Deepika's Studio Hours

Book studio sessions with clients, see the day's list every morning, and write down the cash that came in.

Who this is for

Deepika Salunke designs logos and album covers from a room in Dharampeth, Nagpur, working alone for six photography studios. On a Thursday afternoon Ravi Deshmukh of Sunrise Studio in Sitabuldi rings her, angry that he has put two wedding shortlist sittings in the same hour again, and asks if she can make him something better than his diary. She knows five more studio owners who will ask her the same thing once they see it.

How the job is done today

Ravi keeps a long diary on the counter. Bookings come by phone and on WhatsApp, and his assistant Sonu writes them on a slip of paper that sometimes reaches the diary and sometimes goes into a shirt pocket. Regular clients message Ravi directly, so only he knows about those. When someone asks for a Sunday in December he flips pages for a minute and then guesses. Cash goes into a drawer and is counted at night. If a family paid two thousand at booking and the rest after the shoot, nobody remembers which families still owe.

The screens, in order

1. Today's sessions — Shows the owner, in order from morning, who is coming today, at what time, and for what.
2. New booking — Turns a phone call into a session on the calendar and refuses the slot if someone is already in it.
3. Session page — Holds everything about one shoot in one place, including the tick that says the cash was handed over.
4. Month calendar — Answers can you do the fourteenth while the client is still on the line.
5. Enquiries — Collects the date requests that came in from the studio's own page so the owner can accept or refuse each one.
6. Cash record — Shows what came in this week and which families still owe the balance.

What it keeps track of

• Sessions — which client, what kind of shoot, which day, start time, how long, which room or outdoor, agreed amount, done or cancelled, a line of notes
• Clients — name, phone number, how they found the studio, their past sessions, anything worth remembering such as they always arrive late
• Cash received — which session, how much, the day it was handed over, who took it, whether it is the advance or the balance
• Enquiries — name, phone number, the date they want, what kind of shoot, their message, still waiting or accepted or refused
• Studio timings — opening and closing time, the day the studio stays shut, how many rooms, how long a normal sitting takes

The one decision that matters

Does the client book his own slot, or does the studio type it in? A self-booking calendar looks smarter and saves the owner work. But in Nagpur the conversation always comes first: how many people, indoor or outdoor, can you do a Sunday, what is the rate. A slot that fills itself while Ravi is quoting a different price to someone else on the phone is a quarrel waiting to happen. So the owner owns the calendar. The public page only shows which dates are free and takes an enquiry with a name, a phone number and a wanted date. Ravi accepts it, and only then does it become a session. He keeps the last word, which is the thing he is actually paying Deepika for.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out photo delivery and album tracking. A studio's editing work runs for weeks after the shoot and needs its own thinking, and if Deepika builds a half version of it now, Ravi will trust neither half. Also leave out the idea of many studios sharing one site with separate logins. Her first two buyers each get their own site with their own name on it. Building an account system for studios she has not sold to yet is guessing.

How you would know it worked

On a busy Sunday in December, Ravi takes three booking calls and never once opens the diary. It stays shut on the counter. Later that week Sonu enters a booking from his own phone while Ravi is out at an outdoor shoot, and Ravi sees it before he gets back.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I am a designer in Nagpur and I want to sell a small booking website to the photography studios I already work for. The owner should open it on his phone in the morning and see the day's sittings in order, with the client's name, phone number, what the shoot is and which room. He types a booking in himself after a phone call, picks the date and time, and the site stops him if that slot is already taken. Everyone pays in cash, so I only need a place to tick that the money came in, write the amount, say whether it is advance or balance, and see the week's total and who still owes. Add a plain page where a new client can ask for a date, which arrives as a request the owner accepts or refuses. Keep it simple enough for a sixty-year-old to use with one thumb.