In planning any calendar printing challenge, the obvious reality to pay attention to is that each calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, in case your calendar just isn’t ultimately person’s palms earlier than January 1, 2014, they may have already got discovered an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be in the user’s arms near the start of school if it’ll be helpful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you timeline for the entire project.
How are you getting your calendars into the top consumer’s hands? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it ought to be relatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and decide by what date you will want to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you are mailing them out to your prospects or members; in that case you just must be sure you enable enough time for inserting into envelopes, including a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or an area mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’s going to probably be cheaper and simpler for you. Just be sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how much further time they will want and issue it in.
If, then again, you intend to print a calendar and sell it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a bit more sophisticated. How much time you need for gross sales depends on your sales technique. Are you promoting at a neighborhood competition or different event? If that’s the case, then that offers you a deadline, however take into account that you may be higher off if you happen to can promote at a number of occasions, in case attendance or gross sales at one event should not what you expect. Or maybe you’re having volunteers sell calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If that’s the case, you must allow at the very least two weeks, and ideally as much as four weeks, since volunteers all have their very own completely different schedules, and a few will need reminders and encouragement.
Should you print a calendar that you plan to promote, it is best to make sure to develop and implement a stable advertising plan. Advertising doesn’t have so as to add to the general length of the calendar undertaking – you possibly can and may begin marketing through the planning and manufacturing phases of the undertaking. However, should you wait to start advertising until you might have the calendars in hand, then you’ll need to permit at least a couple of further weeks, maybe more, on your advertising and marketing message to achieve the meant audience and encourage them to buy.
The manufacturing part of a calendar printing undertaking begins once you hand off the entire photographs, text, logos, promoting, and so on. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar art work so that you can approve and then places it on the press and delivers to you the completed product. Be sure to discuss to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is usually about three weeks (generally sooner you probably have a selected deadline). In the event you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you will be proofing by committee, then you should most likely enable slightly further time – possibly a month in whole – for manufacturing.
