I don't have any billing software. I write by hand with carbon paper below. Yes, I need a computer. Everything will happen only if the business improves. If I have more customers, writing down the bills takes more time. I have to keep a computer if things go well.
Yes, technology will help in expanding the business. Also, the more we work, the more it will benefit us. Technology is a necessity in today's time. It can handle the workload of ten people. Computers are capable of doing the work of ten people due to advanced technology. All the items will be visible on the computer, allowing us to see what is in stock and what is not, providing detailed information. This is the usefulness of technology. Yes, I will use technology later in my business, but first, I will focus on my children.
Yes, we have regular customers. They are very nice customers. Till now, we have 40% regular customers, which we have calculated. We make Excel entries of our yearly estimated bill. For example, if your name is Priyanka Kesharwani or Priyanka Shrivastav or Priyanka Singh, this is your mobile number, you belong to Shanti puram, and you have taken furniture from me in 2021 and 2022. So, when I add the information of 2022 in Excel, the sheet will show me that you have taken a product on this date and this year. Therefore, I can know that you have taken 2 furniture items from me in 2020, 2021, and 2022. This helps me identify you as a regular customer, Priyanka ji. I see that 400 customers repeated their purchases next year among 1000 customers, which means they are our regular customers. We make the entry and provide gifts to our regular customers during festivals. We message them and invite them to come during Dhanteras and Deepawali. We give a 5% discount to our regular customers on pillow, mattress protector, and bedsheet. In Deepawali, my shop will be 3 years old, so I will see who those regular customers are who have done shopping from us in these 3 years. It might be a small chair or a big furniture item, and we will give them a 50% discount or a buy 1 get 1 free offer to increase our sales. If we motivate and give things to regular customers, they will also advertise for us. Instead of investing money on advertisements and keeping staff for advertisement, they will not go to every locality to do this. Allahabad has many localities like Taliyarganj Fafamoj, Shanti puram. I should catch the customers, give them a buy 1 get 1 free offer, and then they will feel that Vinayak furniture respects us. They will advertise this to 4 more people to purchase things from us. We are good. This is a concept to increase the business.
Yes, we prepare Excel sheets month-wise as well. We will also offer discounts to our monthly regular customers, so they feel that we are responsive to their purchases. Currently, we are not tracking monthly data, but we will start doing so. Currently, we only track yearly data. I have created a database for customer needs. For example, if a customer asks for a specific item that we don't have in our shop, I will note down their requirement and their mobile number on a daily basis. After fulfilling their needs, we will contact the customer. (showed the register) Here, I have written down the customer's requirement for a change in the revolving chair base. Initially, we used to sell chairs without the base, but now we have started selling the base as it is a customer need.
I would like to say that I use WhatsApp the most for business, as I must have mentioned WhatsApp two or three times at least. WhatsApp has upgraded itself a lot compared to before. There is also a WhatsApp Business app that enhances your profile and provides it to you, even the basic profiles. I use it on my PC (Personal Computer). The WhatsApp Web feature makes things easy to understand and see. Generally, I don't use WhatsApp on my mobile.
With WhatsApp Business, as I told you, these things are there and it looks normal, but it helps a lot in day-to-day life. Whether it's for location or catalog or saying WhatsApp Web, things that I am not able to do on mobile phones, it becomes very easy on PC. Like he had an enquiry that is this thing available in this particular design. So I will reply him that yes it's available. He will ask rate then I will send him the reply.
People take a screenshot and then send it to me to ask whether it is available or not. So this becomes easy on WhatsApp. If I use my phone, then I'll have to download that photo every time I open it. But in WhatsApp web, this photo hasn't been downloaded; it's just open in WhatsApp web. If I open it on my phone, then I'll have to download that photo before opening it, and the gallery will get full. But on PC, there is no such thing. If I have to download, then I have an option here, and I can download it from here. And let's suppose an excel file or a PDF file, let me give you a sample example. There is a drug factory, so they had an inquiry, and I sent it to them on WhatsApp to check if everything is fine or not. This is the panel that is installed in factories, and I sent them the drawing of that panel and its sizes. So they can check those things and tell me which is a bit difficult in mail, though I have sent it on mail as well, but on WhatsApp, it's easier because he can use it on mobile, and we get an indication with that blue tick whether he has seen the message or not. People usually prefer to open the mail on PC only. So WhatsApp makes that thing handy.
I have a few shopkeepers who buy products from me in bulk. I note them down in the laptop. So I have their record as well as customers’ record. So I keep checking that record also for customer analysis. The record about which product they bought and what not, so you won’t be able to understand all that.
My laptop has inventory that I manage and use for billing purposes. I have a printer connected to my laptop specifically for billing. I create bills for the items purchased by customers. This helps me keep track of the total sales made in a month and allows me to calculate our profit and loss. I use Tally software to manage this process. It provides information on our best-selling product and the remaining stock. Instead of checking the stock physically at the shop, I can view all the details on my computer. If the stock is low, I can easily place an order for more. It's important to note that customer data is not stored on my laptop. I have other ways to know about the customers. However, I primarily use this software for creating bills. When I create a manual bill, I need to calculate a 9% tax. But with the Tally software, it automatically calculates the tax for me. All I have to do is enter the customer's name, select the products, and the software will display the price. Then, I can simply print the bill.
I rarely create manual bills. If a customer buys something, I give them a manual bill instead of using a computer. Later, I adjust the bill accordingly by entering the information manually into my laptop. I keep a daybook where I record all the transactions. For example, if you came here and gave me 2000rs, I would write down that information in my book. In the evening, I transfer all the entries from my daybook to my laptop, whether they are credit or cash transactions. This is part of my daily activities. I use Tally Prime software to do all the entries on my laptop.
I wanted to arrange the set up in the starting only but I was not able to do it. Now I will have to again take up balance stock for the material. There are minor spare parts and in taking up balance stock many days will be consumed, this is the reason I have continued with as it is going on. I will have to feed the entire data in my computer. Daily I will have to add the material if it comes up from the party and minus the material if it gets sold out. I will have to maintain the entire stock now. There are many other works to do so I am not able to pay attention on the stock set up now. In the shop work, in the field work…this is the reason I am not able to maintain the stock set up, it is going on as it is.
I have a computer to keep track of the customers. I use the software. This is by Okay Pharma. This is for the inventory. These are the sale details as well. No apps are not needed for this software. If there is any difficulty then I manage, because there are risks involved. I see it online. I call the software people in case of a problem. We have to call them and they tell us. I have purchased this. It is about 7000 rupees. Then they have yearly renewal charges for it.
I didn't do anything for this. If I have a good business then, I have one software that I have made on Excel. I have made this, and I am thinking that I would maintain it. I have made one software. It's like tracking my earnings and expenses. I have that calculation fully ready. I will maintain it for the shop purpose. The one that I use in the book, I would use this for that.
I have accounts from about 15 to 20 years ago. However, I no longer record the sales. If we sell 4 sets, we will know how much we have earned and what our profit is. We will find out about the income and expenses on the same day. We write it down in a notebook. We record the purchases we have made, loans taken, profits earned, and expenditures. I have not been using a computer for billing. They ask us for a bill, but I tell them that we don't have bills. If they insist on a bill, we write it on paper and put a seal on it. A computer is required, but I did not complete my education.