In planning any calendar printing challenge, the most obvious fact to pay attention to is that every 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 user’s fingers before January 1, 2014, they could already have discovered an alternate. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be in the person’s hands close to the start of school if it’s going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you an excellent timeline for your entire project.
How are you getting your calendars into the end consumer’s arms? Are you giving them away? If that’s the case, then it should be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will want to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you are mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you just must be sure you allow sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, including a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or think about having the printer or a local mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it should most likely be cheaper and easier for you. Simply make sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how much extra time they may want and factor it in.
If, on the other hand, you plan to print a calendar and sell it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a bit more complicated. How a lot time you want for sales depends upon your sales strategy. Are you promoting at a neighborhood competition or other event? If that’s the case, then that offers you a deadline, however needless to say you may be higher off if you can sell at multiple occasions, in case attendance or gross sales at one occasion will not be what you expect. Or maybe you’re having volunteers promote calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. In that case, it’s best to enable a minimum of two weeks, and preferably up to four weeks, since volunteers all have their very own different schedules, and some will want reminders and encouragement.
In case you print a calendar that you plan to sell, you must make sure to develop and implement a strong advertising plan. Advertising and marketing doesn’t have so as to add to the overall period of the calendar venture – you’ll be able to and may begin advertising and marketing in the course of the planning and production stages of the project. Nevertheless, if you happen to wait to begin advertising and marketing until you’ve gotten the calendars in hand, then you will need to permit at the very least just a few extra weeks, maybe more, in your advertising message to reach the intended audience and encourage them to purchase.
The manufacturing section of a calendar printing project starts while you hand off the entire photographs, textual content, logos, advertising, and many others. 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. Be sure you discuss to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s normally about three weeks (typically sooner when you have a particular deadline). In the event you anticipate last-minute adjustments or additions, or if you will be proofing by committee, then you must most likely enable a little extra time – perhaps a month in total – for manufacturing.
