In planning any calendar printing challenge, the obvious reality 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 isn’t in the long run person’s hands before 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 needs to be in the consumer’s arms close to the start of college if it’s going to be helpful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you an excellent timeline for your complete undertaking.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip consumer’s arms? Are you giving them away? If that’s the case, then it should be relatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you’ll need to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you’re mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you simply have to make sure you permit enough time for inserting into envelopes, adding a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or think about having the printer or a local mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it can most likely be cheaper and simpler for you. Simply be sure to find out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot additional time they are going to need and issue it in.
If, alternatively, you propose to print a calendar and promote it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a little more sophisticated. How a lot time you need for sales will depend on your gross sales technique. Are you selling at a local competition or different occasion? If that’s the case, then that provides you a deadline, however understand that you may be better off if you can sell at multiple events, in case attendance or sales at one occasion will not be what you anticipate. Or maybe you are having volunteers sell calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. In that case, you should allow a minimum of two weeks, and ideally up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their very own completely different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
When you print a calendar that you simply plan to promote, it’s best to you should definitely develop and implement a stable advertising and marketing plan. Advertising and marketing does not have so as to add to the general length of the calendar venture – you can and may start advertising and marketing through the planning and production phases of the mission. Nonetheless, for those who wait to begin marketing till you have the calendars in hand, then you will need to permit at the very least just a few further weeks, perhaps extra, on your marketing message to achieve the intended audience and inspire them to purchase.
The production section of a calendar printing venture begins whenever you hand off all the pictures, textual content, logos, advertising, and so forth. 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 completed product. Be sure to discuss to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is often about three weeks (generally sooner in case you have a specific deadline). In case you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you may be proofing by committee, then it is best to probably permit somewhat further time – maybe a month in complete – for production.
