In planning any calendar printing undertaking, the most 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 is just not in the long run consumer’s fingers earlier than January 1, 2014, they could have already got found an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be within the person’s arms close to the beginning of school if it will be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you timeline for all the mission.
How are you getting your calendars into the end consumer’s hands? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it should be relatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and determine by what date you have to to have calendars in hand. Or perhaps you might be mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you just have to be sure to enable sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, adding a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or consider having the printer or an area mailhouse deal with mailing the calendars – it should probably be cheaper and simpler for you. Just make sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot further time they will want and factor it in.
If, alternatively, you plan to print a calendar and promote it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a little more difficult. How much time you want for gross sales depends upon your sales technique. Are you selling at an area competition or other event? In that case, then that gives you a deadline, however understand that you will be better off for those who can sell at multiple events, in case attendance or gross sales at one occasion usually are not what you anticipate. Or possibly you are having volunteers sell calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. In that case, you need to enable not less than two weeks, and preferably up to four weeks, since volunteers all have their own completely different schedules, and some will need reminders and encouragement.
In case you print a calendar that you simply plan to sell, it is best to be sure you develop and implement a stable advertising and marketing plan. Advertising doesn’t have so as to add to the general length of the calendar venture – you’ll be able to and should start marketing during the planning and production phases of the project. However, for those who wait to start out marketing till you’ve gotten the calendars in hand, then you will need to allow at least just a few additional weeks, perhaps more, for your marketing message to reach the intended audience and inspire them to purchase.
The manufacturing phase of a calendar printing mission begins once you hand off all of the pictures, textual content, logos, promoting, and so forth. 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. Be sure you speak to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s usually about three weeks (typically sooner when you’ve got a specific deadline). If you happen to anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you will be proofing by committee, then you must most likely allow slightly additional time – perhaps a month in total – for production.
