In planning any calendar printing undertaking, the obvious reality to pay attention to is that each calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For the standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar is not in the end user’s fingers before January 1, 2014, they could already have found another. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be in the consumer’s arms near the start of school if it’s going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you a very good timeline for all the challenge.
How are you getting your calendars into the top user’s arms? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it must be relatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will have to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you are mailing them out to your prospects or members; in that case you simply must be sure to permit enough time for inserting into envelopes, including a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or contemplate having the printer or an area mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’ll probably be cheaper and simpler for you. Just make sure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot further time they will want and issue it in.
If, then again, you intend to print a calendar and promote it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a bit more complicated. How a lot time you need for sales depends on your gross sales technique. Are you selling at an area competition or different event? If that’s the case, then that provides you a deadline, but remember the fact that you’ll be higher off in case you can sell at multiple events, in case attendance or gross sales at one event usually are not what you expect. Or maybe you’re having volunteers promote calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. In that case, it is best to allow at the least two weeks, and preferably up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their own different schedules, and some will need reminders and encouragement.
For those who print a calendar that you plan to sell, it’s best to make sure to develop and implement a stable advertising and marketing plan. Marketing does not have to add to the overall period of the calendar venture – you can and should start advertising throughout the planning and manufacturing phases of the project. Nevertheless, should you wait to start out advertising and marketing until you will have the calendars in hand, then you will need to allow at the very least just a few extra weeks, perhaps more, on your advertising message to reach the intended viewers and inspire them to purchase.
The manufacturing phase of a calendar printing undertaking begins once you hand off all of the images, textual content, logos, advertising, etc. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings so that you can approve and then places it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Ensure you talk 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 you probably have a particular deadline). For those who anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you’ll be proofing by committee, then it is best to most likely allow a bit of additional time – possibly a month in whole – for manufacturing.
