Navigating Changes And Challenges In My 5-Figure Google Sheets Business [Update]
This is a follow up story for Better Sheets. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 4 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
I’m Andrew Kamphey, I run BetterSheets Owner/Operator/Google Sheets Wizard. I’ve been running Better Sheets now for 4 years (as of April 2024). My main revenue stream continues to be selling lifetime memberships to a video and tool library for Google Sheets users.
I’ve settled into a nice $5k revenue per month across all my revenue streams. While I’m happy I’ve added revenue streams in the past year, I’ve also seen less growth than I had wished. But in the end it is what it is and I’m still very happy. Maybe even happier.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
The business has been growing horizontally. More diversified revenue streams. It hasn’t been growing vertically (more revenue per month). I’ve been taking a more purposeful approach to SEO. Rather than just “doing SEO” I’ve been doing more specific SEO changes to my site. Added tools that solve problems and are discovered by Google Search instead of writing blogs that I think people might find.
This came 3-6 months into my journey of SEO. I thought everything was great. Then another 6 months down the road I realized I made no revenue from Google Search. A grand total of $0, yes ZERO dollars. So a year into my SEO journey, I had stats going up and to the right but no more revenue than I had before. No new customers. In fact my MRR at that point was going down as I had just increased the price, and got zero conversions.
Iterating on that I lowered the price and ended up finding some great Search related terms that I could build tools for, instead of just writing articles.
All of these tools can be found at Google Sheet Tools
My top keywords used to be brand keywords around “better sheets” and a few odd problems in google sheets. Not the top searches are brand keywords plus tools that I built that actually convert into revenue regularly.
I’ve given up on SEO probably 4 to 5 times over the past two years. Every time I think I’m going to go do more social posts, or try to do PPC ads, or something else I never thought of before. But SEO keeps haunting me. Now it’s working for me.
Processing that many things are outside of my control means I can focus on exactly what is in my control.
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
TikTok was supposed to be one of those new channels. Since getting serious about Tiktok I’ve tried hiring experts at $1,500 a month, and tried editors at $20 a video. My best videos are the ones that I come up with for my audience that just help people. Being helpful is the best here.
But all in all I can’t say that TikTok has actually generated any meaningful revenue or traffic. I have about 4,000 followers on TikTok and a few videos have over 10k views. But for me, I'm solving uncommon problems where the top channels are solving very common problems. That’s my problem.
In the past year plus I’ve gone through periods of time of trying to hire people, trying to do everything myself, doing nothing.
It’s hard working alone. But I think it’s even harder working with a team. Many reading this will be the opposite to those two statements.
While I might not have the best quality, or ability to maximize, I do have the ownership of the complete means of production.
Meaning I can and do everything.but in reality: I can do anything, but I can’t do everything. Some things must fail. Some things must go without doing. But in the end, I have full autonomy. Which in some people’s eyes is the epitome of success.
I want my business to be both Autonomous and Asynchronous. Meaning I can work on anything with anyone (or noone) at any time. This came true, but my revenue wasn’t “Maximialized” or “Optimized.”
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
The biggest thing I have had to overcome is my own personal anxiety. There are so many things outside of our control. There are so many people we have to work with or deal with on a daily basis. But we only control ourselves.
This anxiety is a common theme in my work life and personal life. There are weeks I go without doing any meaningful work because I get so depressed from one personal phone call. But if I beat myself up over it, I never process and move on. It becomes a cycle going down.
Processing that many things are outside of my control means I can focus on exactly what is in my control.
For example when I hired a “tiktok expert” or a “Youtube Expert” and they failed to actually do anything better than me, but in reality did far worse since they are outside of my own frame of mind, I would try to beat myself up, blame myself for giving poor direction.
But it is the fault of the apparatus. The operation. Or rather no person’s fault. And in the end it’s a success because I know whole-heartedly that this person cannot do what I do. In fact they won’t. My personal business model is safe, so to speak. My creativity is deeply personal and my creations are deeply from within.
Which is a lot like golden handcuffs.
I can, and do, produce work that earns me money, but only I can.
Now in the 5th year of Better Sheets, I’m sure there is a way to propagate this. Distribute this better. Find those lines of production or distribution that go beyond my own day to day work. The way I did this early on is being on marketplaces. But even within my own production I think there is more that others can do, and should do. I’m still searching for and finding these day to day.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
A year ago I got to the exact goal I had set for myself. It wasn’t an MRR goal. It wasn’t a revenue goal. It was the mere fact that I wanted my business to be both Autonomous and Asynchronous. Meaning I could work on anything with anyone (or noone) at any time. This came true, but my revenue wasn’t “Maximialized” or “Optimized”
I noticed I could make more steady, reliable money, if I were to take off some of the autonomy and asynchronous skills by doing consulting. Consulting was the literally orthogonal opposite of being autonomous and asynch.
And so that’s the way I went in the past year. And I think there will be more of this in the next 3-5 years. It might seem backwards. Why build a business like this where I can work on anything, to end up going back to working for essentially hourly wages.
It’s just something I have to work through. Something I have processed.
Also, just like any goals. I found that my happiness and my life was not better or worse with my goals. The goals were just separate from happiness. I can be a happy guy, happy dad, happy husband, and reach goals or not reach my goals.
As long as I’m solving problems that tickle my brain. I’m happy. And if I’m happy, I’m going to show up more and more for those who need it.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
The one book that stuck out to me to help my state of mind has been reading “Psychology of Money” It took a bit to get into it, but I’m glad I read the whole book. In the end it was rather easy to pick up, read a chapter, then put it down again. Which is nice if I have small reading sessions throughout my week. But not nice if I want to sit down for a few hours and dive deep.
I’ve recently dove into Brandon Sanderson’s lecture series on YouTube about writing Science Fiction and Fantasy. It’s amazingly deep and broad at the same time. Yes it’s about storytelling, and it’s about writing, the craft of writing, the business of writing.
These are broad topics that cover many types of things you might do. But it’s deeply about Science Fiction and Fantasy.
It’s been helping me understand the craft I do, which is making YouTube videos, better. And it’s helping me understand how to do world building in storytelling, even if the world I build is in Google Sheets.
Lecture #1:
There’s 13 hour plus long lectures in this series.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
Enjoy the struggle, and it won’t be a struggle. I’ve started playing a new sport in the past year. It’s helped me become a beginner again, but also feel literal pain when practicing this sport. I started to enjoy the recovery period after intense sporting sessions and it ended up making me a better player and a better form. I’ve lost 15kg in 10 months. Looking to lose more this year, and next.
Yes the sport itself is fun and engaging, but I realized that enjoying the recovery made me want to play way more.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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