In planning any calendar printing project, the obvious fact to concentrate to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For the standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar isn’t in the long run person’s hands earlier than January 1, 2014, they could already have discovered another. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be within the user’s palms close to the start of school if it’s going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you a very good timeline for the entire undertaking.
How are you getting your calendars into the top person’s hands? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it must be relatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will need to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you might be mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you simply must be sure you enable sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, adding a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or think about having the printer or a local mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’s going to probably be cheaper and easier for you. Just make sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how much extra time they are going to need and issue it in.
If, on the other hand, you intend to print a calendar and promote it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a bit more complicated. How much time you want for sales depends upon your gross sales technique. Are you promoting at a local competition or other occasion? If so, then that gives you a deadline, however keep in mind that you may be higher off should you can promote at multiple events, in case attendance or gross sales at one event will not be what you count on. Or maybe you are having volunteers sell calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If so, you must allow a minimum of two weeks, and ideally up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their very own different schedules, and some will need reminders and encouragement.
If you print a calendar that you just plan to sell, you must remember to develop and implement a solid marketing plan. Advertising doesn’t have to add to the overall period of the calendar project – you may and may begin advertising throughout the planning and production phases of the venture. However, in case you wait to start marketing until you might have the calendars in hand, then you’ll need to allow no less than a couple of extra weeks, maybe extra, to your marketing message to succeed in the meant audience and motivate them to purchase.
The production part of a calendar printing challenge starts when you hand off the entire photographs, textual content, logos, promoting, and so on. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings for you to approve after which places it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Be sure to discuss to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s usually about three weeks (generally sooner when you’ve got a selected deadline). If you anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then it’s best to in all probability allow a little bit additional time – maybe a month in whole – for manufacturing.
