In planning any calendar printing venture, the obvious reality to concentrate to is that every 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 long run consumer’s arms before January 1, 2014, they may have already got found another. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be in the person’s fingers near the beginning of school if it’ll be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can give you timeline for the complete venture.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip person’s fingers? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it must be comparatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will want to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you might be mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you just must be sure to allow enough time for inserting into envelopes, including a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it’s going to in all probability be cheaper and simpler for you. Just be sure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how much further time they are going to need and factor 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 sophisticated. How a lot time you want for sales depends upon your sales strategy. Are you promoting at an area competition or different occasion? In that case, then that gives you a deadline, but keep in mind that you may be higher off if you can sell at a number of occasions, in case attendance or sales at one occasion will not be what you expect. Or perhaps you are having volunteers promote calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. In that case, you should permit at least two weeks, and preferably up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their own completely different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
If you print a calendar that you simply plan to promote, it is best to be sure you develop and implement a solid advertising and marketing plan. Marketing does not have so as to add to the general period of the calendar challenge – you’ll be able to and may begin marketing during the planning and manufacturing phases of the project. Nevertheless, if you wait to start out advertising until you could have the calendars in hand, then you will have to allow at least a couple of further weeks, possibly extra, to your advertising message to achieve the supposed audience and inspire them to buy.
The production section of a calendar printing project starts once you hand off all the photographs, textual content, logos, advertising, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings for you to approve and then places it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Ensure 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 (generally sooner in case you have a specific deadline). In the event you anticipate last-minute modifications or additions, or if you’ll be proofing by committee, then you must probably permit a little extra time – perhaps a month in whole – for production.
