It is not too early to think about the turning over of the year from 2007 into 2008. If you are trying to think of a way to promote your business, you might consider a calendar. There is a reason businesses continue to create and print calendars as promotional items—people use them, and it is a great way to keep your name or brand in front of customers for the entire year.
Calendars are relatively inexpensive to print—granted that you are working in black and white or two color ink. If you have a really tiny business, you may even be able to create something on your own home computer that will be sharp. I know that I know have a couple different software programs where I can upload digital photographs, design a calendar and have it printed by a print shop. Digital cameras and photography can really take the expense of a photographer out of the picture. You can take photos of your products, your workers, your family, yourself, whatever you think will best represent your business or you may be able to find stock art and clipart to make your calendar unique. The important thing is to make sure you maximize the opportunity for promoting your business.
If you have any seasonal sales or deadlines that you know in advance, you can have them printed right onto the monthly calendar pages (you can even due this with invoice and payment due dates). Be sure to include your business name and logo as much as possible (without being obviously tacky) and put your web address, e-mail and contact information right onto the calendar too. Take some time to think through just what would make your promotional calendar useful to customers and the best representation of your business. You’ll want your calendar to be available for distribution by early December—since this is when people start to gather their calendars for the coming year.
Also: Give Credit or Acknowledgement Where it is Due
Value or Visual–What “Gets” Customers?