In planning any calendar printing venture, the obvious reality to pay attention 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 shouldn’t be ultimately person’s arms before January 1, 2014, they may have already got found an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be within the person’s palms near the beginning of college if it’ll be helpful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline may give you a very good timeline for the whole mission.
How are you getting your calendars into the tip consumer’s hands? Are you giving them away? If so, then it should be comparatively straight-forward to determine the distribution logistics and decide by what date you will need to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you’re mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you just have to make sure you allow sufficient time for inserting into envelopes, adding a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or take into account having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse deal with mailing the calendars – it’s going to in all probability be cheaper and easier for you. Simply be sure you discover out from the printer or mailhouse how much extra time they’ll want and issue it in.
If, then again, you intend to print a calendar and sell it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a bit more difficult. How a lot time you want for gross sales depends on your gross sales technique. Are you promoting at a local competition or other event? In that case, then that offers you a deadline, but keep in mind that you may be higher off in case you can promote at multiple occasions, in case attendance or sales at one occasion should not what you count on. Or perhaps you’re having volunteers promote calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. In that case, it is best to allow at least two weeks, and preferably up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their own totally different schedules, and some will need reminders and encouragement.
Should you print a calendar that you plan to sell, it is best to make sure to develop and implement a strong advertising plan. Advertising and marketing doesn’t have so as to add to the overall length of the calendar mission – you may and will begin marketing in the course of the planning and manufacturing stages of the project. Nevertheless, for those who wait to start marketing till you might have the calendars in hand, then you will have to allow at the least a number of further weeks, maybe extra, to your advertising and marketing message to achieve the supposed viewers and motivate them to buy.
The manufacturing part of a calendar printing challenge starts once you hand off the entire photos, text, logos, advertising, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings so that you can approve and then puts it on the press and delivers to you the completed product. Ensure you discuss to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is normally about three weeks (typically sooner you probably have a particular deadline). When you anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then it’s best to most likely enable a bit further time – perhaps a month in complete – for manufacturing.
