Custom calendars for business: wall, desk or magnet

Three formats for three places

Our wall calendars are spiral bound with a hole for hanging, printed on Standard Matte or Premium Glossy paper, and sold from a single copy up to 500. You choose the starting month, and you can add custom dates and sticker graphics on every size except the mini. The pages take pen or marker, so people can write on them.

Our desk calendars stand on a built in folding base with spiral binding, in two layouts. The square layout is writable matte printed on both sides. The rectangular layout comes in matte or premium glossy, printed on one side, and it is the layout that takes custom dates. Both let you choose the starting month.

Our calendar magnets carry a whole year on one 5.47 × 4.21 inch piece with a semi gloss finish, horizontal or vertical, in a standard or premium thickness, from 10 to 2,500 magnets.

The short version: give wall and desk calendars to the people you know by name, and use magnets where you need hundreds of pieces in hundreds of kitchens.

Wall calendar sizes, as listed

The order form lists five size and binding choices.

Mini and small suit a home office shelf or a gift bag. Classic is the familiar kitchen calendar. Large suits a shared office or a workshop wall where it is read from across the room. Because custom dates are not offered on the mini, start at small if marking your own dates is the point. The printed sides choice sets what goes on the back of each page: front and back, front only, or front with a gray back.

Start the year where your customer's year starts

None of the three has to begin in January. Wall and desk calendars let you pick the starting month, and a magnet shows whatever year you design onto it.

That choice is a quiet way to show you understand how a customer works. The IRS defines a fiscal year as 12 consecutive months ending on the last day of any month except December, and plenty of small companies run one. A bookkeeper whose clients close their year on June 30 can send calendars that start in July. A tutor, a school uniform shop or a youth sports club can start in August or September to follow the school year. A landscaper can start in March, when the season and the phone calls begin.

What to print, month by month

Twelve pages are twelve chances to be useful, not twelve chances to advertise.

• A picture panel the recipient wants to look at: your own finished work, your region, your team, the season's product.
• The dates that matter to them: service reminders, seasonal checkups, renewal windows, your open days and events.
• Your contact block on every page: name, phone, website and one short web address or QR code that goes to booking.
• Writing space on matte pages, since glossy paper resists pens.
• No prices and no offers with an end date. A deal that expires in March looks stale in August, and the calendar hangs there until December.

If you plan seasonal campaigns, build the calendar from the same plan as your print marketing calendar, so the reminder on the wall and the postcard in the mailbox say the same thing in the same month.

Calendar magnets for counters, mailers and closings

Magnets suit businesses that hand out print in volume: real estate agents after an open house or a closing, home service trades after a visit, clinics at the front desk, insurance and financial offices at renewal time. One piece carries the year, your logo, your phone number and your website. There is no page to turn, so the design that wins is the one that reads from across a kitchen.

The file setup on record for a calendar magnet adds 0.059 inch of bleed on every edge, so the print file is 5.591 × 4.331 inches, or 1678 × 1300 pixels at 300 ppi. Keep the phone number and the year comfortably inside the edge.

If you plan to mail them, note that a calendar magnet is not a postcard. USPS card prices apply to pieces 3.5 to 4.25 inches high, 5 to 6 inches long and no more than 0.016 inch thick. A magnet comes in two thickness choices, so unless you have confirmed it sits inside that limit, send it in an envelope with a short note; the envelope size guide covers which envelope fits.

Calendars, gifts and the $25 rule

Calendars are often given at the end of the year, so the gift rules come up. IRS Publication 463 limits the deduction for business gifts to $25 per recipient per year. It also says an item that costs $4 or less, has your name clearly and permanently imprinted, and is one of a number of identical items you widely distribute is not counted as a gift for that limit. A calendar magnet ordered in quantity can fall into that range; the product page shows the price per piece at every quantity. This is general information rather than tax advice, so confirm your own case with your accountant, and see whether business print is tax deductible for the wider question.

For close clients, a wall or desk calendar sits naturally alongside the ideas in our client thank you gifts guide, and our advice on choosing a promotional gift people keep applies here too: the useful object wins.

When to order for January

Standard delivery as soon as 6 business days, production included, and the cart shows the estimated arrival day for your quantity before you pay. Count back from the day you will hand the calendars out, whether that is a December client lunch, a year end mailing or the first week back in January, and leave time for your own team to settle the photos and check every month for the right dates.

Order a single copy first if you are unsure about paper or color. Wall and desk calendars are sold from one copy, so checking the real thing before the full run costs little and saves a lot.

Calendar checklist

• Decide where it will live: wall, desk or fridge.
• Choose the start month your recipient plans by.
• Mark the dates that matter to them, not only to you.
• Put your contact block on every month.
• Keep prices and expiring offers off pages they will outlast.
• Choose matte wherever people will write.
• Order one copy to check before the full run.
• Count back from the hand out date and leave a buffer.

Design your business wall calendar