In planning any calendar printing project, the most obvious truth to concentrate 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 will not be in the end consumer’s fingers before January 1, 2014, they could have already got discovered an alternate. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be within the consumer’s fingers close to the start of college if it will be helpful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you a very good timeline for your complete undertaking.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip user’s hands? Are you giving them away? If so, then it must be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and decide by what date you have to to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you might be mailing them out to your prospects or members; in that case you just have to ensure you enable sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, adding a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or a local mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it would in all probability be cheaper and simpler for you. Just be sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot extra time they will want and issue it in.
If, on the other hand, you plan to print a calendar and sell it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a little more complicated. How much time you need for gross sales relies on your gross sales strategy. Are you selling at a neighborhood pageant or other event? If so, then that provides you a deadline, but keep in mind that you may be better off for those who can sell at multiple events, in case attendance or sales at one occasion usually are not what you count on. Or maybe you’re having volunteers sell calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. In that case, you need to allow a minimum of two weeks, and preferably up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their very own completely different schedules, and some will want reminders and encouragement.
For those who print a calendar that you simply plan to sell, you should be sure to develop and implement a solid advertising plan. Advertising doesn’t have so as to add to the overall length of the calendar challenge – you’ll be able to and will begin advertising throughout the planning and manufacturing stages of the undertaking. Nevertheless, in the event you wait to begin marketing until you might have the calendars in hand, then you will want to allow no less than a couple of extra weeks, possibly more, for your advertising and marketing message to succeed in the meant audience and inspire them to purchase.
The production section of a calendar printing undertaking starts once you hand off the entire photographs, text, logos, advertising, and so forth. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar artwork for you to approve and then places it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Be sure to speak to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s usually about three weeks (typically sooner if you have a particular deadline). In case you anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you’ll be proofing by committee, then it is best to in all probability allow a little bit additional time – maybe a month in total – for production.
