diff --git a/encoder.go b/encoder.go
index 6cf6181..86e20e6 100644
--- a/encoder.go
+++ b/encoder.go
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
-	"encoding/json"
 	"log"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
@@ -10,39 +9,10 @@ import (
 	"text/template"
 	"time"
 
-	"github.com/Masterminds/sprig"
 	"github.com/golang/protobuf/protoc-gen-go/descriptor"
 	"github.com/golang/protobuf/protoc-gen-go/plugin"
 )
 
-var ProtoHelpersFuncMap = template.FuncMap{
-	"string": func(i interface {
-		String() string
-	}) string {
-		return i.String()
-	},
-	"json": func(v interface{}) string {
-		a, _ := json.Marshal(v)
-		return string(a)
-	},
-	"prettyjson": func(v interface{}) string {
-		a, _ := json.MarshalIndent(v, "", "  ")
-		return string(a)
-	},
-	"first": func(a []string) string {
-		return a[0]
-	},
-	"last": func(a []string) string {
-		return a[len(a)-1]
-	},
-}
-
-func init() {
-	for k, v := range sprig.TxtFuncMap() {
-		ProtoHelpersFuncMap[k] = v
-	}
-}
-
 type GenericTemplateBasedEncoder struct {
 	templateDir string
 	service     *descriptor.ServiceDescriptorProto
@@ -146,7 +116,6 @@ func (e *GenericTemplateBasedEncoder) buildContent(templateFilename string) (str
 	// initialize template engine
 	fullPath := filepath.Join(e.templateDir, templateFilename)
 	templateName := filepath.Base(fullPath)
-
 	tmpl, err := template.New(templateName).Funcs(ProtoHelpersFuncMap).ParseFiles(fullPath)
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", "", err
diff --git a/helpers.go b/helpers.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39cf9ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helpers.go
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"encoding/json"
+	"text/template"
+
+	"github.com/Masterminds/sprig"
+)
+
+var ProtoHelpersFuncMap = template.FuncMap{
+	"string": func(i interface {
+		String() string
+	}) string {
+		return i.String()
+	},
+	"json": func(v interface{}) string {
+		a, _ := json.Marshal(v)
+		return string(a)
+	},
+	"prettyjson": func(v interface{}) string {
+		a, _ := json.MarshalIndent(v, "", "  ")
+		return string(a)
+	},
+	"first": func(a []string) string {
+		return a[0]
+	},
+	"last": func(a []string) string {
+		return a[len(a)-1]
+	},
+}
+
+func init() {
+	for k, v := range sprig.TxtFuncMap() {
+		ProtoHelpersFuncMap[k] = v
+	}
+}