In planning any calendar printing challenge, the obvious truth to pay attention to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar is just not in the end user’s arms earlier than January 1, 2014, they could already have discovered an alternate. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be within the user’s palms close to the start of school if it will be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you a good timeline for the entire mission.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip person’s palms? Are you giving them away? If so, then it needs to be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and decide by what date you will need to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you’re mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you simply have to be sure to allow sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, adding a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or an area mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’s going to probably be cheaper and easier for you. Simply be sure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot further time they are going to need and issue it in.
If, however, you intend to print a calendar and sell it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a bit more complicated. How a lot time you want for sales depends on your gross sales technique. Are you promoting at a neighborhood pageant or different event? If so, then that gives you a deadline, but understand that you will be better off if you happen to can promote at multiple events, in case attendance or gross sales at one occasion are usually not what you anticipate. Or maybe you might be having volunteers sell calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If that’s the case, you should permit not less than two weeks, and ideally up to four weeks, since volunteers all have their very own totally different schedules, and a few will need reminders and encouragement.
In the event you print a calendar that you plan to sell, you need to you should definitely develop and implement a strong marketing plan. Advertising and marketing doesn’t have to add to the general length of the calendar project – you can and may start advertising and marketing through the planning and manufacturing phases of the venture. Nonetheless, in the event you wait to start marketing until you have got the calendars in hand, then you’ll need to allow at the very least a number of extra weeks, maybe more, on your advertising message to achieve the intended audience and encourage them to buy.
The production part of a calendar printing undertaking begins once you hand off all the photos, text, logos, promoting, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar artwork for you to approve after which places it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Be sure to 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 in case you have a particular deadline). If you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you may be proofing by committee, then you need to probably permit a little extra time – possibly a month in total – for production.
