In planning any calendar printing challenge, the most obvious truth 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 just isn’t ultimately person’s palms earlier than January 1, 2014, they might have already got discovered an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be within the person’s fingers near the beginning of college if it will be helpful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can provide you timeline for your entire mission.
How are you getting your calendars into the top user’s palms? Are you giving them away? In that case, then it should be comparatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and decide by what date you will want to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you’re mailing them out to your clients or members; in that case you just must be sure to permit enough time for inserting into envelopes, adding a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or contemplate having the printer or an area mailhouse handle mailing the calendars – it is going to probably be cheaper and easier for you. Just ensure you find out from the printer or mailhouse how a lot further time they will want and factor it in.
If, however, you plan to print a calendar and sell it, both as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making enterprise, then distribution is a little more difficult. How much time you need for gross sales depends on your sales strategy. Are you selling at a local festival or other event? If so, then that provides you a deadline, however remember the fact that you may be higher off if you happen to can sell at multiple occasions, in case attendance or sales at one occasion usually are not what you count on. Or possibly you’re having volunteers sell calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. If so, it’s best to allow no less than 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.
For those who print a calendar that you just plan to sell, you need to remember to develop and implement a strong advertising plan. Marketing does not have so as to add to the general length of the calendar project – you can and should begin advertising throughout the planning and production levels of the venture. Nevertheless, if you happen to wait to start out advertising till you’ve gotten the calendars in hand, then you will have to permit not less than a number of additional weeks, maybe extra, in your advertising message to achieve the meant audience and encourage them to buy.
The production phase of a calendar printing venture begins once you hand off all of the photos, textual content, logos, advertising, etc. 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 finished product. Be sure you discuss 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 if in case you have a specific deadline). If you happen to anticipate last-minute adjustments or additions, or if you may be proofing by committee, then it is best to most likely enable slightly additional time – maybe a month in total – for manufacturing.
