In planning any calendar printing project, the most obvious truth to concentrate to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar isn’t in the end person’s palms earlier than January 1, 2014, they may have already got discovered an alternate. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be within the person’s arms near the beginning of school if it is going to be helpful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you an excellent timeline for the whole project.
How are you getting your calendars into the top consumer’s palms? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it must be relatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and decide by what date you will need to have calendars in hand. Or perhaps you’re mailing them out to your prospects or members; in that case you simply must ensure you permit enough time for inserting into envelopes, adding a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or consider having the printer or an area mailhouse deal with mailing the calendars – it will in all probability be cheaper and simpler for you. Just be sure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how much further time they will need and issue it in.
If, alternatively, you intend to print a calendar and promote it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a little more difficult. How much time you need for sales relies on your gross sales strategy. Are you promoting at a neighborhood competition or different event? In that case, then that provides you a deadline, but keep in mind that you’ll be higher off if you can promote at a number of events, in case attendance or gross sales at one occasion usually are not what you count on. Or possibly you’re having volunteers promote calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If that’s the case, you must allow at least two weeks, and preferably up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their very own totally different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
When you print a calendar that you just plan to sell, it is best to make sure to develop and implement a solid marketing plan. Marketing doesn’t have so as to add to the general period of the calendar venture – you’ll be able to and should begin advertising in the course of the planning and manufacturing phases of the mission. However, in the event you wait to start marketing until you have the calendars in hand, then you have to to allow at the least a couple of extra weeks, possibly more, to your marketing message to achieve the intended viewers and inspire them to purchase.
The manufacturing phase of a calendar printing project begins once you hand off all the images, text, logos, advertising, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar art work for you to approve after which places it on the press and delivers to you the completed product. Ensure you speak to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is normally about three weeks (generally sooner if in case you have a specific deadline). In the event you anticipate last-minute adjustments or additions, or if you’ll be proofing by committee, then you should in all probability enable a bit of extra time – possibly a month in complete – for manufacturing.
