ASHWEM BEACH, India — I first started writing a blog called The Business of Fashion exactly seven years ago this week. Since then, each year on New Year's Day, I have written a post taking stock of the year gone by and reflecting on the year to come.

2013 was a landmark year for BoF. It's hard to believe, but at this time last year, we had no full-time employees. There was no BoF office.

Yes, we had managed to build a global following in more than 200 countries and territories around the world, but the scale of our community and day-to-day operations had far outgrown the infrastructure I had in place to support future development.

So, in February, we announced a seed round of funding from a group of investors from across the worlds of media, fashion and technology. And with their support, we have been able to pursue many of the opportunities, initiatives and goals that have been percolating at the back of my mind for years now, but for which I did not have the team or resources to realise.

There are now ten of us based in the BoF offices in London's Soho district and more than 30 freelance writers, columnists and contributing photographers around the world. (For those of you interested in joining the BoF team, we are hiring! We have always found that the best candidates come from our own community. Click here for current job openings)

Together, we have significantly scaled up our daily content offering, enabling us to delve deeper into the forces impacting the global fashion industry, while uncovering the top new talents, analysing key market trends, and leading the discussion on taboo topics, including retailers who fail to pay young designers in a timely manner, sustainability, body image and media ethics.

We also caught the industry by surprise at Paris Fashion Week in September with the unveiling of the BoF 500, a live visual index of the 500 people shaping the global fashion industry, accompanied by the launch of our first ever print edition, featuring members of the BoF 500, including Tom Ford, Adrian Joffe of Comme des Garçons, Angela Ahrendts of Burberry, Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor and Charlotte Tilbury, amongst others.

The response from all of you has been remarkable and we were honoured to receive many awards in 2013 from around the world, including the Walpole British Luxury Brand Online, TIME Magazine's 50 Best Websites, the Silver Award for best Fashion Website at the European Lovie Awards, and the Trade Journalist and Industry Accolade awards at the Fashion Monitor Journalism awards in the UK.

Throughout the year, I have also made it a point to connect, in person, with the BoF community at a wide range of fashion, luxury and technology events around the world, from Hong Kong to Sydney, Antalya to Antwerp, New York to Bombay.

As we look ahead to 2014, we are all excited about the future of BoF and hope that this year will be brighter than ever. As always, we aim to bring you the most inspiring stories, the sharpest analysis and the deepest insights into the players, platforms and business models that are reshaping the business of fashion.

Thanks as always for your support and Happy New Year!

Imran Amed
Founder and Editor-in-Chief