Wow! A brand new year! If you own a studio, you are an entrepreneur, and I congratulate you on surviving one of the toughest economic environments that we will hopefully ever see in our lifetime. You did it.

As the CEO of Collages.net, I am an entrepreneur, too, and I truly understand what you've been through. Since we sink or swim together, I'd like to talk business with you—entrepreneur to entrepreneur—to see how we can make 2012 a better year for both of us. Despite a challenging 2011 for our entire industry, Collages.net was fortunate to deliver a record number of prints, albums and products. Still, our 2011 growth was not at the rates we enjoyed in years prior. If you are like me, you want more out of 2012.

To grow faster, we're going to stick to the six fundamentals listed below. At Collages.net, these core fundamentals have been central to our growth each year since we began in 1999. Because I have also watched the most successful studios master these same fundamentals, I wanted to share them with you. In return, I would like to know what other fundamentals drive your business, and what makes your studio grow. Most importantly, I want to understand how we can help you succeed faster. Collages.net will always be right here with you, and we want to see you exceed your goals—every year.

1. Change

You made it this far by adapting. You're not done. You're never done. Keep an open mind. Listen to those photographers whom you respect, and then evolve. Try new things. Don't stop. I started Collages.net by scanning paper proofs on my kitchen table twelve years ago. If we stopped changing after our first few successes, we'd be out of business by now.

2. Open New Markets

Yes, you can. Explore new markets that you presently don't serve and grow your sales. Since you don't have to serve all markets at once, don't "dabble." Study studios that are successful in the markets that you plan to penetrate, then put together a plan and attack that market with all your energy.

3. Widen Your Product line

Customers today are very discriminating. They seek what they desire, and they buy it once they find it. If you limit your product offerings to only those items that appeal to your tastes, then you are missing out on easy sales. I'm not suggesting that you overwhelm customers with a billion choices. However, today it's easy to offer a wide array of products while maintaining your studio's core focus. If you don't offer those products, someone else will—and they'll profit from your missed opportunity.

4. Use Your Sales Force

Yup, you have one, and there are least four people on it: your favorite florist, preferred wedding venue manager, your top DJ, and a close wedding planner. The most successful studios develop relationships with everyone who influences their potential customer. They give these colleagues information on their studio, ask them to share it, and do the same to help promote their partners' businesses. They nurture and develop these relationships and, as a result, they grow. It's a simple formula. There is no reason why there can't be dozens of people on your sales team. Work it.

5. Stay Connected to Your Customers

By far, the biggest drivers to growing business are your current customers. Stay in touch with them. Ask them for referrals. Give them something for recommending you to their friends. Make them your Facebook friends. Send them holiday cards and little reminders about your business each year. No amount of money will match the "return on investment" that comes from these precious connections.

6. Survey

Surveys are a great way to stay in touch with your customers. Do you really know what they are thinking? Do you understand how you can better serve them in the future? If not, then you need to start "surveying in wholesale" by polling your customer base at least twice per year. Today's online surveys are quick and easy to send. One good, free tool is Survey Monkey.

At Collages.net, our primary goal is to help you profit.

Today, my team and I are honored to serve more than 7,000 professional photographers across the nation. We not only help you share images online, we also offer you a comprehensive collection of prints, albums, coffee table books, cards, StoryBlocks™, free design software, custom design services, and canvas wraps. Last fall, we changed and opened new markets by launching a new online image-sharing platform that helps photographers sell any product right from their event sites. We've also greatly widened our product line. If you haven't visited recently, I'd encourage you to grab a cup of coffee and stop on by: www.collages.net/catalogs.

We have grown because we continue to survey you and thousands of other photographers to learn how we can help you succeed. To help you sell more, we even developed a cool discount tool last year to make it very easy for you to run discounts and promos on all of your event sites—simply because you asked for it!

Last month, we launched a non-branded, printed version of our catalog with the goal of making it easier for you to sell those vital, profit-generating products. This catalog has been very well received by our photographers; it's as popular as anything we've ever launched. We are now in the process of making a web/mobile version of our new catalog and we need your feedback to ensure that it will meet all of your needs. You can see a draft of this site here, but we really need to hear from you before we launch it. Please check it out and then take our brief survey so we can learn specifics about how our web/mobile catalog could better help your business.

Thanks for reading, and thanks again for your business. I hope to see you at an upcoming tradeshow. In the meantime, please tell me about your fundamentals—and how we can help you succeed—by clicking the link below.

Let's make it a great year!