In planning any calendar printing undertaking, the obvious fact to concentrate to is that each calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For the standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar just isn’t ultimately user’s fingers before January 1, 2014, they may already have discovered an alternate. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be in the user’s arms near the start of school if it’ll be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you a superb timeline for your complete undertaking.
How are you getting your calendars into the end consumer’s arms? 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 possibly you are mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you simply have to make sure you allow enough time for inserting into envelopes, adding a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or think about having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse deal with mailing the calendars – it should probably be cheaper and easier for you. Just be sure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot additional time they will need and issue it in.
If, alternatively, you propose 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 sales technique. Are you promoting at an area competition or other event? If so, then that provides you a deadline, however remember that you may be better off for those who can sell at a number of occasions, in case attendance or gross sales at one occasion aren’t 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, it is best to allow no less than two weeks, and ideally up to four weeks, since volunteers all have their very own totally different schedules, and some will want reminders and encouragement.
If you print a calendar that you plan to promote, it is best to you should definitely develop and implement a strong advertising and marketing plan. Advertising and marketing doesn’t have to add to the overall duration of the calendar mission – you can and may start advertising through the planning and manufacturing stages of the undertaking. Nevertheless, for those who wait to start advertising until you may have the calendars in hand, then you will have to permit at least a few extra weeks, maybe more, on your marketing message to reach the supposed audience and inspire them to buy.
The production section of a calendar printing undertaking begins while you hand off all of the pictures, textual content, logos, promoting, and so on. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings so that you can approve after which puts it on the press and delivers to you the completed product. Make sure you discuss to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is often about three weeks (sometimes sooner in case you have a selected deadline). In case you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you may be proofing by committee, then you should most likely permit just a little extra time – maybe a month in whole – for production.
