In planning any calendar printing challenge, the most obvious truth to pay attention to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For the standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar is just not in the end user’s fingers earlier than January 1, 2014, they may have already got discovered another. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be within the consumer’s hands close to the beginning of school if it is going to be helpful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can give you an excellent timeline for the entire challenge.
How are you getting your calendars into the top user’s palms? Are you giving them away? If so, then it must be relatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and decide by what date you will want to have calendars in hand. Or perhaps you’re mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you just must be sure you allow enough time for inserting into envelopes, adding a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or think about having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse deal with mailing the calendars – it will in all probability be cheaper and simpler for you. Simply make sure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how much extra time they may need and factor it in.
If, on the other hand, 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 sales is dependent upon your sales strategy. Are you promoting at a neighborhood competition or different event? In that case, then that gives you a deadline, however understand that you may be better off in case you can promote at a number of occasions, in case attendance or gross sales at one occasion are not what you anticipate. Or maybe you’re having volunteers promote calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. In that case, you need to permit a minimum of two weeks, and preferably as much as 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their own completely different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
When you print a calendar that you simply plan to promote, you must be sure you develop and implement a solid advertising plan. Marketing doesn’t have so as to add to the general length of the calendar challenge – you possibly can and may start advertising during the planning and manufacturing stages of the venture. However, should you wait to start advertising and marketing till you’ve the calendars in hand, then you will want to permit at the very least a couple of additional weeks, maybe extra, in your advertising message to reach the supposed audience and inspire them to buy.
The production phase of a calendar printing project begins whenever you hand off all the photographs, textual content, logos, promoting, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings for you to approve after which puts 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 (typically sooner when you have a specific deadline). Should you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you will be proofing by committee, then it’s best to in all probability permit a bit further time – possibly a month in complete – for manufacturing.
