In planning any calendar printing venture, the obvious truth to pay attention 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 just isn’t in the end user’s fingers earlier than January 1, 2014, they could already have found an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be within the consumer’s palms near the start of college if it is going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you a superb timeline for the whole project.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip consumer’s arms? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it must be relatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will have to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you might be mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you just have to be sure you allow sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, adding a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or consider having the printer or an area mailhouse deal with mailing the calendars – it’ll in all probability be cheaper and easier for you. Just be sure to find out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot additional time they will want and factor it in.
If, then again, you plan to print a calendar and sell it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a little more complicated. How a lot time you want for gross sales depends upon your gross sales strategy. Are you promoting at a neighborhood pageant or different occasion? In that case, then that provides you a deadline, but remember the fact that you will be better off when you can promote at a number of events, in case attendance or gross sales at one event are usually not what you anticipate. Or possibly you’re having volunteers sell calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. If that’s the case, it’s best to enable at least two weeks, and ideally up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their very own different schedules, and a few will need reminders and encouragement.
If you print a calendar that you plan to promote, it’s best to make sure to develop and implement a strong advertising plan. Advertising doesn’t have to add to the general duration of the calendar undertaking – you’ll be able to and will start advertising in the course of the planning and manufacturing stages of the undertaking. However, if you wait to start out marketing till you might have the calendars in hand, then you have to to allow no less than a few additional weeks, perhaps extra, to your marketing message to reach the supposed audience and encourage them to purchase.
The manufacturing phase of a calendar printing project starts if you hand off all the images, text, logos, advertising, and so on. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings for you to approve and then 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 long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is usually about three weeks (sometimes sooner when you’ve got a selected deadline). In case you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you may be proofing by committee, then you should probably allow a bit further time – possibly a month in total – for manufacturing.
