In planning any calendar printing project, the obvious fact to pay attention to is that each calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For the standard 2014 calendar, in case your calendar shouldn’t be ultimately consumer’s fingers earlier than January 1, 2014, they might already have discovered an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be in the person’s fingers near the beginning of school if it is going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you a superb timeline for the entire venture.
How are you getting your calendars into the top person’s fingers? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it needs to be relatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and decide by what date you have to to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you might be mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you just need to ensure you allow sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, including a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it will probably be cheaper and easier for you. Just be sure to discover out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot further time they may need and factor it in.
If, on the other hand, you plan to print a calendar and promote it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a bit more sophisticated. How much time you need for sales depends on your sales strategy. Are you promoting at a local competition or other occasion? If so, then that offers you a deadline, however remember the fact that you may be higher off if you happen to can promote at a number of occasions, in case attendance or sales at one event will not be what you count on. Or possibly you are having volunteers promote calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. If so, you must allow a minimum of two weeks, and preferably as much as four weeks, since volunteers all have their own different schedules, and a few will need reminders and encouragement.
In the event you print a calendar that you just plan to promote, you must make sure to develop and implement a solid advertising and marketing plan. Advertising and marketing does not have to add to the general period of the calendar undertaking – you may and will begin advertising during the planning and production levels of the venture. Nonetheless, should you wait to start out advertising and marketing till you have the calendars in hand, then you will have to permit a minimum of a number of further weeks, possibly extra, for your advertising message to achieve the intended audience and encourage them to purchase.
The production section of a calendar printing mission starts once you hand off all of the pictures, text, logos, promoting, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar art work for you to approve after which puts it on the press and delivers to you the completed product. Make sure you talk to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s often about three weeks (generally sooner you probably have a specific deadline). If you anticipate last-minute adjustments or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then you should probably allow a little additional time – maybe a month in total – for manufacturing.
