In planning any calendar printing challenge, the obvious fact to concentrate to is that each calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar will not be ultimately user’s palms earlier than January 1, 2014, they could already have discovered an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be in the person’s arms close to the beginning of school if it will be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can give you a very good timeline for the complete venture.
How are you getting your calendars into the top person’s hands? Are you giving them away? If that’s the case, then it ought to be comparatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will want to have calendars in hand. Or perhaps you might be mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you just have to make sure you permit 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 most likely be cheaper and easier for you. Simply be sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot additional time they are going to need and factor it in.
If, on the other hand, you plan to print a calendar and promote it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a little more sophisticated. How much time you need for sales is dependent upon your sales strategy. Are you selling at a local festival or different occasion? In that case, then that offers you a deadline, however take into account that you’ll be higher off in case you can sell at a number of events, in case attendance or sales at one event are usually not what you expect. Or maybe you are having volunteers promote calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. In that case, you should enable at least two weeks, and preferably as much as four weeks, since volunteers all have their very own different schedules, and some will want reminders and encouragement.
If you print a calendar that you simply plan to sell, it’s best to make sure to develop and implement a solid advertising plan. Advertising doesn’t have to add to the general period of the calendar challenge – you possibly can and will start marketing in the course of the planning and production stages of the undertaking. However, should you wait to begin advertising till you’ve gotten the calendars in hand, then you will want to permit no less than just a few additional weeks, maybe extra, to your marketing message to achieve the supposed audience and encourage them to purchase.
The manufacturing part of a calendar printing venture starts while you hand off all the pictures, text, logos, advertising, and so forth. 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. Be sure you speak to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s usually about three weeks (sometimes sooner if you have a selected deadline). If you happen to anticipate last-minute adjustments or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then it is best to probably allow a little additional time – possibly a month in whole – for manufacturing.
