In planning any calendar printing undertaking, the obvious fact to pay attention to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, in case your calendar isn’t ultimately person’s hands before January 1, 2014, they may already have discovered an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be in the consumer’s fingers near the beginning of faculty if it’ll be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you timeline for all the project.
How are you getting your calendars into the top consumer’s fingers? Are you giving them away? If that’s the case, then it ought to be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will have to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you might be mailing them out to your prospects or members; in that case you simply need to be sure to allow enough time for inserting into envelopes, adding a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it will most likely be cheaper and easier for you. Just ensure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how much further time they will need and issue it in.
If, then again, you propose to print a calendar and sell 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 sales technique. Are you promoting at an area pageant or different event? In that case, then that offers you a deadline, however take into account that you may be better off should you can promote at a number of events, in case attendance or sales at one occasion should not what you count on. Or possibly you’re having volunteers promote calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If that’s the case, you should enable not less than two weeks, and ideally up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their own completely different schedules, and some will need reminders and encouragement.
For those who print a calendar that you just plan to promote, you must make sure you develop and implement a solid advertising plan. Marketing doesn’t have so as to add to the overall duration of the calendar undertaking – you possibly can and may begin advertising through the planning and manufacturing levels of the challenge. Nonetheless, when you wait to start advertising and marketing until you will have the calendars in hand, then you will have to permit not less than just a few further weeks, possibly more, to your advertising message to reach the supposed audience and motivate them to purchase.
The manufacturing phase of a calendar printing challenge begins whenever you hand off the entire pictures, textual content, logos, promoting, 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’s normally about three weeks (generally sooner in case you have a specific deadline). If you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you may be proofing by committee, then it is best to probably allow somewhat additional time – perhaps a month in whole – for production.
