In planning any calendar printing project, the obvious reality to concentrate to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar will not be in the end user’s hands before January 1, 2014, they may have already got discovered an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be within the user’s hands near the beginning of school if it’ll be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can give you a very good timeline for the complete project.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip consumer’s hands? Are you giving them away? If that’s the case, then it should be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and decide by what date you have to to have calendars in hand. Or perhaps you are mailing them out to your prospects or members; in that case you simply must ensure you enable sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, adding a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or contemplate having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it should in all probability be cheaper and simpler for you. Just be sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how much additional time they’ll need and factor it in.
If, then again, you propose to print a calendar and promote it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a little more difficult. How much time you need for gross sales relies on your sales technique. Are you selling at a neighborhood competition or different occasion? If that’s the case, then that provides you a deadline, but remember the fact that you’ll be higher off for those who can sell at multiple events, in case attendance or gross sales at one event aren’t what you anticipate. Or possibly you’re having volunteers sell calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. If so, you must permit no less than two weeks, and preferably as much as 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their very own completely different schedules, and some will want reminders and encouragement.
In case you print a calendar that you plan to promote, it is best to remember to develop and implement a stable advertising plan. Marketing does not have to add to the overall duration of the calendar project – you’ll be able to and should start advertising throughout the planning and production stages of the venture. However, should you wait to start marketing until you’ve the calendars in hand, then you will need to allow no less than a number of extra weeks, perhaps more, in your advertising and marketing message to achieve the intended audience and encourage them to buy.
The production part of a calendar printing project begins when you hand off the entire photographs, text, logos, promoting, and so on. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings so that you can approve and then places it on the press and delivers to you the completed product. Make sure you discuss to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is normally about three weeks (sometimes sooner when you’ve got a selected deadline). If you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then it is best to probably allow a little bit further time – possibly a month in complete – for production.
