In planning any calendar printing project, the obvious fact to pay attention to is that each calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, in case your calendar just isn’t in the end user’s hands before January 1, 2014, they might have already got found an alternate. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be in the user’s fingers near the start of school if it’s going to be helpful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you an excellent timeline for your entire mission.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip person’s arms? Are you giving them away? If that’s the case, then it needs to be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will need to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you are mailing them out to your prospects or members; in that case you simply have to be sure you allow enough time for inserting into envelopes, adding a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or contemplate having the printer or an area mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’s going to in all probability be cheaper and simpler for you. Simply ensure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how much extra time they will need and issue it in.
If, however, 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 much time you want for sales relies on your gross sales technique. Are you promoting at a neighborhood competition or other event? If so, then that offers you a deadline, however needless to say you’ll be higher off should you can promote at a number of events, in case attendance or sales at one event are not what you count on. Or possibly you’re having volunteers sell calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If so, it is best to enable at the very least two weeks, and preferably as much as 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their own totally different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
If you print a calendar that you simply plan to sell, you should you’ll want to develop and implement a solid marketing plan. Advertising does not have to add to the overall duration of the calendar challenge – you may and will start marketing through the planning and production levels of the venture. Nonetheless, should you wait to start advertising and marketing until you could have the calendars in hand, then you will have to permit at the very least just a few extra weeks, maybe more, on your advertising and marketing message to succeed in the meant audience and motivate them to purchase.
The manufacturing part of a calendar printing mission begins if you hand off all the photos, textual content, logos, promoting, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings for you to approve after which places it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Be sure to talk to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is normally about three weeks (sometimes sooner when you’ve got a particular deadline). In case you anticipate last-minute adjustments or additions, or if you will be proofing by committee, then you must in all probability allow somewhat further time – possibly a month in total – for manufacturing.
