Hey folks! It’s finally time to order planners! As always, there’s a lot of info to parse through so buckle up and take a ride with me.
The shop will open on May 24 for orders.I’m still nailing down some details on pickup times and locations, but they will be updated by the time orders open!
DEADLINES/PICKUP/SHIPPING
The first order deadline will be June 7, 2019. My target to have planners ready for pickup is Saturday, July 27. I’m still nailing down all the times, and you’ll have that info by the time orders officially open.
Pickups
Coming Soon
Delivery
School deliveries will be on July 31. Please note that I do not deliver to all schools. I usually deliver to a few schools (typically Grovetown Middle, Grovetown High, Columbia Middle, and Martinez Elementary) in Columbia County because there is a large number of orders from those schools. I cannot do home deliveries, and I can only offer a limited number of pickups at my house outside of the scheduled times.
Shipping vs. Rush
If you cannot arrange for pickup at one of the scheduled times, you must pay for shipping.
Please note that selecting 2 day shipping does not mean your planner will arrive in 2 days. I know it can seem misleading because large retailers such as Amazon will ship immediately after your order, thus getting it to you in two days. I am a small local business. It’s literally just me for 99% of planner season. 🙂
To make the most efficient use of my working time and to keep shipping costs low, I typically compile a large batch of orders, then process them all together and order them from the printing company which is out of state. Therefore your planner may not even be printed until several weeks after your order, and then has to be shipped to me.
Selecting 2 day shipping on my site means that when the shipment of planners arrives from the printer, I will then ship your planner to you with 2 day shipping. That fee covers only the cost of packaging and mailing your planner through the USPS.
If you need your planner much faster, you can pay for a Rush Order which allows me to print locally (not necessarily within 2 days), and add 2 day shipping to get it in the mail to you as soon as it’s finished. Please email me to find out my turnaround time for a rush order. You may also make arrangements to pick up a rush order locally.
PLACING ORDERS
All orders will be placed through my Shopify store! I’m happy to answer your questions via e-mail but all orders are placed through the store. Shopify is a secure merchant that accepts all major credit cards, as well as PayPal.
Before going to the Shopify store, please visit this page to check out the options. There are a lot of options to choose from and it’s helpful to know what you’re looking at before getting into the actual order page. If you have questions you can always e-mail me.
UPDATES/CHANGES
Pricing
I’ve always been a big believer in transparency. Last year I wrote you an essay about why I changed the covers. I won’t make you read a dissertation this time, but I do want to let you know that I have raised prices slightly.
Why?
Cost of production. I’ve been very happy with the print shop that does the planners each year. Sparkle Pop planners are in an interesting place in terms of production. While I order hundreds of planners, each one is an individual order. Every person who orders a planner gets their own file. Customizing means I don’t order in bulk, which means no bulk discounts due to mass production.
The print shop I use has great prices, great quality, and is quick to fix issues. However, their printing costs have gone up. They’ve raised their cost-per-page by just over a penny, which means it costs several dollars more to print each planner. You’ll see this reflected in the planner costs. The monthly planners were $25 last year and they’re $27 this year, likewise with the weekly going from $35 to $37. The only reason for this difference is the increase in print cost.
Additions
Many of you provided excellent feedback on the survey I sent out in the spring. I incorporated some of the suggestions, particularly ones that were mentioned multiple times.
New Pages
Based on survey responses, I’ve added the following new pages:
- A birthday tracker
- 2 sets of To-Do Lists
- Professional Development Log
More Pages
One thing I heard over and over – loud and clear – was more meeting notes and student checklists. That’s an easy fix! I’ve added 10 extra pages of meeting notes and 2 more sets of student checklists.
Monthly Deluxe
Last year I customized a file for several schools to create what I have dubbed the “monthly deluxe.” After each of the monthly spreads, I added 3 notes pages and a to-do list. This is great if you want to keep up with monthly faculty meetings and time-sensitive to do lists.
Dates/Custom Calendars
Just a reminder for custom calendars. I will waive the fee for custom dates if I receive 5 orders from the same school. However, I need to clarify this. This must be 5 of the same interior style.
In other words – if you are at a school that I don’t currently provide dates for, you can get together with 4 (or more) other teachers to place your order. For example, if all of you get a Monthly or Weekly Planner with the WHIMSY interior style, I’ll waive the cost of custom dates, because I only have to add dates once for Teacher #1 and can use Teacher #1’s file as a template for the others.
However, if your order is more like this, I won’t be able to waive the fee:
- 1 monthly with Whimsy interior
- 1 monthly with Minimal interior
- 2 weekly with Sophisticate interior
- 1 hybrid
This is actually four different templates, and I have to enter those dates four times, as opposed to once in the first example. There’s no scaling or “saving time” in an order like this. Even though it’s the same dates, in terms of the time required, this is no different than 4 orders from different schools. Therefore, I cannot waive the fee.
If you’re unsure about whether your order qualifies, please contact me before you order. I’ll be happy to work through it with you and let you know if I can discount it.
Other Customizations/Tweaks
Every year brings unique requests. If you have a request for a change that you don’t see covered in my documentation, please feel free to contact me. Below, I’ll address some of the stuff that’s come up. Some of these changes require an additional fee to cover the time required to make the alteration or the extra pages inserted.
I will:
- Remove existing pages you do not need
- Duplicate sections/pages you want to use more
- Relabel sections to fit your needs (for instance, I created a planner for a VP with six meeting notes sections for RTI labeled by grade level, so her pages said “K. Meeting Notes” etc.)
- Create a form that is similar to something you provide and make it fit the style and aesthetic of the planner (within reason)
- Insert your own files/forms if provided in PDF format
- Move sections (within reason)
I will not:
- Replicate an entire planner or style you find online
- Create numerous new sheets/forms
- Create a new font style for the interior (cover font changes are fine)
As always, please feel free to email me questions about what I can do.
Ready to Order?
I truly appreciate your interest and excitement – I smile every time I get a “when can I order my new planner” email! Please let me know if you have questions, and I’ll do my best to help you kick off a great school year.
Check out all the documentation here with explanations of your options!
Check out the premade cover gallery here!
Check out custom cover info here!