In planning any calendar printing mission, the most obvious truth to concentrate 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 user’s palms earlier than January 1, 2014, they could already have discovered another. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be in the person’s arms near the start of faculty if it is going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you a superb timeline for your complete mission.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip consumer’s arms? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it needs to be relatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will want to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you are mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you simply must be sure to allow sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, including a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or think about having the printer or an area mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’ll probably be cheaper and easier for you. Just make sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how much further time they will need and factor it in.
If, however, you plan to print a calendar and promote it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a bit more complicated. How much time you need for gross sales is determined by your gross sales strategy. Are you promoting at a local competition or different event? If so, then that offers you a deadline, however take into account that you may be higher off if you can promote at a number of events, in case attendance or sales at one occasion are not what you count on. Or perhaps you are having volunteers sell calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If that’s the case, you need to permit at the very least two weeks, and preferably up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their very own different schedules, and some will want reminders and encouragement.
If you print a calendar that you simply plan to promote, you should be sure you develop and implement a strong marketing plan. Marketing doesn’t have so as to add to the general length of the calendar venture – you may and may start advertising throughout the planning and production levels of the undertaking. However, if you wait to begin marketing until you have got the calendars in hand, then you have to to permit at least a few further weeks, possibly extra, for your advertising and marketing message to achieve the intended viewers and motivate them to buy.
The manufacturing phase of a calendar printing mission starts while you hand off all of the photographs, text, logos, advertising, 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. Make sure you talk to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s usually about three weeks (sometimes sooner when you’ve got a selected deadline). If you anticipate last-minute adjustments or additions, or if you may be proofing by committee, then it’s best to probably enable a bit of further time – possibly a month in whole – for manufacturing.
