How to launch and promote a hairdressing business with Adobe Express.

You have a passion for hair styling and love to give people a new look that makes them feel confident? You know all about the latest hair trends and hair products? You dream about starting your own hair salon or mobile hairdressing service? Then this article is for you! From the key factors of a business plan to a marketing strategy including social media and offline marketing materials – starting a hairdressing business can be overwhelming at times. We’ll give you an overview of important steps you need to take before you can welcome your first client.

Read our article to get insight into what you need to consider and learn how Adobe Express can help you create stunning marketing materials for your new hairdressing business.

Write a business plan for your hair salon.

Before getting into all kinds of hairdos and cutting the first strands of hair, you’ll need to structure your business. Get ready to write a business plan for your hair salon. A business plan is necessary to structure your plans and position your hairdressing business for success. It’ll be helpful for you to shape your business ideas and finances. If you’re looking for investors, they’ll surely ask for your business plan. So, let’s dive into the key features:

1. Executive summary: This is an overview of the key information, such as your business name, location, mission statement, services you offer, target market, goals, and if you’re seeking funding, how much money you need and what you need it for. As this is the first page of your business plan and the place where all comes together in a summary, you should write this section last.
2. Business description: Use this section to go into detail about your salon’s concept and what your USP (unique selling point) is. Show your location and explain why you’ve chosen it. Put it into context and describe what can be found in the vicinity – considering aspects, such as traffic, shops nearby, and your advantages in this location. In this section, you can also include your salon’s history if your business already exists. Or you choose to describe your inspiration if you’re starting from scratch.
3. Market research: Show that you know the hairdressing industry. What are current trends and how do they affect your hairdressing business? Most important in this section: a target market analysis. Give details of your target group’s demographics and explain what your ideal customer looks for in a hair salon. Include a competitor’s analysis and show how your hairdressing business will fill market gaps.
4. Services: List all your services, such as haircuts, treatments, colouring, and a pricing strategy with costs and competition prices.
5. Financial plan: From costs for services to the bigger picture – your financial plan needs to be comprehensive. What’s your budget for starting your hairdressing business? Estimate your sales revenue based on your service costs. How much will you need to cover your expenses for utilities, products, and rent?

Another key factor of your business plan is an operations plan with opening hours, staffing, and a list of suppliers. If you’re asking for funding, add how much budget you need, what you will use it for, and how you plan to repay it. You can also add legal documents like your business registration and lease agreements.

Develop branding for your hairdressing business.

Creating marketing materials for your own business is fun. You can let your creativity run wild to bring your hairdressing business to life. Give yourself the space to create several designs that you like. Choose what you like best and work on it to build up a brand identity. Why is a brand identity so important? Consistent branding helps your customers recognise your brand the second they see your social media posts, flyers, or posters around town. A crucial part of that consistency is a consistent visual identity including colours, fonts, and other design elements contributing to your brand.

With Adobe Express, you can save all necessary elements in one brand kit. Here is how:

1. Open Adobe Express.
2. Go to the brands section and create a new brand.
3. Now you can add brand logos, assets, colours, fonts, and templates. Simply click “Add” and choose the category you want to start with.
4. Create colour palettes and use the colour picker on those you like. Adobe Express will recommend colours that perfectly fit your preferred palette.
5. Search fonts from the Adobe Font library. With a wide variety of fonts, you can choose from elegant and minimalist styles for a luxury hairdressing salon or more playful fonts if you’re targeting families with younger customers.
6. Within the brand kit, you can collect your favourite Adobe Express templates to have them at hand when you want to create your marketing materials. You can also upload final assets if you already have final material that you want to use.
7. Share your brand kit with your team or a person who supports you to create your marketing materials and your brand identity will always stay consistent.

Design an individual logo for your hair salon.

The crucial part of your brand’s identity is the logo. It’s the first thing people see when encountering your hairdressing business, so it needs to transport the core of your visual identity, professionalism, and values. A well-designed logo will stand out from the competition and help build long-term loyalty among your customers. You’re ready to design a logo but don’t know where to start? Here’s how you easily create your logo with Adobe Express:

1. Open the free logo maker of Adobe Express and click “Create now”.
2. Fill in the name of your hairdressing business. You can optionally choose an industry and enter a slogan.
3. Choose a style that fits your aesthetic from the suggestions Adobe Express gives you.
4. In the next step, choose the logo you like best and customise it with an icon fitting your hairdressing business. By using keywords such as “hair”, “haircut”, or “salon” in the search bar, you get icons from the Adobe Stock library which you can use for your design.
5. Happy with your new logo? Download it and add it to your brand kit for later.
6. Want to make some adjustments? Simply click “edit” and play with colours, icons, and fonts until your logo fits your brand.

Create business cards for your hairdressing business.

Holding a professionally designed business card of your salon in your hand is a great feeling, especially when you’re just starting out and look forward to all the new contacts that you’ll make with customers, colleagues in the industry, and suppliers.

With Adobe Express, you can easily design your own business cards – even if you aren’t a design professional.

1. Open Adobe Express.
2. You don’t have to start from scratch! Choose from more than 2,000 professionally designed templates for business cards. And if you already have a design in mind, you can start with a white canvas ready to be filled with your creative thoughts.
3. Customise the business card with your contact information, website URL, and social media channels and don’t forget your business logo. Remember your brand kit? Now you can use it to choose the right colours and design elements you want to add to your business card.
4. Generate a QR code and add it to your business card. This is especially useful if you have a website where customers can book an appointment at your hair salon.
5. Once you’re happy with the design of your business card, you can download it and have it printed at a local print shop or send it to them digitally for professional print.

Develop a marketing plan for your hairdressing business.

Just like a business plan, a marketing plan gives you structure in your overall goals and your daily business. But now it’s solely about your marketing plans and how you want to achieve your business goals with the help of marketing activities. Here are some key factors to structure the marketing plan of your hairdressing business:

1. Business objectives: Identify what you want to achieve with your marketing activities. These goals should be measurable, such as increasing your monthly revenue by 20% or attracting a certain amount of new clients in the next 6 months.
2. Target audience: Yes, this is already part of your business plan, however within your marketing strategy you take a closer look at demographics (age, gender, occupation), psychographics (values and interests), and also which communication channels your target audience uses the most.
3. Competitor analysis: Research the marketing tactics of your competitors. This helps you develop your unique selling point and how you can stand out from other hairdressing salons with your services and business values.
4. Marketing message: Consider your target audience and brand identity and develop messaging that appeals to your customers. You can set different focus points, for example, on your experience as a hairdresser, the convenience of your hair salon, or special offers.
5. Marketing channels: Differentiate between offline and online marketing and focus on the communication channels your target audiences use. For offline marketing, you can create flyers and posters. Online marketing contains social media channels, such as Instagram or a website.

Thinking about how to create professionally designed marketing materials for your hairdressing business? Adobe Express offers a wide variety of templates you can customise according to your brand identity and your needs. In the next section, we’ll give you examples of how you can design materials for online and offline marketing.

Design a flyer for your hair salon.

When starting a hairdressing business, printed flyers can help spread the word and introduce your salon to people in your region. You can distribute them in local shops and supermarkets or hand them out near your salon. Include a list of services you offer, such as haircuts, colouring, treatments, and stylings. Add special offers or deals to your flyer as an incentive for a first appointment so people get to know your hairdressing salon and your work. With Adobe Express you can create flyers within minutes:

1. Open Adobe Express.
2. Take a look at the professionally designed templates for flyers. Filter with keywords, such as “hairdressing” or “salon” to get results fitting your business.
3. Customise the flyer with information on where customers can find your salon, what services you offer, and how to book an appointment.
4. Choose colours from your brand kit by clicking on “Theme” or try a new colour scheme for your flyer. Add photos of your hairdressing work, prices, or a QR code to your website. Choose from different fonts and design elements to make your flyer perfect!
5. Once you’ve finished your design, you can download it and send it to a print shop.

Build a website for your hairdressing business.

Nowadays, it’s common to book a hairdressing appointment online. So why not take this as an opportunity to embed your appointment tool into a website where customers can access your hair salon 24/7? Show them what your salon looks like, describe your services, and impress them with hairstyles you’ve created for weddings, photo shoots, or daily life. You’re a professional hair stylist, so your website should reflect that, too. With Adobe Express, you can create a website in a few simple steps:

1. Open Adobe Express and create a free account or log in.
2. Explore the professionally designed webpage templates for inspiration, choose your favourite, or start from scratch.
3. Customise the template by choosing from the Adobe Express themes or create a new theme. Choosing a theme will adjust the whole webpage accordingly.
4. Upload photos and videos showcasing your work, your hairdressing salon, and happy customers (if they agree). Adjust the webpage by using GIFs and a slideshow with several photos or add buttons to direct users to further information.
5. Preview your website once it’s finished and test it before going live.
6. Once ready, share your website via your URL.

Grow your hairdressing business via social media.

With the help of social media channels, it’s possible to reach a broader audience and potential customers within your target group. While people find your website when searching for a hairdresser nearby via a search engine, social media channels work with algorithms suggesting content to users likely to fit into your target group.

On platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, you can showcase your work. Especially hairdos for weddings are very popular on these platforms where future brides hope to find the perfect hairstyle for their most important day. Here’s a quick overview of the most relevant social media platforms:

• Instagram: Instagram is the perfect platform for content from a hairdresser. It’s a highly visual platform and the go-to place for inspiration on haircuts, new colouring trends, and information on new hair products. With Adobe Express, you can choose from countless professional templates, especially for Instagram.
• TikTok: Short videos and a lot of fun! On TikTok, you can create entertaining content for your customers. Show how you consult your customers in your salon or make a fast-forward video of how you style your clients. With the TikTok video creator, you can edit your videos in just a few steps.
• Facebook: Connect with your customers via local groups on Facebook. Create an event for your opening or let them know if you have special offers with targeted ads. Design Facebook posts with the help of our Facebook post maker and customise your favourite templates to your needs.
• YouTube: On YouTube, you usually see long-form content. Here, you can share hairdressing tutorials, give tips and tricks for last-minute hairdos, and review your favourite products. Create professional videos with the free YouTube video editor and spread your hairdressing expertise!

Choose one or more platforms that fit your target audience. Now, consistent publishing is key. This is where the Adobe Express Content Scheduler can help you. Plan and schedule posts ahead of time to keep your feed active. Here’s how you use it:

1. Open the Adobe Express Content Scheduler.
2. Create a free account to get started or log in with your existing account.
3. Now link your social media channels to the Content Scheduler.
4. Choose a date on the calendar and click “New post”.
5. Add your content, such as photos and videos and write a catching caption for your post. Don’t forget hashtags and relevant keywords, so users can find your content and the algorithm can do its work.
6. Save your post as a draft and schedule it or publish it immediately to your social media channel.

Create social media content for your hairdressing salon.

Still need some inspiration for creative social media content that showcases your hair salon? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. For image posts, share photos of the stylings you’ve created. When looking for a new hairdresser, people will look at your work and see if it fits their preferred hairdressing style. Another image post could be an overview of your services and your prices. If you want to post video content, you can give a tutorial on how to blow-dry hair for different finishes.

1. Open Adobe Express.
2. Browse through the selection of professional templates for social media posts, whether it’s for creating an Instagram story or a TikTok video.
3. Add photos and videos to your design to customise the post for your hairdressing business. Choose from a wide variety of fonts, custom colours, music tracks, and design elements. Add your business logo for your brand identity.
4. When you’ve finished your post, you can either download it or schedule and publish it directly via the Adobe Express Content Scheduler.

Enhance your content for your hairdressing business with AI features in Adobe Express.

Let’s be real: creating content can be overwhelming. And sometimes, you have the perfect picture of a wonderful haircut but the background is just not right. That’s where Adobe Express comes in: Use the AI-powered tools to enhance your photos and videos for your marketing. Here are two of our helpful AI features:

1. Remove background: Quick and easy – upload your image and Adobe Express will automatically remove the background in a second. Once it’s ready, continue with your edit.
2. Caption video: This is especially useful for tutorials. Upload your tutorial video and Adobe Express automatically creates subtitles for your video.

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Good to know.

How do I start a hairdressing business?

To start a hairdressing business, decide if you want to open a local shop, a mobile hairdressing salon, or work from home. Do the groundwork and write a business plan. Get information on local requirements and the certificates you need for a professional hairdressing business. After all that’s done, create a strong brand and write a marketing plan to structure how you want to promote your hairdressing business.

What’s a good name for a hair salon?

Many hair salons choose names with a pun in it, for example, “The Mane Attraction” or “Scissor Sisters”. Such names will certainly stand out to customers! If you want to connect your professional expertise with the brand identity of your hairdressing business, you can also add your name to the brand. This way, customers will immediately connect the professionalism of your hair salon with your person.

How do I write a hairdressing business plan?

To write a good hairdressing business plan, consider some key factors: the concept of your hair salon, the services you want to offer, your target market, and competitors, to name a few. Include a financial plan and goals you want to achieve with your hairdressing business. Once your plan is ready, go ahead and structure your marketing activities. Find more details for both your business plan and marketing plan in our article above.

How can I promote my hairdressing business?

Know your target group and find out how they decide which hair salon they go to. Then choose your marketing channels, both online and offline. Online channels can be your own website and social media channels. Offline activities can include flyers and posters. Design and create marketing materials fitting these channels and see if your activities are successful.

Is Adobe Express free?

Yes, the basic version of Adobe Express is free and includes everything for the start of your hairdressing business and your marketing materials. Choose from a wide variety of professionally designed templates. Customise your designs with photos, videos, and other design elements and finish your content within minutes. Create flyers to promote your services, design a logo for your hairdressing brand, and schedule social media posts for a consistent content feed.