In planning any calendar printing project, the most obvious truth to pay attention to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For the standard 2014 calendar, in case your calendar isn’t ultimately user’s fingers earlier than January 1, 2014, they could have already got found an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be within the consumer’s arms near the beginning of faculty if it will be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you a great timeline for the whole undertaking.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip person’s hands? Are you giving them away? If that’s the case, then it must be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you’ll need to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you’re mailing them out to your prospects or members; in that case you simply have to make sure you allow enough 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’s going to in all probability be cheaper and easier for you. Just ensure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot further time they are going to want and factor it in.
If, however, you plan to print a calendar and promote it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a bit more difficult. How a lot time you need for gross sales relies on your sales technique. Are you promoting at a local pageant or different occasion? If so, then that gives you a deadline, however remember that you may be higher off should you can promote at multiple occasions, in case attendance or sales at one occasion usually are not what you count on. Or perhaps you might be having volunteers sell calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. In that case, you should allow a minimum of 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.
In the event you print a calendar that you simply plan to sell, it is best to be sure to develop and implement a stable advertising plan. Advertising doesn’t have to add to the overall period of the calendar mission – you’ll be able to and will begin advertising and marketing in the course of the planning and manufacturing levels of the challenge. Nevertheless, if you happen to wait to begin marketing till you will have the calendars in hand, then you will need to permit at the very least a number of additional weeks, maybe more, for your advertising message to succeed in the intended audience and motivate them to purchase.
The production section of a calendar printing project starts once you hand off the entire images, text, logos, advertising, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings for you to approve and then puts it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Make sure you speak to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is often about three weeks (typically sooner in case you have a particular deadline). If you happen to anticipate last-minute adjustments or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then it is best to most likely enable a little extra time – maybe a month in complete – for production.
