diff --git a/bigtable/hello/main.py b/bigtable/hello/main.py
index 8bf927d9dc3..95c78e24fb5 100644
--- a/bigtable/hello/main.py
+++ b/bigtable/hello/main.py
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ def main(project_id, instance_id, table_id):
     print('Writing some greetings to the table.')
     greetings = ['Hello World!', 'Hello Cloud Bigtable!', 'Hello Python!']
     rows = []
-    column = 'greeting'
+    column = 'greeting'.encode()
     for i, value in enumerate(greetings):
         # Note: This example uses sequential numeric IDs for simplicity,
         # but this can result in poor performance in a production
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ def main(project_id, instance_id, table_id):
         # the best performance, see the documentation:
         #
         #     https://cloud.google.com/bigtable/docs/schema-design
-        row_key = 'greeting{}'.format(i)
+        row_key = 'greeting{}'.format(i).encode()
         row = table.row(row_key)
         row.set_cell(column_family_id,
                      column,
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ def main(project_id, instance_id, table_id):
 
     # [START getting_a_row]
     print('Getting a single greeting by row key.')
-    key = 'greeting0'
+    key = 'greeting0'.encode()
 
     # Only retrieve the most recent version of the cell.
     row_filter = row_filters.CellsColumnLimitFilter(1)
diff --git a/bigtable/tableadmin/tableadmin.py b/bigtable/tableadmin/tableadmin.py
index 6bad0bebae8..29551a7f390 100644
--- a/bigtable/tableadmin/tableadmin.py
+++ b/bigtable/tableadmin/tableadmin.py
@@ -37,8 +37,8 @@
 from google.cloud.bigtable import column_family
 
 
-def run_table_operations(project_id, instance_id, table_id):
-    ''' Create a Bigtable table and perform basic table operations
+def create_table(project_id, instance_id, table_id):
+    ''' Create a Bigtable table
 
     :type project_id: str
     :param project_id: Project id of the client.
@@ -64,6 +64,24 @@ def run_table_operations(project_id, instance_id, table_id):
         table.create()
         print('Created table {}.'.format(table_id))
 
+    return client, instance, table
+
+
+def run_table_operations(project_id, instance_id, table_id):
+    ''' Create a Bigtable table and perform basic operations on it
+
+    :type project_id: str
+    :param project_id: Project id of the client.
+
+    :type instance_id: str
+    :param instance_id: Instance of the client.
+
+    :type table_id: str
+    :param table_id: Table id to create table.
+    '''
+
+    client, instance, table = create_table(project_id, instance_id, table_id)
+
     # [START bigtable_list_tables]
     tables = instance.list_tables()
     print('Listing tables in current project...')
diff --git a/bigtable/tableadmin/tableadmin_test.py b/bigtable/tableadmin/tableadmin_test.py
index df384a18b80..c5852ed77f2 100755
--- a/bigtable/tableadmin/tableadmin_test.py
+++ b/bigtable/tableadmin/tableadmin_test.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 import os
 import random
 
+from tableadmin import create_table
 from tableadmin import delete_table
 from tableadmin import run_table_operations
 
@@ -53,6 +54,7 @@ def test_run_table_operations(capsys):
 def test_delete_table(capsys):
     table_name = TABLE_NAME_FORMAT.format(
         random.randrange(TABLE_NAME_RANGE))
+    create_table(PROJECT, BIGTABLE_CLUSTER, table_name)
 
     delete_table(PROJECT, BIGTABLE_CLUSTER, table_name)
     out, _ = capsys.readouterr()