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 will not be in the long run person’s arms earlier than January 1, 2014, they could have already got found an alternate. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be in the person’s fingers near the beginning of school if it’s going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you an excellent timeline for all the mission.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip consumer’s arms? Are you giving them away? If so, then it should be comparatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and decide by what date you will need to have calendars in hand. Or perhaps you are mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you simply must be sure you permit 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’ll most likely be cheaper and simpler for you. Simply ensure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how much extra time they may need and issue it in.
If, however, you intend to print a calendar and promote it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a bit more complicated. How much time you want for sales will depend on your sales technique. Are you promoting at a local pageant or different event? In that case, then that gives you a deadline, however remember that you will be better off for those who can promote at a number of occasions, in case attendance or sales at one event are usually not what you anticipate. Or perhaps you’re having volunteers promote calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If that’s the case, it is best to allow not less than two weeks, and preferably as much as four weeks, since volunteers all have their very own different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
If you happen to print a calendar that you just plan to sell, you must be sure to develop and implement a stable advertising and marketing plan. Advertising does not have so as to add to the general length of the calendar project – you’ll be able to and should start marketing during the planning and manufacturing stages of the project. Nevertheless, when you wait to start marketing till you have got the calendars in hand, then you will have to permit at the very least a couple of additional weeks, possibly extra, on your advertising message to succeed in the meant audience and inspire them to buy.
The production section of a calendar printing challenge begins once you hand off the entire photographs, textual content, logos, advertising, and so forth. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar art work so that you can approve after which places it on the press and delivers to you the completed 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 (sometimes sooner if you have a specific deadline). If you happen to anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you’ll be proofing by committee, then you should in all probability allow a little bit extra time – perhaps a month in whole – for manufacturing.
