In planning any calendar printing venture, the most obvious fact to concentrate to is that each calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For the standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar is not in the long run user’s palms before January 1, 2014, they may 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 palms close to the beginning of college if it’s going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can give you a great timeline for the entire venture.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip consumer’s palms? Are you giving them away? If so, then it ought to be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will want to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you’re mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you just must be sure you permit enough time for inserting into envelopes, including a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or a local mailhouse deal with mailing the calendars – it can probably be cheaper and simpler for you. Simply ensure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how much further time they are going to need and issue it in.
If, alternatively, 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 need for sales depends on your gross sales technique. Are you promoting at a local competition or different event? In that case, then that gives you a deadline, however take into account that you’ll be better off if you can promote at multiple occasions, in case attendance or gross sales at one event will not be what you expect. Or maybe you might be having volunteers promote calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. If that’s the case, it is best to allow at least two weeks, and preferably as much as 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their very own different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
For those who print a calendar that you plan to sell, it is best to make sure you develop and implement a strong advertising plan. Advertising and marketing doesn’t have to add to the general period of the calendar undertaking – you possibly can and may begin advertising in the course of the planning and production stages of the venture. Nevertheless, in case you wait to start out marketing until you’ve the calendars in hand, then you’ll need to permit no less than a couple of extra weeks, maybe more, for your advertising message to achieve the intended viewers and inspire them to buy.
The production phase of a calendar printing mission begins once you hand off all the photos, textual content, logos, advertising, etc. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar art work for you to approve after which puts it on the press and delivers to you the completed product. Be sure you speak to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s often about three weeks (sometimes sooner in case you have a specific deadline). Should you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then you should probably enable somewhat extra time – perhaps a month in total – for manufacturing.
