In planning any calendar printing undertaking, the obvious truth to concentrate to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, in case your calendar shouldn’t be in the long run user’s hands before January 1, 2014, they might already have found another. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be in the user’s fingers near the beginning of faculty if it is going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you a very good timeline for the complete challenge.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip user’s arms? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it should be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will need to have calendars in hand. Or perhaps you might be mailing them out to your prospects or members; in that case you simply have to be sure to allow enough time for inserting into envelopes, adding a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or think about having the printer or an area mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’ll most likely be cheaper and easier for you. Just be sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot additional time they’ll want and factor it in.
If, on the other hand, you propose to print a calendar and sell it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a little more difficult. How a lot time you need for sales will depend on your gross sales technique. Are you selling at a local pageant or different event? In that case, then that provides you a deadline, however needless to say you may be better off should you can promote at multiple events, in case attendance or sales at one occasion should not what you expect. Or possibly you are having volunteers sell calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If that’s the case, you should allow not less than two weeks, and ideally as much as four weeks, since volunteers all have their very own different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
If you print a calendar that you just plan to sell, it’s best to you should definitely develop and implement a stable marketing plan. Advertising and marketing doesn’t have so as to add to the overall duration of the calendar venture – you possibly can and will start advertising in the course of the planning and manufacturing levels of the challenge. However, in case you wait to begin advertising until you will have the calendars in hand, then you will need to allow a minimum of a couple of extra weeks, maybe extra, for your advertising message to achieve the supposed viewers and encourage them to buy.
The manufacturing phase of a calendar printing undertaking begins while you hand off all the photos, text, logos, advertising, and many others. 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. Make sure you discuss to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is usually about three weeks (generally sooner if you have a specific deadline). For those who anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then you should in all probability permit a little additional time – maybe a month in complete – for production.
