In planning any calendar printing challenge, the obvious reality to pay attention 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 not in the end person’s fingers before January 1, 2014, they might have already got found an alternate. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be in the person’s hands near the beginning of school if it will be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can give you a very good timeline for your entire undertaking.
How are you getting your calendars into the end person’s fingers? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it needs to be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and decide by what date you have to to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you’re mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you simply need to ensure you enable enough time for inserting into envelopes, including a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it is going to in all probability be cheaper and easier for you. Simply ensure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot additional 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 venture, then distribution is a little more difficult. How much time you want for gross sales depends upon your gross sales strategy. Are you selling at an area competition or different event? In that case, then that gives you a deadline, however understand that you will be better off in the event you can sell at multiple occasions, in case attendance or sales at one event usually are not what you anticipate. Or possibly you’re having volunteers promote calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. If so, it is best to enable at least two weeks, and ideally up to four weeks, since volunteers all have their very own different schedules, and a few will need reminders and encouragement.
Should you print a calendar that you plan to promote, it’s best to be sure you develop and implement a stable advertising and marketing plan. Marketing doesn’t have to add to the overall length of the calendar undertaking – you may and should start marketing in the course of the planning and manufacturing phases of the mission. Nonetheless, when you wait to begin marketing until you’ve gotten the calendars in hand, then you will have to permit a minimum of just a few additional weeks, perhaps extra, in your marketing message to reach the meant audience and inspire them to purchase.
The manufacturing phase of a calendar printing undertaking begins once you hand off the entire photos, text, logos, promoting, and so on. 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. Be sure you speak to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is usually about three weeks (generally sooner if in case you have a selected deadline). In case you anticipate last-minute adjustments or additions, or if you will be proofing by committee, then you need to probably permit a little additional time – perhaps a month in whole – for manufacturing.
