In planning any calendar printing venture, the obvious fact to concentrate 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 ultimately person’s arms earlier than January 1, 2014, they might already have found another. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be in the user’s palms close to the beginning of faculty if it’s going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you a great timeline for all the mission.
How are you getting your calendars into the end user’s fingers? 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 have to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you’re mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you just need to be sure to enable sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, including a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or think about having the printer or an area mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it would in all probability be cheaper and simpler 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, then again, you plan to print a calendar and promote it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a bit more difficult. How much time you want for sales is determined by your gross sales strategy. Are you selling at a local pageant or other event? If that’s the case, then that gives you a deadline, however take into account that you’ll be higher off if you happen to can promote at multiple events, in case attendance or sales at one occasion should not what you expect. Or perhaps you might be having volunteers promote calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. If that’s the case, you must allow not less than two weeks, and preferably as much as four weeks, since volunteers all have their own completely different schedules, and some will want reminders and encouragement.
In case you print a calendar that you plan to promote, it’s best to you’ll want to develop and implement a strong advertising and marketing plan. Marketing does not have to add to the overall duration of the calendar mission – you’ll be able to and should begin marketing throughout the planning and production phases of the mission. However, should you wait to start advertising till you have got the calendars in hand, then you have to to allow at the very least a couple of additional weeks, perhaps more, in your advertising message to reach the supposed audience and inspire them to buy.
The production section of a calendar printing challenge starts when you hand off all of the photographs, text, logos, advertising, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar art work for you to approve and then puts it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Ensure you speak to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is normally about three weeks (generally sooner when you’ve got a selected deadline). When you anticipate last-minute adjustments or additions, or if you will be proofing by committee, then it is best to in all probability allow somewhat further time – perhaps a month in whole – for manufacturing.