In planning any calendar printing undertaking, the obvious truth to concentrate 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 is not in the long run user’s palms before January 1, 2014, they may have already got discovered another. For a non-standard calendar that deadline could also be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar must be within the consumer’s palms near the start of faculty if it’ll be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can give you an excellent timeline for the complete 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 relatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will need to have calendars in hand. Or perhaps you are mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you just have to be sure you allow enough time for inserting into envelopes, adding a canopy letter, addressing and mailing. Or contemplate having the printer or a neighborhood mailhouse deal with mailing the calendars – it is going to probably be cheaper and simpler for you. Just be sure to discover out from the printer or mailhouse how much additional time they may need and issue it in.
If, alternatively, 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 complicated. How a lot time you need for sales will depend on your gross sales technique. Are you selling at a neighborhood festival or other event? If so, then that gives you a deadline, but keep in mind that you will be better off in case you can promote at multiple occasions, in case attendance or gross sales at one occasion are not what you anticipate. Or maybe you’re having volunteers promote calendars to family and friends or door-to-door. In that case, it is best to permit no less than two weeks, and preferably up to 4 weeks, since volunteers all have their own different schedules, and a few will want reminders and encouragement.
For those who print a calendar that you plan to sell, it is best to you’ll want to develop and implement a strong advertising plan. Advertising doesn’t have so as to add to the overall period of the calendar project – you can and will start advertising during the planning and production phases of the undertaking. Nonetheless, should you wait to begin marketing till you could have the calendars in hand, then you will want to allow no less than a few additional weeks, possibly extra, to your advertising message to reach the supposed audience and inspire them to buy.
The manufacturing phase of a calendar printing project starts whenever you hand off all the images, text, logos, advertising, and many others. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar paintings so that you can approve after which places it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Make sure you discuss to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Yearbox, it is often about three weeks (typically sooner in case you have a specific deadline). If you anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you can be proofing by committee, then it is best to in all probability permit a little extra time – perhaps a month in complete – for production.
