In planning any calendar printing project, the most obvious reality to concentrate 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 is not in the end person’s fingers before January 1, 2014, they could already have discovered an alternate. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be within the consumer’s arms close to the beginning of school if it’s going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you a superb timeline for all the undertaking.
How are you getting your calendars into the top consumer’s arms? Are you giving them away? If so, then it ought to be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and decide by what date you’ll need to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you are mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you simply must be sure you allow sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, adding a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’s going to probably be cheaper and easier for you. Simply be sure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how much extra time they will want and factor it in.
If, on the other hand, you plan to print a calendar and promote it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a bit more sophisticated. How much time you want for sales will depend on your sales technique. Are you promoting at an area competition or other occasion? If that’s the case, then that offers you a deadline, however take into account that you’ll 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 anticipate. Or possibly you’re having volunteers promote calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. In that case, it’s best to permit at the very least two weeks, and preferably up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their own completely different schedules, and some will want reminders and encouragement.
Should you print a calendar that you simply plan to promote, you should make sure to develop and implement a strong advertising and marketing plan. Advertising doesn’t have so as to add to the general duration of the calendar project – you can and should begin marketing during the planning and manufacturing levels of the challenge. Nonetheless, if you wait to start out advertising till you could have the calendars in hand, then you will have to allow no less than a number of extra weeks, possibly extra, in your advertising message to succeed in the meant viewers and inspire them to purchase.
The production phase of a calendar printing venture begins while you hand off all of the images, text, logos, advertising, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings so that you can approve and then places it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Make sure you speak to your printer early on to fins out how lengthy this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it’s usually about three weeks (sometimes sooner you probably have a specific deadline). If you anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then you need to in all probability permit just a little further time – possibly a month in total – for production.
