In planning any calendar printing undertaking, the obvious truth to concentrate to is that each calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For the standard 2014 calendar, in case your calendar is just not in the long run consumer’s hands before January 1, 2014, they may have already got found an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be within the user’s palms close to the beginning of school if it’ll be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can give you a very good timeline for your entire project.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip consumer’s hands? Are you giving them away? If so, then it must be comparatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and decide by what date you will have to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you might be mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you just have to make sure you allow enough time for inserting into envelopes, adding a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or contemplate having the printer or a local mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’s going to in all probability be cheaper and easier for you. Just be sure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how much additional time they’ll want and factor it in.
If, on the other hand, you intend to print a calendar and sell it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a bit more sophisticated. How a lot time you need for gross sales will depend on your gross sales technique. Are you selling at a neighborhood pageant or other event? If so, then that provides you a deadline, however keep in mind that you’ll be better off when you can promote at multiple events, in case attendance or sales at one occasion usually are not what you count on. Or perhaps you might be having volunteers promote calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If that’s the case, it is best to permit at least two weeks, and ideally as much as 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their very own different schedules, and some will need reminders and encouragement.
If you print a calendar that you plan to sell, it’s best to be sure to develop and implement a solid marketing plan. Marketing doesn’t have to add to the overall duration of the calendar venture – you may and should begin marketing throughout the planning and production stages of the mission. Nonetheless, in case you wait to start advertising and marketing until you will have the calendars in hand, then you have to to permit at the very least a few extra weeks, possibly extra, on your advertising and marketing message to achieve the intended viewers and encourage them to buy.
The production section of a calendar printing mission begins if you hand off all of the images, textual content, logos, promoting, and so on. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings for you to approve and then places it on the press and delivers to you the completed product. Be sure to discuss to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s often about three weeks (generally sooner in case you have a specific deadline). In case you anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you may be proofing by committee, then you need to probably enable a little extra time – possibly a month in complete – for manufacturing.
