Billing for your beauty parlour and cosmetics shop in Arunachal Pradesh
A facial, a haircut and a tube of cream on one bill, and a regular's discount remembered.
Tools for a parlour chair and a shelf of creams and lip balms
Bills on your phone
A bamboo charcoal mask from the shelf and a threading at the chair on one bill, the mask going off the count and the threading with none.
Orders to suppliers
An order for honey lip balm and bamboo charcoal masks to the people who make them, with a note of what came.
Daily reports
The designs a mehendi artist did each festival evening, kept, so the next festival's evening is planned from them.
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Why a parlour bill mixes a facial, a haircut and a tube of cream
Market day, when the parlour is full and the vehicle is about to leave
On market day the women from the villages come in for threading, a hair oil and a quick wash before the vehicle leaves. The chairs are full and half the clients are watching the clock. You finish each in a hurry and add the charges at the end, and some who must run are never billed.
The woman who comes before every festival for the same look
She comes each year for the same threading, the same facial and the same hair set, and she remembers every step of it. You remember the look but not the charge, or which oil you used. You quote a price a little above or below last year, and she notices before you finish the sentence.
Orchids and roses from her own garden, to be set in her hair
A client brings orchids and roses cut from her own garden and wants them set into her hair for the evening. The flowers are hers, the setting is yours, and the time is an hour. You tell her a price on the spot and the flowers wilt while you work out whether to charge for the garden or only for the hands.
From the chair's last client to the shelf's last lip balm
A threading and a hair oil billed in the time it takes the vehicle to honk
Add each service as an item at its own charge. A client who is about to leave has a bill made in seconds, with the threading and the oil on it, and pays by UPI or in cash as she stands. Nobody is let go unbilled, and the chairs empty faster.
A charge for the hands alone when she brings her own orchids
Add the flower setting as a service with its own charge, named as the hands only. When a client brings orchids cut from her garden, you tell her that charge before you begin, and the bill shows only the setting. There is no talk afterwards about whether the garden was counted.
A look saved as a bundle: the threading, the facial and the hair set, named for the look
Add the three services as one item named for the look, such as the festival look, with a single charge. When a client points to the photo you tell her the charge before you start. She agrees, the chair is not blocked on a quarrel, and the bundle is a line in the evening's report.
Shades, services and regulars: what beauty shop owners here ask
A client has to run to her vehicle before her facial is finished. How do I bill what was done?
Bill what was done at its own rate; a shorter facial can be an item with a rate of its own. If she comes back for the rest, make a second bill under the same name.
I added a bamboo charcoal mask last week and nobody has asked for it yet. How will I know if it is worth keeping?
Give it its own item and its own rate. Each day's sales show whether one went, and after a few weeks you can look back over those days and decide.
A client wants the same look she had last festival. Can I find what I charged?
Yes. Open her last bill and read the services on it with their charges. If you saved the look as a bundle, its name is on the bill, and the charge is the one you set.
A client asks where the honey in a lip balm came from. How do I tell one household's jars from another's?
Name each honey lip balm item after the household that made it. The shelf count and the bills then say which household's jar went to which client, and you read the answer off the item instead of trusting your memory.
Forest honey and bamboo charcoal on the beauty shelf
Wild honey harvested from the forests of Arunachal Pradesh is used as a natural humectant in beauty products such as lip balms, face masks and scrubs. A shop that stocks a lip balm or a scrub has a customer who may ask what is in it, and an owner who knows his items by name can answer. A shopper who hears that a lip balm has forest honey in it will often ask where the honey came from. A parlour that keeps the lip balm as a named item can answer from its own list, and can tell the jar of one household from the jar of another.
Bamboo, abundant in Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, is used in beauty products such as bamboo charcoal face masks and scrubs. A bamboo-charcoal mask on the shelf is a product the customer may not have seen before, and a bill that names it clearly helps her ask for it again. A bamboo charcoal mask is still a newer thing on the shelf. The owner who adds it as its own item, with its own rate, can read after a month how often customers asked for it, and decide whether it deserves its place.