Who This Checklist Is For
If you’re ordering branded planners, notebooks, or stationery for your team or clients—and you’ve never bought from Erin Condren before—this one’s for you. Or maybe you have, and you found out the hard way that a verbal agreement isn’t a spec sheet.
This is a 5-step checklist. No fluff. Follow it, and you’ll avoid the most common pitfalls I’ve seen in over four years of reviewing corporate gift orders.
Step 1: Define Your Specs Before You Reach Out
Most people start with a call or email along the lines of “I want some planners for my team.” That’s how miscommunication begins.
You need a written spec sheet before you contact anyone. Include the following:
- Product type: Academic planner? Daily? Life planner? Erin Condren has over a dozen formats.
- Quantity: Be specific. “About 50” is not a quantity.
- Customization level: Full branding on cover? Inside pages? Foil stamping or embossing?
- Paper weight: Standard or premium? (See Step 4 for details.)
- Color references: Pantone numbers, not “our brand blue.”
I learned this the hard way. In Q3 2023, we requested “corporate blue” for a batch of 200 journals. The vendor delivered a shade closer to teal. The redo cost us $1,400 and delayed our client gift launch by three weeks. (Should mention: we now include Pantone 286 C for our logo—every single time.)
Checkpoint: Do you have a written document that any third party could look at and deliver exactly what you want?
Step 2: Get It in Writing—Every. Single. Detail.
Here’s something vendors won’t tell you: verbal agreements get forgotten. Not maliciously—just because your order is one of dozens they’re juggling.
I said “standard turnaround” in a call back in 2022. They heard “whenever.” The result: delivery arrived 10 days after I needed it for a company event. That’s the thing about missing a deadline—it’s not the delay that hurts; it’s the context.
What to get in writing:
- Lead time (start date + delivery date, not “2-3 weeks”)
- Revision limit (how many rounds of changes are included)
- Approval process (who signs off on the digital proof)
- Shipping method and cost
I’m not 100% sure on exact wording for every vendor contract, but in our experience, the phrase “written approval required before production” in the order form has saved us from at least two potential disasters.
Step 3: Review the Digital Proof Like Your Budget Depends on It
Because it does. I reviewed a proof for a batch of 150 custom notebooks last year. Everything looked fine at first glance. Then I zoomed in on the cover imprint. The logo was off-center by about 3mm. Normal tolerance for offset printing is less than 1mm (Source: PRINTING United Alliance, 2024). So that’s a fail.
The vendor claimed it was “within industry standard.” I rejected it anyway. They redid it at their cost. Now every contract I write includes a specific tolerance clause for alignment and color.
What to check on a proof:
- Alignment of all elements
- Color matches your reference (ask for a physical Pantone swatch if possible)
- Font is correct (not auto-substituted)
- Spelling in all languages (if applicable)
I ran a blind test with our marketing team: same journal cover with correct vs. slightly off-center logo. 87% identified the off-center one as “less professional” without knowing the difference. The cost to fix? About $0.50 per piece. On a 500-unit run, that’s $250 for measurably better perception.
Checkpoint: Print the proof at actual size. Don’t approve it on a screen.
Step 4: Don’t Ignore the Paper and Materials Spec
Everybody focuses on the cover design. Nobody asks about paper weight until the notebooks feel flimsy in hand.
Erin Condren planners use a variety of paper types. For corporate gifts, I recommend at least 100 gsm for the interior pages. Standard copy paper is 75 gsm—you can see through it. Premium notebooks start at 120 gsm.
Here’s a quick reference based on industry-standard conversions:
- 20 lb bond = 75 gsm (standard copy paper)
- 24 lb bond = 90 gsm (premium letterhead)
- 80 lb text = 120 gsm (brochure weight)
For the cover, if you’re doing a hardcover, make sure the board thickness is specified. Some vendors default to 2mm boards; premium versions use 3mm. The difference is noticeable.
I skipped the paper spec on a first order in 2021. “Standard paper” meant 75 gsm. The journals looked cheap—I mean they literally felt like a school handout. We had to reorder at a 20% higher cost just to get the quality we originally wanted. (Prices as of today: verify current pricing on erincondren.com.)
Step 5: Plan for the “What Ifs”
Everything I’ve described so far is about prevention. But here’s the reality: even with perfect specs, things can go wrong.
I knew I should have a buffer in my timeline, but thought “we’ve worked with them before, what are the odds?” Well, the odds caught up with me when a shipment of 300 custom planners arrived with a printing defect on 15% of the units. The defect ruined the presentation, and we had to scramble for replacements. That quality issue cost us a $2,200 redo and delayed our client gifts by two weeks.
Add these to your plan:
- Timeline buffer: Add 1-2 weeks to the quoted delivery date.
- Batch inspection: Specify in your contract that you have the right to inspect a sample from the production run before final shipment.
- Replacement clause: Agree on who covers the cost if defects exceed X% (I use 3%).
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Here’s a quick summary of things I’ve seen trip people up:
- Relying on one quote: Get at least two. But don’t switch just for a marginal cost difference—relationship consistency matters.
- Skipping the written spec: This is the #1 cause of rework. Period.
- Not asking about revision limits: Additional revisions can add cost and time.
- Assuming “standard” means the same thing to everyone: It doesn’t. Clarify every term.
Look, I’m not saying you’ll make every mistake. But from my perspective, the 12-point checklist I created after my third major mistake has saved us an estimated $8,000 in potential rework. 5 minutes of verification beats 5 days of correction. Simple.