenue but generate almost 100% of the customers. Fair deal in my book.
Last year, I also moved my courses to course platforms like Udemy. It’s been so great to be able to reach a market of people who are actively looking to get better. Instead of spending money on PPC advertising, influencer marketing, paid marketing, or doing earned marketing on podcasts and newsletters, I’m essentially getting free traffic.
And sometimes you can claim that they pay me to find new clients for me. Because everyone who takes any of the Google Sheets courses on Udemy has a great opportunity to get a tool to do something better, learn more to get better, or buy a template to save time.
What are your plans for the future, and what are you currently working on?
At the moment I’m building my own course around selling spreadsheets. I’m trying to distill my own experience selling spreadsheets over the past three years. Incorporating other sellers’ perspectives and knowing which steps are more important for someone starting out selling for the first time versus someone looking to sell more.
I want to cover both paths and they could benefit from some basics. But both can benefit from simply thinking with an abundance mindset. There aren’t enough “spreadsheet vendors” these days.
Everyone should sell spreadsheets. You should sell spreadsheets.
It is very simple and can help people in a nice way.
For decades we’ve had to share Excel files as if they were a physical product. Now Google Sheets is highly collaborative and cloud-based online. For a $6 a month tool like Google Workspace, it’s a great value for everyone.
But one thing that remains the same is that everyone wants to store their cards.
Share your papers more. We learn from each other. Let’s make spreadsheets awesome! Not boring.
And I’m building more and more tools around the advice I provide. If I gave some advice often and made a tutorial on this topic, now I am thinking how to make the result possible with one click.
I’ve created add-ons like Button Styles that create cool button-like cells in sheets. And I built a coupon code generator that generates 1000’s of Gumroad coupons with one click. This is specifically for sellers to expose their products to more markets.
I’m looking for more and more opportunities to build tools these days
What tools do you use for your work?
Google Sheets – to do it all
Google Workspace – for organizing internally
Gmail – to email
Mode – for recording video clips
Gumroad – for selling gadgets
AppSumo Marketplace – For Sale LTD
Description – To edit video clips
Do you have any advice for other entrepreneurs who are just starting out or want to start?
Find an accountability group. It can be a single person or a rubber duck. It’s not about finding the people who are accountable to you or who hold you accountable, it’s about finding the right people who you want to be accountable to. It could be a writing group, a marketing group, or a hacking group.
Meet with them at least once a week and create something. Tell each other what you’re working on. Then go make it. Then show it to each other. That’s it.
I have that group. A group called Hackagu and I think the format is infinitely useful. It is useful if you are getting divorced. It is useful if you are doing marketing. This is useful if you are creating new features or business models.
Just meet once a week, say what you’re going to do, and do it. That’s it.
Being able to show someone else the work you’re doing does two things. It makes you do the thing but it also makes you very accustomed to public criticism. Showing something to someone can be a very daunting task for someone who is just starting out.
By getting into the habit of saying what you’re going to do and doing what you said you’re going to do weekly, it turns on the accountability pump.
You will have a better understanding of what you can say you will do and what you will actually do. You will also be freer to show more of yourself in the world.
If you want to do more tweeting, host a weekly speaker group at a local coffee shop.
If you write blog posts, host a weekly bloggers group.
9:30am Introduce yourself, what you’re working on, and what you’ll be doing today. It should take about 2 minutes per person.
Have lunch together and take a break.
4:00 PM Demos. Show what you made/wrote/worked on. In any way it is.
By doing this every week, you will get used to knowing what to do, and what you can do. Focus on this thing. Do this. And share it.
The whole process is important.
You can see that most of the tools I’ve created over the past year have been designed this way. I had a question or idea “Oh, I’d love to do that” and then I shared it at 9:30am and had it done by 4pm that day. I showed it. Then release it to Better Sheets members.
If you can’t find someone else, make it a weekly habit with yourself. If anyone feels lonely reading this. Do it one day and then email me what you’ve done. I’m happy to read any emails.
I think this can be done online and I would be happy to see it done remotely but there is definitely something magical about sitting down and doing the work with others in the same room.
