What a year!

What a year! Exhausted? I am. I’ve already had too much sparkling and it’s not even Christmas. I’m about to clock off for the annual holiday: three weeks at the beach, which is just long enough to give you the unnerving feeling – fleeting I should add – that maybe the holiday is never going to end.

It is not all about lying on the beach with a book. I spend a fair bit of time driving teenagers around looking for the best waves and shopping for hordes of boy-men who empty our fridge in a single sitting, scoffing down the Christmas ham and fruit cake as they swing past on the way home from the surf club.

Thank you, one and all, for a great year. SmartCompany is only four-years-old. But we have had tremendous growth this year. We started the year sending our daily newsletter to 16,000 recipients and ended the year with 33,000 entrepreneurs getting SmartCompany every day. And we now have 241,000 unique visitors that go to SmartCompany every month, an increase of about 76% on November last year, according to independent online analysis from Nielsen.

We also launched our sister site, StartupSmart which is also growing at double the rate we predicted. What all this personally means to me is that many thousands of entrepreneurs across Australia – and people thinking of starting businesses – are getting our news and advice every day.

Our readers are motivated to grow faster, tipped off on scoops, inspired by fellow entrepreneurs, success stories, encouraged to take on new staff and risk new ventures, and warned about what’s just around the corner. And they learn this from our wide community of experts and entrepreneurs who happily give their time, thoughts, ideas and advice.

The generosity and breadth of knowledge of our contributors and the huge community that we talk to every day makes me feel very humble and I thank you all!

Lastly, can I thank my wonderful people? As you know, leader of the SmartCompany gang is James Thomson, supported by gun reporter Patrick Stafford and our sub editor Emma Krieger. While Oliver Milman heads up StartupSmart with the help of journalist Michelle Hammond.

We have a wide range of great feature writers including Michael Lawrence, Emily Ross, Leon Gettler, Tom McKaskill, Nina Hendy, Peter Vitalie, Terry Hayes, Andrew Douglas, Robert Bryant, Shane Oliver, Tim Lawless and Marc Peskett.

Thank you to our fantastic contributors including Colin Benjamin, Sue Barrett, Dennis Roberts, Kevin Moore, Tim Harcourt, Eve Ash, Jason Gerhke, Michel Hogan, Marcia Griffin, Paul Wallbank, Brendan Lewis, Craig Reardon, Julia Bickerstaff, Michael Yardney, David Markus, Jonathan Byrnes, Lara Solomon, Kirsty Dunphy, Pollyanna Lenkic, Chris Thomas, Naomi Simson and Trent Leyshan.

And thanks to all the great people that make SmartCompany and StartupSmart such a roaring success!

Have a happy whatever, a great New Year and see you on January 4!