In planning any calendar printing undertaking, the obvious reality to concentrate to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For the standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar is just not in the long run consumer’s fingers before January 1, 2014, they could 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 user’s arms close to the beginning of faculty if it’s going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you a very good timeline for your complete project.
How are you getting your calendars into the top person’s palms? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it should be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you have to to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you’re mailing them out to your prospects or members; in that case you simply need to ensure you permit sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, including a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’s going to in all probability be cheaper and simpler for you. Just be sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how much extra time they are going to want and factor it in.
If, then again, you propose to print a calendar and promote it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a bit more difficult. How a lot time you need for gross sales is determined by your sales technique. Are you promoting at a neighborhood pageant or different event? In that case, then that provides you a deadline, however understand that you’ll be higher off if you can sell at multiple occasions, in case attendance or gross sales at one occasion usually are not what you count on. Or maybe you’re having volunteers sell calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. In that case, you need to allow at least two weeks, and ideally up to four weeks, since volunteers all have their very own completely different schedules, and some will need reminders and encouragement.
In case you print a calendar that you plan to promote, you need to make sure to develop and implement a strong advertising and marketing plan. Marketing does not have so as to add to the general duration of the calendar project – you possibly can and should begin marketing throughout the planning and production levels of the mission. However, for those who wait to begin advertising till you’ve the calendars in hand, then you have to to allow not less than a couple of additional weeks, perhaps more, for your advertising message to reach the supposed viewers and inspire them to purchase.
The manufacturing section of a calendar printing undertaking starts when you hand off all of the images, textual content, logos, promoting, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar artwork for you to approve after which puts it on the press and delivers to you the completed product. Be sure you speak to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is often about three weeks (generally sooner when you’ve got a particular deadline). For those who anticipate last-minute adjustments or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then you should probably permit a bit extra time – perhaps a month in whole – for production.
