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 a standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar will not be in the long run consumer’s arms earlier than January 1, 2014, they may already have discovered another. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be in the user’s hands near the start of faculty if it’ll be helpful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you timeline for all the venture.
How are you getting your calendars into the top user’s fingers? Are you giving them away? If so, then it ought to be relatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will need to have calendars in hand. Or possibly you’re mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you just must be sure to permit sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, adding a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or consider having the printer or a local mailhouse deal with mailing the calendars – it can in all probability be cheaper and simpler for you. Just be sure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot further time they are going to want and issue it in.
If, on the other hand, you intend to print a calendar and sell it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a bit more difficult. How a lot time you want for gross sales will depend on your sales strategy. Are you selling at a neighborhood pageant or different event? If that’s the case, then that gives you a deadline, however keep in mind that you will be better off in the event you can sell at a number of events, in case attendance or sales at one occasion aren’t what you count on. Or maybe you’re having volunteers promote calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If so, you must enable at least two weeks, and ideally up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their very own totally different schedules, and some will want reminders and encouragement.
If you print a calendar that you simply plan to sell, you must make sure to develop and implement a strong advertising and marketing plan. Marketing doesn’t have to add to the overall length of the calendar challenge – you can and will start marketing in the course of the planning and manufacturing stages of the undertaking. However, should you wait to begin advertising and marketing until you may have the calendars in hand, then you will have to permit at least a couple of additional weeks, maybe extra, in your marketing message to achieve the meant audience and motivate them to purchase.
The production part of a calendar printing project starts whenever you hand off the entire photos, text, logos, advertising, and so on. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings for you to approve after which places it on the press and delivers to you the completed product. Ensure you talk to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s often about three weeks (typically sooner when you have a selected deadline). In case you anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you’ll be proofing by committee, then you should most likely allow a little extra time – possibly a month in total – for manufacturing.