East County is home to a wide range of small, locally owned businesses \u2014 many of which have spent the past year adjusting to rising costs tied to tariffs.<\/p>\n
That includes a La Mesa beauty supply store that\u2019s not only surviving, but continuing to grow.<\/p>\n
This week marks one year since tariffs introduced under the Trump administration took effect, impacting small business owners across the country. For one local entrepreneur, the changes have brought challenges \u2014 but not defeat.<\/p>\n
Inside Royal Creations on University Avenue, shelves are lined with products catering to a wide range of beauty needs. Owner Renee Momon says she built the shop to be more than just a retail space.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn all-in-one, one-stop shop\u2026 we have different services that we offer here to try to give back to the whole community,\u201d Momon said.<\/p>\n
Momon, who was born and raised in the area, says her inspiration came from childhood visits to beauty supply stores with her mom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always loved going to the beauty supply stores growing up\u2026 me and my mom would go almost every weekend,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Now four years into running her own business, Momon says the journey hasn\u2019t been easy \u2014 especially over the past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has its ups and downs, of course\u2026 but I absolutely love it. The ups absolutely outweigh the downs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Still, tariffs and rising costs have taken a toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely is a stab in the chest, honestly,\u201d Momon said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard\u2026 because we take on a lot of those costs as a small business. Do we put that cost back on our customers? Do we take it all? Do we do half and half?\u201d<\/p>\n
To keep the business afloat, Momon says she\u2019s had to make tough decisions \u2014 including cutting employee hours and adjusting prices while trying to remain affordable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been tough\u2026 trying to meet the needs of customers while keeping prices affordable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But for Momon, her mission goes beyond business.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not many Black-owned beauty supply stores, period,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Black residents make up about 5% of San Diego\u2019s population, while roughly 1% of businesses are Black-owned \u2014 with even fewer in the beauty supply industry.<\/p>\n
That makes shops like Royal Creations especially important to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the non-Black-owned beauty supply stores, they can\u2019t relate\u2026 they don\u2019t know how to tell you what product is best for your hair,\u201d Momon said. \u201cJust being able to relate to our customers makes it that much more important. We want everyone to feel comfortable in the crown that they wear.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"East County is home to a wide range of small, locally owned businesses \u2014 many of which have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[112670,3053,6572,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-253934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-beauty-supply","9":"tag-east-county","10":"tag-la-mesa","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-san-diego-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}