Billing for your beauty parlour or cosmetic shop in Himachal Pradesh
The frost-week shelf, each regular's usual and the visitor's sunscreen, kept on your phone.
What a hill parlour keeps on the phone, from the first frost to the summer visitor
Low stock warnings
A warning when the sunscreen sachets are nearly gone, in the same week the summer visitors fill the lanes, so the order goes before the counter is asked for one it does not have.
Credit book (khata)
A page for each regular with her visits and her usual, so a forgotten service is found in a moment. Mehendi before a function is written there with the rest.
Daily reports
The first frost week and the sunscreen weeks of summer each on their own lines, so the shelf follows the season of the year.
Last year's frost week, the regular's page and the sachet beside the bottle
Which cream the bride's heels wanted, and which her lips
After the apple sale the wedding parties come in the first frost, and the bride's cracked heels and lips want the same cream. Make each cream and balm its own item, so a frost day's sales show which one went, and hold more of that before the next frost.
The wedding party on one page, with what is still owed
Open one page for the wedding party in the bride's name. The sisters' and cousins' threading, facials and mehendi go on it, each with the day, and so does each payment made. On the morning the page shows what each one took and what is still owed, and the girl who helps reads it instead of asking the bride's mother.
The sachet beside the bottle
Make the sachet of sunscreen one item and the bottle another, each with its own rate and its own count. The visitor's one sachet is one tap and the stock of sachets goes down, while the bottles stay as they were. In the summer weeks you see which small things the visitors really ask for.
_at_a_wedding_in_India_02.jpg){kind=link}
The wedding fortnight after the apples, a regular's usual and the visitor who forgot sunscreen
The wedding fortnight after the apples are sold
When the apple money has come into the village, the weddings are fixed for the cold weeks. A bride, her sisters and her cousins come for mehendi, facials and the day's make-up, and the shop is full for days. Kajal, nail polish, face packs and hair colour go in tens. The wedding party's bills are scattered on slips, some paid in cash and some promised after the function. At the end of the fortnight nobody can say what one party took or what is still owed.
A regular's usual, forgotten between visits
She comes every month for threading, a facial and sometimes mehendi before a function. She says 'the usual' and you remember most of it. But which cream did you use last time, what did it cost, and did she pay? The girl who helps you keeps no record either, and when the regular is away for two months, even the 'usual' fades. A regular who is forgotten once may not come the next month.
The visitor who forgot her sunscreen
In the summer weeks visitors from the plains arrive in the hills with no idea how strong the sun is at the height. A woman walks in with a burnt nose and asks for sunscreen, a lip balm and a small cream to take with her. She wants one sachet of each, pays quickly and leaves. The small things sell in tens, and are never written down.
Shimla's bazaars, Kangra's valley and Solan's factories, as a parlour hears of them
A parlour in the hills hears about the other markets of the state from the women who come in, and these are the facts they talk about.
- Shimla's main shopping areas are The Mall, Lower Bazaar for daily items, Tibetan Bazaar for imported electronics and fancy items, and Lakkar Bazaar for wooden crafts.
- Kangra's economy is mostly farming, with tea a vital crop around Palampur and Baijnath. Bir Billing is a growing hub for ecotourism and aero sports.
- Solan's district site calls it the 'Mushroom city of India'. The district also has an old brewery and a horticulture and forestry university at Nauni.
What parlour and cosmetic shop owners in Himachal ask
After the apple sale the wedding fortnight fills the parlour. How does it compare with a summer fortnight?
Open the days of the wedding fortnight and the days of a fortnight in summer, and read the two side by side. You see which services the brides asked for in one and which the visitors asked for in the other, and you stock the shelf for each.
A bride's party wants the parlour to come to the house on the wedding morning. How is the visit billed?
Make the home visit an item of its own with its own rate, beside the services done. The bill then shows the services and the visit as separate lines, and the party sees what the journey cost.
Sunscreen comes in a small tube and a large one. Can I see which size the visitors take?
Yes. Make each size its own item with its own rate. The day's sales show the two on separate lines, so you see which size the visitors took and which to order more of before the long days.
Factories in Solan and the women's markets of Sirmaur
Industrial houses such as Colgate and Gillette operate in the Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh belt of Solan district, along with the country's known pharmaceutical companies.
Him Ira sales centres in Nahan, Rajgarh, Paonta Sahib and other blocks, plus weekly Him Ira markets, sell products made by women's self-help groups.