In planning any calendar printing project, the obvious reality to concentrate to is that each calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For the standard 2014 calendar, in case your calendar is not in the long run user’s arms earlier than January 1, 2014, they might already have discovered another. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be within the user’s hands near the start of college if it is going to be helpful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you a very good timeline for the whole venture.
How are you getting your calendars into the end person’s fingers? Are you giving them away? If so, then it needs to be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will want to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you are mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you just have to make sure you enable enough time for inserting into envelopes, including a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or an area mailhouse deal with mailing the calendars – it would in all probability be cheaper and simpler for you. Just be sure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how much extra time they are going to need and issue it in.
If, alternatively, you propose 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 much time you need for gross sales is dependent upon your sales technique. Are you selling at a local competition or other occasion? In that case, then that gives you a deadline, but understand that you will be better off in the event you can promote at multiple occasions, in case attendance or gross sales at one occasion aren’t what you anticipate. Or maybe you’re having volunteers promote calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If so, you must allow no less than two weeks, and preferably as much as 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their very own completely different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
For those who print a calendar that you plan to sell, you must make sure you develop and implement a strong advertising plan. Advertising doesn’t have to add to the general length of the calendar venture – you possibly can and may begin advertising during the planning and manufacturing phases of the undertaking. However, in case you wait to start advertising till you will have the calendars in hand, then you will have to allow not less than a number of further weeks, possibly more, for your marketing message to achieve the supposed viewers and encourage them to purchase.
The production phase of a calendar printing challenge begins while you hand off all the photographs, text, logos, promoting, and so forth. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar art work 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’s often about three weeks (generally sooner you probably have a specific deadline). In the event you anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you may be proofing by committee, then it is best to in all probability allow a bit of further time – possibly a month in complete – for production.
