Marie Schutt is the managing editor of Chicago Agent

Failure to plan is a plan to fail. A goal without a plan is just a wish. Success is yours for the taking.

There are plenty of platitudes we could deploy here to drive home the importance of planning in business, but instead, let’s focus on the actionable resources we’re offering our readers in this issue. Our cover story features agent and managing broker perspectives on the different aspects of the real estate agent business plan: why it is necessary, how agents can approach writing (and adhering) to one and how they learn what they need to know to analyze their markets and make accurate projections.

We also have an outline of what a winning real estate business plan looks like, the results of this issue’s survey and an online offer for our readers: a free, downloadable real estate business plan template. This is our first issue of 2017, and we’d like to help you start out the year on the right foot. Please email any comments or questions to marie@agentpublishing.com.