Every year in January, I make New Year’s Resolutions and report them to you, my 1800 or so readers.

For anyone who’s serious about resolutions, making them is brave. First of all, we need to do some honest assessment of what’s working and not working in our lives and businesses. We need to consider where we want to head in the next year. Serious resolutions mean the year is going to be a challenge. Of course many of us make our resolutions and then promptly forget about them or give up on them. They are not real to us. But that’s not what I’m talking about here.

Making New Year’s Resolutions publicly holds me accountable! As some of you know, I report both my wins and my fails for the year in August and January. This transparency helps me get a lot of things done (though not everything I promise, as you will see below) and encourages me to continually assess and reassess my goals and progress. Here’s what happened in 2013:

My 2013 “Ressaylutions” and results were as follows:

1. Publish a Spanish-language version of How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile.
   Not done. After full consideration of the possibility, I decided it would be untenable to keep up with all the updates of content and images in a foreign-language version of the book as well as an English-language version! Project tabled indefinitely.
2. Publish a 50 Resume Tips book.
   DONE! In fact, I published two: How to Write a WINNING Resume and How to Write a STELLAR Executive Resume. They have been selling fairly well on Amazon – and many resume writers and clients have told me they are very helpful. I have one job seeker who updated her resume based on the book and promptly got a job!
3. Obtain my CMRW (Certified Master Resume Writer Certification, offered by CDI).
   DONE!
4. Increase the college essay / personal statement portion of my business to 25% of total business.
   I’m still at 10%. However, realizing that I was not going to make this goal, I have already put some things into place for 2014, and I will be focusing even more on building this aspect of my business.
5. Start a training for resume writers.
   This one got put on the back burner as I completed my e-books. Tabled for now but might come up again in 2014.

Ressaylutions for 2014:

1. Increase college essay / personal statement portion of my business to 25% of business (carried over from last year for a second go).
   Some steps already taken in the right direction: Speaking at the NRWA Conference in Denver about how to write a standout college essay. Getting interviews for a widely circulated newspaper talking about college essays (publication still pending). And advertising a new summer program for rising high school seniors to work on their writing skills and personal statement topics (Let me know if you have a student who would like to participate).
2. Roll out a new “responsive” (mobile-friendly) website.
   I have already hired web designers and they are hard at work!
3. Choose a CRM and project management system.
   The Essay Expert and my assistant Jeanne Goodman do entirely too much record-keeping by hand. I will be investigating CRM and project management systems this year to determine whether there is one that will make our lives easier over here at The Essay Expert!
4. Serve 250 clients.
   This year The Essay Expert worked with 200 clients to find new jobs, get into school, and achieve business results. I’m aiming to increase that number by 25%!
5. Generate 214 success stories.
   I haven’t given up on collecting 200+ client success stories. This year we reached 122 (up from 109 in 2012). I’m planning to increase client numbers next year (see #4) so there will be a better chance of increasing the number of success stories. Please share yours if you haven’t already!

What are your New Year’s Resolutions and how will you hold yourself accountable? Please share!