In planning any calendar printing mission, the obvious reality to pay attention to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar is not in the long run person’s arms before January 1, 2014, they might have already got discovered an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be in the user’s hands near the start of college if it’ll be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you a great timeline for the whole challenge.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip consumer’s palms? Are you giving them away? If that’s the case, 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 maybe you might be mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you just need to ensure you permit enough time for inserting into envelopes, adding a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or consider having the printer or an area mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’ll probably be cheaper and simpler for you. Simply be sure to discover out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot further time they will want and issue it in.
If, then again, you plan to print a calendar and sell it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a little more sophisticated. How a lot time you want for sales depends upon your gross sales strategy. Are you selling at a neighborhood competition or other occasion? In that case, then that offers you a deadline, however take into account that you will be higher off if you happen to can sell at multiple events, in case attendance or sales at one occasion should not what you expect. Or possibly you are having volunteers promote calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. If so, it is best to allow not less than two weeks, and preferably up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their own different schedules, and a few will need reminders and encouragement.
Should you print a calendar that you simply plan to promote, you must be sure you develop and implement a solid marketing plan. Advertising doesn’t have so as to add to the general length of the calendar mission – you’ll be able to and will start advertising in the course of the planning and production levels of the mission. Nevertheless, in case you wait to begin advertising and marketing until you could have the calendars in hand, then you’ll need to allow at the very least a couple of additional weeks, maybe more, on your advertising message to reach the intended viewers and motivate them to purchase.
The manufacturing section of a calendar printing mission starts while you hand off all the photographs, text, logos, promoting, and so on. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar artwork so that you can approve after which places it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Ensure you discuss to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is usually about three weeks (typically sooner if you have a particular deadline). Should you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then you must in all probability permit a little bit extra time – possibly a month in complete – for manufacturing.
