My Edmonds News is pleased to introduce Smart Marketing, a monthly column for small business owners and entrepreneurs, written by Karen Rosenzweig of Edmonds-based One Smart Cookie Marketing.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish”– Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I’ve always considered myself a planner until recently, when it became painfully obvious that “my plan” was to wait for new clients to fall out of the sky, or hope for loads of new income to be miraculously sent electronically right into my business account. Does that sound familiar to you?

As entrepreneurs and small business owners, we often resort to the easy road – wishing – rather than working on an actual plan that would deliver measurable results to our bottom line. It can take a great deal of time and effort to devise a creative, strategic plan to take our businesses on to bigger and better things. But for most of us, that is the price that must be paid for true results.

So you’d like to double your income or client base in 2011 – what date do you anticipate hitting that goal? Are you advertising online or in traditional media? What networking events will you attend or business groups will you join? What’s your specific plan to reach that goal? Ouch. Most of us have done absolutely nothing to set an action plan in motion, and we are simply treading water with pretty little “wishes” floating all around us.

Now that the excitement of the holidays and consistent stream of related business has passed, January will smack most local businesses right between the eyes. We need to be ready to counter with an actual plan to offer new products, feature different pricing or create intriguing promotions. A simple strategic plan, perhaps over a three- or six-month period, provides a business battle plan and helps relieve the panic and worry that often follows the holiday business drop-off.

At One Smart Cookie Marketing, I help my clients make their businesses more flexible and relevant in this changing economy – to make more money! We create specific plans to keep clients and sales rolling in, utilizing both online and offline marketing. Over the coming months, my plan is to share a variety of tactics and strategies in this column to help us all reach our business goals in 2011.

Remember – a goal without a plan is just a wish…let’s start planning today!