In planning any calendar printing project, the obvious fact to concentrate to is that each calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For the standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar isn’t in the end consumer’s fingers earlier than January 1, 2014, they may 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 person’s hands near the start of college if it is going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you a great timeline for your entire challenge.
How are you getting your calendars into the top user’s palms? Are you giving them away? If so, then it ought to be relatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and decide by what date you’ll need to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you might be mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you just have to be sure to enable sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, including a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or an area mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it can most likely be cheaper and simpler for you. Just make sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot further time they will need and factor it in.
If, however, you intend to print a calendar and promote it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a little more complicated. How a lot time you want for gross sales will depend on your gross sales strategy. Are you selling at an area pageant or different event? If so, then that provides you a deadline, but needless to say you may be better off in the event you can sell at a number of occasions, in case attendance or sales at one event aren’t what you anticipate. Or possibly you might be having volunteers sell calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. In that case, it is best to enable a minimum of two weeks, and ideally up to four weeks, since volunteers all have their very own completely different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
If you happen to print a calendar that you plan to promote, you must be sure to develop and implement a strong advertising and marketing plan. Advertising does not have to add to the overall duration of the calendar challenge – you can and should begin advertising and marketing during the planning and production stages of the project. Nevertheless, for those who wait to start marketing till you will have the calendars in hand, then you’ll need to allow at the least a number of additional weeks, maybe extra, in your advertising message to succeed in the meant viewers and inspire them to buy.
The production phase of a calendar printing undertaking begins while you hand off all of the pictures, textual content, logos, promoting, and so on. 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 completed product. Ensure you discuss to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is normally about three weeks (generally sooner when you’ve got a selected deadline). If you happen to anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you will be proofing by committee, then you should in all probability allow somewhat additional time – maybe a month in total – for manufacturing.
