In planning any calendar printing project, the obvious fact to concentrate 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 shouldn’t be in the end user’s fingers before January 1, 2014, they may already have found an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be in the consumer’s fingers close to the beginning of school if it will be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you a very good timeline for the entire undertaking.
How are you getting your calendars into the top person’s fingers? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it ought to be relatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will want to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you’re mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you just must make sure you permit sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, adding a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or an area 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 a lot additional time they are going to need and issue it in.
If, however, you propose to print a calendar and promote it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a bit more difficult. How much time you want for gross sales depends upon your gross sales strategy. Are you selling at a neighborhood festival or different occasion? In that case, then that provides you a deadline, however keep in mind that you will be better off if you can promote at multiple events, in case attendance or gross sales at one occasion aren’t what you count on. Or possibly you are having volunteers promote calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If so, you must enable no less than two weeks, and ideally as much as 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their very own completely different schedules, and some will want reminders and encouragement.
If you happen to print a calendar that you just plan to sell, you must remember to develop and implement a stable marketing plan. Advertising does not have to add to the overall period of the calendar project – you possibly can and may begin marketing throughout the planning and manufacturing phases of the challenge. Nevertheless, should you wait to start advertising until you may have the calendars in hand, then you’ll need to allow at the least a couple of further weeks, perhaps more, in your marketing message to achieve the intended viewers and encourage them to buy.
The production section of a calendar printing mission starts if you hand off all of the pictures, 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. Ensure you discuss to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s normally about three weeks (generally sooner if you have a particular deadline). If you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you will be proofing by committee, then you should in all probability allow slightly further time – possibly a month in whole – for manufacturing.
