Billing for your beauty parlour and cosmetic shop in Puducherry
A threading, a bottle of oil and a bar of soap on one bill, and the bride's booking on a page.
From the soap in three packings to the mehendi sitting and the bangles by the dozen
A block of soap cut and sold by weight
Some natural soaps are made in a block and cut to the customer's wish. Make the block an item sold by the gram and add the whole block to the count. Each cut takes its grams off, and at night the count says how much of the block is left, whatever the shape of the last piece.
A family from Karaikal books the sitting in the morning and takes the bangles on the way out
The family's bus home from Karaikal sets the clock for the afternoon. The sitting is one bill made when it ends, and the dozen of bangles is another, made on the way out, so nobody waits for a total with the bus on the road.
The bar of soap in her suitcase has no address, so give her your link before she leaves
A visitor takes a bar of your soap home in her suitcase, and the bar carries no address. If she likes it, she has no way back to you. Put the soaps on your own online shop and say the link at the counter before she leaves. The bar in her suitcase then points to you, and what she orders from her own town reaches you as an order with the packing she chose.
Tools for a shop of soaps, oils and services sold by the sitting
Online orders
Gift boxes of soap by the dozen, ordered from your online shop for a wedding, with the packing named on the order, ready to pack and bill.
Daily reports
Which soaps sold as bars, as packs and as boxes, and which services were taken, in one day's sales. A month of such days shows which soap is a favourite and which is only picked up and put back.
Offers for regular customers
A coupon for the regular client who has come for her tenth threading, given at the chair.
Coconut land and craft units: where a natural beauty shelf in Puducherry begins
Natural soaps and oils start from coconut and from craft, and the outer regions of Puducherry have both.
- Mahe's fertile land suits paddy, coconut, black pepper, tapioca and banana, and coir making and handicrafts are important local industries.
- Coir making and handicrafts are the small and medium industries of Yanam.
Why a Puducherry beauty counter sells one soap as a bar, a pack of three and a gift box
A dozen of one soap for the people at home, and five singles for another guest
A visitor who has come to the ashram wants a dozen bars of the same coconut soap to carry to the people at home. The next guest wants one each of five. The tray holds the bars, the packs of three and the gift boxes, and each way has its own rate. By evening the dozens and the singles are mixed, and you cannot say how many bars went in packs and how many alone.
A bride's family from Karaikal with one afternoon and a bus to catch
A family comes from Karaikal for the wedding buying and has until the last bus home. They book the mehendi sitting, pick the bangles and pay a part now, all in one visit. The sitting goes in the appointment book, the bangles across the counter, and the part payment on a slip. With the bus close nobody has time to add the three, and the bride's mother cannot come back to put a wrong total right.
The visitor who wants the soaps after she has gone home
Visitors to the town buy a soap, like it, and want more when they are back home. You have no way to send it. Her number is in your head or on a slip, and when you remember to call, she has bought from someone else. The soap that went into her suitcase is the best advertisement you have, and it travels with no address on it. The best advertisement for the shop is a soap that has travelled, and it goes with no way back to you.
Questions a Puducherry beauty shop asks about soap packs, mehendi sittings and bangles
A guest house in the French quarter wants soaps by the dozen for its rooms, and its manager checks the count against his rooms. What do I give him?
Bill each batch on its own, with the dozens as its quantity and the day on it. The manager reads each bill against his room count, and a doubt about one batch is settled from that bill alone, not from a total of the whole month.
My pack of three soaps is finished in the Karaikal shop and full in town. How do I know what to order for?
Look at the pack of three at Karaikal and at town. The one that is empty at Karaikal is the one to order for it, knowing what the town shelf still holds.
The last piece of a soap block is too small to cut to order. How do I clear it?
Weigh the offcut and sell it by the gram. The rate per gram is the block's rate cut down, so the small piece is cheaper than a bar. Its name is the block's name with the word offcut, and its grams come off the block's count.
A soap maker with 800 orders a day, and what coconut costs
An Auroville natural-soap maker can make 40,000 soaps a month, gets about 800 soap orders a day, and ships to Bengaluru, Pondicherry, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai. A beauty shop that stocks natural soaps is selling something that people far from Puducherry also order, and its shelf is one of many places that stock it.
The Auroville soap maker says coconut, prevalent in south India, is his main ingredient, and his chemical-free soaps are priced above market standards. That is the question your client asks at the shelf, and the answer is a short one: coconut, no chemicals, and a rate that is higher on purpose.