In planning any calendar printing venture, the most 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, in case your calendar is not in the end user’s fingers before January 1, 2014, they may already have found an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be within the user’s arms close to the start of college if it’ll be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you a great timeline for all the challenge.
How are you getting your calendars into the end user’s fingers? Are you giving them away? If so, then it ought to be relatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will need to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you might be mailing them out to your prospects or members; in that case you simply must be sure to allow sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, including a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or consider having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse deal with mailing the calendars – it should most likely be cheaper and easier for you. Just make sure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot extra time they will want and factor it in.
If, however, you plan to print a calendar and promote it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a bit more complicated. How a lot time you want for sales depends upon your gross sales technique. Are you selling at a neighborhood pageant or different event? If so, then that gives you a deadline, but needless to say you will be higher off if you happen to can promote at multiple events, in case attendance or gross sales at one occasion are not what you count on. Or maybe you might be having volunteers sell calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. If that’s the case, it is best to allow at least two weeks, and preferably up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their own different schedules, and some will need reminders and encouragement.
Should you print a calendar that you just plan to promote, you must remember to develop and implement a stable advertising and marketing plan. Advertising does not have so as to add to the general duration of the calendar project – you may and should start advertising throughout the planning and production stages of the venture. Nevertheless, in case you wait to start out marketing till you have the calendars in hand, then you’ll need to allow at least a couple of extra weeks, perhaps extra, in your advertising and marketing message to achieve the supposed viewers and encourage them to buy.
The production phase of a calendar printing mission begins once you hand off all the images, textual content, logos, advertising, and so on. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar artwork for you to approve and then puts it on the press and delivers to you the completed product. Ensure you talk to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is often about three weeks (typically sooner if you have a selected deadline). If you happen to anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then it is best to probably enable somewhat extra time – maybe a month in whole – for manufacturing.
