Ventura County’s Black Owned Businesses Thrive
Introduction
Across the United States, Black-owned businesses have grown significantly since 2020, with 6,351 business owners developing their own companies. Supporting Black-owned businesses reinforces the importance of diversity and equality in economics, as well as creating jobs and opportunities, closing the racial wage gap and empowering communities overall. In Ventura County, there are a variety of Black-owned businesses, all marketing their own unique products and services. Unique Hair Studio, West of Orleans and Caribbean Haven are just three of these local Black-owned businesses.
Unique Hair studio is a hair salon in Camarillo, owned by Starr Moon. This salon is located on 32 Palm Dr. in Camarillo, and can be found on Instagram @_uniquehairstudio and Moon can be found on TikTok @oneuniquestarr.
West of Orleans, a Cajun restaurant in Newbury Park owned by Marcus Webster and his family, can be found at 3321 Kimber Dr C. Their website is www.westoforleans.com and they are on Instagram as @westoforleans.
Caribbean Haven, a restaurant serving Caribbean and Filipino food, is located at 1780 S Victoria Ave E, in Ventura. You can find them on Instagram @caribhaven or at their website www.caribbeanhaven.com.
Unique Hair Studio
Unique Hair Studio, located in Camarillo, opened in 2019 and is owned by Starr Moon. Moon focuses primarily on styling curly hair and helping those with textured hair maintain their ‘do’. “I honestly wanted to create a space for anybody with textured hair to feel comfortable in; a lot of times because their hair is different from everybody else’s…they feel uncomfortable,” Moon said. Throughout her time owning a business, her goal has been to help as many people as she can with their hair. “It’s not always easy, but once I help them figure it out..it’s a game changer for their confidence and for the way their hair looks,” she said.
Besides owning her studio, Moon also works with the Oxnard Union High School Districts, teaching workshops for students in order to educate them on proper curly hair care. Moon believes it is important for young people to embrace their hair and learn to take care of it early in life, saying, “With my business, I would love to explore other districts…even cosmetology schools, wherever I can get in to help kids embrace their hair earlier in life.”
Throughout her time as a business owner, Moon has learned many tricks of the trade. She believes that advertising is key, and she primarily uses Tik Tok and Instagram to reach out to potential customers. However, advertising has not always been available digitally; “Before there was Instagram and Tik Tok, I just used to hand out my cards to anybody I saw with textured hair that I thought could use me,” Moon said. She also recommends that any business owner puts themselves out there as much as possible, even though, “ [It] can kind of be scary. Embarrassing at times. But people like it…people want to see what you have to offer,” she said.
However, owning a business requires patience, as it takes a trip down a long road before success. Such issues can include filling out paperwork and acquiring licenses, etc, but Moon encourages business owners to, “Be patient with it because there’s all kinds of licensing and just getting yourself everything that you need to start it…as well as the fear of the unknown…not knowing how the business is going to turn out when you start it,” she said.
Moon’s passion for curly hair care inspired her to start Unique Hair Studio and has carried her through any challenges since its opening. She hopes to help as many people as she can. “I love doing curly hair. I love the way it makes people feel, knowing that their curls are capable of doing the things that they do,” Moon said. Unique Hair Studio is located on 32 Palm Dr. in Camarillo, and can be found on Instagram @_uniquehairstudio and Moon can be found on Tik Tok @oneuniquestarr.
West of Orleans
West of Orleans is a family-run Cajun restaurant with both a catering service and a storefront located in Kimber Plaza, Newbury Park. The owner, Marcus Webster, has been a primary chef restaurant caterer for over 25 years. The restaurant has been in its location since 2012, first as New Orleans Bistro, and later rebranded to its current concept, West of Orleans, in 2019.
This April will be five years since they opened the rebranded business, and because of their consistency in having been here for 12 years as well as their unique menu, they immediately received customers after announcing their reopening on social media. “The closest competition is probably 30 miles away for our genre of food. And because of that, we’ve been a five-star for almost five years,” Webster said.
Their goal since opening has been to build up the brand and eventually expand into a franchise. “Something that I’ve always wanted to do [is to] allow other people around the country to be able to utilize our seasoning sauces, the recipes and do the same thing that we’ve been able to accomplish here,” Webster said.
Webster and his family are originally from Fort Smith, Arkansas, where they began a strong catering background. “We’re certified Rams House, and I’ve [catered] things like Central Entertainers Golf Tournament, and [celebrities like] Tom Selleck, Jamie Foxx,” Webster said.
Open just four days a week, they have created a different passive income through catering that subsidizes the days they are closed. As a small business, they have encountered and overcome difficulties, and currently, they are balancing the two aspects of their business. “Sometimes when our demand for catering outweighs the fact of our storefront day to day […] we have to close up for that day,” Webster said.
Webster believes it is not always necessary for small businesses to be open every day of the week, and he encourages businesses to take pride in what they do. “As a small business, you need to be able to have great customer service, excellent quality and consistency. And this is what we thrive on,” Webster said.
As a family-oriented business, the family works together on a day-to-day basis to run their restaurant and catering service. “I have a passion for what I do and my wife has a passion for what she does. […] My wife’s name is Trissa [and she] is my partner, she helps me with everything,” Webster said.
His sons, Myles and Avery, are also involved with the business along with school and their jobs. “My sons [are] creative […] they help me with marketing, social media, things like that,” Webster said.
Webster, although widely known as Chef Marcus, credits his family: Trissa, Myles and Avery in helping to keep their family-run business running. “They’re part of this, not just me, [and] I couldn’t do any of this without my family [and] we’d just like for people to have a good experience when they come here,” Webster said.
Caribbean Haven
Caribbean Haven is a restaurant serving Caribbean and Filipino in Montalvo Square Shopping Center. Before establishing his restaurant, Bobby John had run a catering business in the area in order to test out how well Caribbean style food appealed to the people. After obtaining an interest in his food, his Instagram page and following around the community took off, which sparked his motivation to invest in opening a restaurant.
In Ventura, Bobby John opened his restaurant seven years ago, and has since expanded to three different locations. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic of COVID-19, those locations were closed and the business has settled down to its main restaurant in Ventura. When opening his business, John wanted to be successful, and he is still striving to continue his restaurant chain even further. “My goal was always a business where I have multiple locations,” John said.
Even after being in the restaurant business for seven years, there is still a lot to learn, and John knows how to adapt to changes in the restaurant’s community. “When you’re running a business and it’s a never ending cycle, even when you’re doing well, you still need to be adaptive,” John said. “So you have to be able to manage them efficiently or else you won’t be open for very long because you have many challenges when you open up.”
John originally found his love for cooking and making food from his mom, which has translated into finding joy in his workplace. “I like making people happy with food. I’ve always had a tie to food and my customers make me happy. I may be having a down day when I walk in here and hear a customer say that the food was great, just lightens my day,” John said.
When opening a small business whether that be for food, or any other type of good, there are always obstacles in the way that larger business might not face. These can range from pay differences, to leverage with vendors and real estate. “A large business is very efficient to have systems developed to make everything much more efficient as opposed to small businesses that have managers on their own,” John said.
