In planning any calendar printing undertaking, the most 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, if your calendar isn’t ultimately user’s hands before January 1, 2014, they may have already got found an alternate. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be within the consumer’s palms close to the beginning of school if it’s going to be helpful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you a great timeline for all the undertaking.
How are you getting your calendars into the end consumer’s fingers? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it must be comparatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will have to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you might be mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you just have to be sure you allow sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, adding a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or consider having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it would probably be cheaper and simpler for you. Simply be sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot additional time they will want and issue it in.
If, on the other hand, you propose to print a calendar and promote it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a little more sophisticated. How a lot time you want for sales is dependent upon your sales technique. Are you promoting at a neighborhood pageant or other event? In that case, then that provides you a deadline, but remember the fact that you’ll be better off if you can sell at a number of events, in case attendance or sales at one event are not what you count on. Or maybe you’re having volunteers sell calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If so, you should permit not less than two weeks, and ideally up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their own different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
Should you print a calendar that you plan to promote, you should be sure to develop and implement a stable marketing plan. Marketing does not have so as to add to the general length of the calendar undertaking – you can and should begin marketing through the planning and manufacturing levels of the mission. Nonetheless, should you wait to begin advertising until you could have the calendars in hand, then you will want to allow at the very least a couple of further weeks, possibly more, to your advertising message to succeed in the supposed viewers and encourage them to buy.
The production section of a calendar printing project begins while you hand off the entire pictures, textual content, logos, advertising, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar art work for you to 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’s often about three weeks (typically sooner if in case you have a selected deadline). If you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you’ll be proofing by committee, then it’s best to probably allow somewhat additional time – possibly a month in complete – for production.
