This is a follow-up to a video on Excel-based side hustles, particularly addressing a deeper question: How can you earn more with your Excel skills? Most people think the answer lies in offering a service (like freelance spreadsheet help) or a product (like a template or add-in). But there’s a third, often overlooked route—delivering transformation.
And that’s where the real opportunity lies.
From Horses to Horsepower
Many organizations are stuck in outdated paradigms—like driving a modern BMW using horses. It’s inefficient and unsustainable, but nobody questions it because it’s “how things have always been done.”
In Excel terms, this often looks like fragile spreadsheet models riddled with external links, bottlenecks, and risky dependencies. The default approach is to simply maintain the system rather than question or redesign it.
But what if someone comes along, ditches the horses, starts the engine, and shows everyone how fast and smooth the ride can be?
The WSP Case Study: A Temp Gig Turned Game-Changer
I was offered a temp job at WSP, an engineering consultancy in the UK. The job paid just £200 a day and was advertised as a simple four-week Excel task: update the company’s budgeting model.
At the time, I had just returned from Sri Lanka after a seven-month medical hiatus. Despite my standard rate being over £500/day, I took the assignment to ease back into a work routine.
But once I reviewed the model, I realized they weren’t just driving the “horse-drawn BMW.” They were headed for a spreadsheet catastrophe.
The Broken System
The budgeting model consisted of 400 operating units consolidated via external links across multiple spreadsheet levels. Management believed all that was needed was to plug in new data.
But there were two massive issues:
- The group structure had changed—and would change again mid-budget cycle.
- Crucial data hadn’t yet been submitted—including headcount, HR details, property costs, and more. These inputs were weeks away.
The entire budgeting cycle relied on a serial process with critical dependencies. One delay anywhere meant cascading failures.
In other words, the entire system was bound to collapse under its own weight.
Proposing a Radical Shift
I called a 5 PM boardroom meeting with the three key managers: the Finance Director, Tom Bauer (Commercial Director), and another stakeholder.
There were no slides. No whiteboard. Just my hands and my experience.
I laid out the reality: They were heading toward six months of work in a four-week timeline. The model, with 377 million external links, was not just inefficient—it was a liability.
My solution?
- Ditch external links.
- Centralize all budget data in a back-end database (starting with Microsoft Access, later moving to SQL Server).
- Automate spreadsheet generation and consolidation using Excel as a front-end.
- Parallelize data collection across departments, eliminating the bottleneck of serial processing.
This architecture meant:
- Departments could submit data independently.
- Spreadsheets could be generated automatically, structured by the current group hierarchy.
- Any changes to the group map could be made by editing a simple table—no relinking or restructuring formulas.
- The entire process could be tested with dummy data before the deadline.
The Reaction and the Result
Initially, the Finance Director resisted (“IT won’t let us use a database”). But Tom Bauer, intrigued, overruled him: “Go on.”
Once I explained the architecture, everyone was on board. Within a week, we had:
- Access-based prototypes running smoothly.
- Sample spreadsheets being generated from real data.
- All data submissions from HR, properties, and others uploading directly into structured tables.
A SQL Server was provided in 10 minutes after a conversation with the DBA—who was impressed with the concept.
The model worked flawlessly. We had enough time for a dry run and, thanks to the automation, the actual final run took just under 40 minutes.
They extended the deadline by a week—not out of fear, but because they trusted the new system.
From £200 to £600 a Day
Once the budgeting process was complete, it was clear that the transformation wasn’t just about a clever spreadsheet—it was about rethinking how spreadsheets were used.
They offered me a new contract at three times the original rate.
Why?
Because they realized that what I had delivered wasn’t a service or a product. It was a systemic transformation. Over the next three years, they spent over £540,000 on my work—essentially three spreadsheets with one tab each, but underpinned by a powerful architecture that revolutionized their budgeting, forecasting, and reporting.
Why This Matters
This isn’t just a story about me. It’s about the massive, global opportunity that lies in transforming how organizations use Excel.
If you have:
- The technical skill,
- The insight to see outdated systems for what they are,
- The communication skills to rally support,
- And the confidence to lead the change,
Then you can deliver transformation—not just services or products. And transformation commands a premium.
The Takeaway
Next time you’re offered a “simple spreadsheet job,” ask yourself:
- Is this a horse-drawn BMW situation?
- Can I show them how to start the engine?
- Can I deliver transformation instead of just filling in cells?
If the answer is yes, you’re not just another Excel expert. You’re a game-changer.
Abstract
The author, Hiran de Silva, recounts a temporary Excel assignment for an engineering firm with a flawed budgeting process. Instead of simply updating data in their complex, linked spreadsheets, he recognized a fundamental issue with their serial model-development process and reliance on external links to consolidate. The author proposed a transformative solution: centralizing budget data in a database like Access or SQL Server. This shift would allow for parallel development of the model, simplified consolidation through queries, and easier adaptation to organizational changes. By demonstrating this proof of concept, the speaker not only successfully completed the immediate task but also highlighted the potential for similar impactful transformations across the company, ultimately leading to an indefinite consulting engagement at a significantly higher pay rate. The narrative illustrates the value of identifying and implementing fundamental process improvements rather than just providing a temp service, which would only continue an existing inefficient framework.
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