In planning any calendar printing project, the obvious fact to concentrate to is that each calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar is just not ultimately person’s fingers earlier than January 1, 2014, they could have already got discovered an alternate. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be within the person’s arms close to the start of college if it will 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 person’s fingers? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it ought to be relatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will have to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you are mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you just have to make sure you enable enough time for inserting into envelopes, including a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or an area mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it would in all probability be cheaper and easier for you. Simply be sure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how much extra time they may want and issue it in.
If, alternatively, you propose to print a calendar and sell it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a bit more difficult. How much time you want for sales depends upon your sales technique. Are you selling at a neighborhood pageant or different occasion? If so, then that provides you a deadline, however take into account that you will be higher off when you can sell at a number of events, in case attendance or sales at one event aren’t what you count on. Or maybe you are having volunteers promote calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. In that case, you need to permit not less than two weeks, and ideally up to four weeks, since volunteers all have their own different schedules, and some will need reminders and encouragement.
If you print a calendar that you simply plan to sell, you need to remember to develop and implement a solid advertising plan. Advertising doesn’t have to add to the general length of the calendar venture – you’ll be able to and will start advertising and marketing in the course of the planning and production levels of the venture. However, if you wait to begin advertising and marketing till you’ve gotten the calendars in hand, then you’ll need to permit at least just a few additional weeks, possibly extra, for your advertising message to reach the intended audience and motivate them to purchase.
The manufacturing phase of a calendar printing venture starts if you hand off the entire pictures, textual content, logos, promoting, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings so that you can approve after which places 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 normally about three weeks (generally sooner when you’ve got a specific deadline). When you anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you’ll be proofing by committee, then you must probably permit slightly further time – maybe a month in total – for production.
