Anyway, this past September when my youngest went to school full time, I sat down and wrote down what I wanted to accomplish before the end of the school year in June 2009 when school breaks for the summer. Some of the goals:

getting one piece into print (which I just sent off yesterday – a piece in a book compilation)
making a certain amount a month – just signed a contract last month that exceeds that goal
working on my novel – completely blowing that goal
revamping my professional writer’s site – haven’t done that yet, but June is a long way away

I think setting goals is important, and I like your idea of striving for an increase in income each year.

Although this past year my name was featured on the cover of a nationally used and well-known reference book that I helped to compile, I was published in my first glossy mag (albeit a local one), and wrote extensively for my local newspaper on a variety of projects, I didn’t write the book I had hoped to write or submit a manuscript to Writers of the Future as planned, I missed deadlines when I became ill, and instead of working exclusively with writing, I found myself trapped between a job to pay the bills, writing things I wasn’t particularly interested in and the inability to stop my health from interfering with it all.

My goals in 2009 are simple: write more, find ways to improve my schedule and organizational skills so that I can work around those times when I’m ill, always work with a contract in place and only accept gigs where payment is within a timely fashion, and complete at least 1 manuscript in an area that I enjoy. I could always say I want to earn more money…of course, that’s what I’d love to do and will strive to do, but I’m not setting any lofty goals–just take more tiny steps and build upon them.

Some of my 2009 goals include diversifying my income streams which includes finding ways of generating passive income, moving into a new writing niche (I’m learning more about), querying print publications more regularly (and hopefully break in) and marketing my writing services more regularly. I also want to find a way to clearly show prospects the value they’re getting when they hire me.:-)Good luck to everyone!

That being said, a job has asked me to submit a formal proposal/bid for a job (after a lengthy interview). I have never done that and cannot even find samples/templates to work from.

Any advice?

Those are great goals you have. One goal that I joined in with some of my writer buds at Absolutewrite.com is to get published in a glossy national mag in 2009. Another goal is to keep growing The Freshman Writer and promoting myself more to get my writing published. I’m keeping the list short because I also have a day job. That’s all from me now. I’m happy that I’ve done so much in 2008 that I want to keep the momentum going for next year. Thanks for letting me share!

Outside of that, there is my freelance writing. I’ve learned that not all freelance writing makes me happy. There are certain things I’m just not interested in. I was working as a full-time freelancer and I wasn’t enjoying it (I know, I know). So, I’ve decided to hang on to the gigs that I enjoy and go back to work full-time to work more towards my personal writing goals. I found I wasn’t doing that at all when I freelanced full-time. I have two specific websites that I write for that I plan to make more successful with better articles – including more research and more entertainment value, if such a thing is possible in finance.

Beyond writing, I have my education and healthy lifestyle goals that I’m just continuing from 2008. But, my biggest focus has always been my writing and since I don’t feel I gave it everything I had in 2008, I feel very enthusiastic about getting them done in 2009.

Best of luck to everyone in their goals!!!