In planning any calendar printing project, the obvious fact to concentrate to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, in case your calendar is not in the end consumer’s hands earlier than January 1, 2014, they could have already got found an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be in the user’s hands close to the start of college if it will be helpful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can give you a great timeline for all the undertaking.
How are you getting your calendars into the top consumer’s fingers? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it should be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will want to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you’re mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you just must be sure to permit sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, including a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or a local mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it is going to most likely be cheaper and simpler for you. Just be sure to find out from the printer or mailhouse how much further time they will 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 bit more complicated. How much time you need for gross sales depends on your gross sales technique. Are you promoting at an area pageant or different event? In that case, then that gives you a deadline, however needless to say you may be higher off if you can promote at multiple events, in case attendance or gross sales at one occasion are usually not what you anticipate. Or possibly you are having volunteers promote calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If that’s the case, you must enable a minimum of two weeks, and preferably up to four weeks, since volunteers all have their very own different schedules, and a few will need reminders and encouragement.
In the event you print a calendar that you just plan to sell, it is best to be sure to develop and implement a stable advertising plan. Marketing does not have to add to the overall period of the calendar undertaking – you may and should begin marketing in the course of the planning and manufacturing levels of the mission. Nevertheless, for those who wait to begin advertising until you have got the calendars in hand, then you’ll need to allow at least a few additional weeks, maybe extra, in your advertising and marketing message to reach the intended viewers and encourage them to buy.
The manufacturing phase of a calendar printing mission starts once you hand off all of the photos, text, logos, advertising, and so forth. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar artwork for you to approve after which puts it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Be sure you speak to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is normally about three weeks (generally sooner if you have a specific deadline). In case you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then you should most likely enable a bit further time – perhaps a month in whole – for manufacturing.
