Beka Doolittle turned her love of the color pink and her dream of being her own boss into The Pink Store, a store that sells everything pink.  The idea came to her while raising her three teenage boys.  “I found myself buying little pink things for my own personal space such as a pink hair dryer and pink straightening iron,” she says.

Beka Doolittle, mompreneur, lover of pink, and owner of The Pink Store.

Being a “mompreneur” is her biggest challenge.  While all children were still at home, she had trouble finding balance.  “Owning a business is like having another child.  It’s amazing and hard all at once.”   This is easier now, she says, because her sons have now graduated high school, leaving only her daughter at home.

A finance degree with fifteen years of experience, a love of leadership, and a happy-go-lucky attitude all contributed to her success.  She also credits her relationship-building skills.  This is key “in an online world.  There isn’t any face-to-face connection so I make sure my emails or phone calls come across with a smile. No matter what, the customer is always right and the end result is about loving others and treating everyone with a high level of respect.”

Doolittle radiates positivity.  She says her friends and family believed in her and thought a store dedicated to all things pink was a great idea.  She said that the positive feedback was motivating because she didn’t “want to let anyone down.”  She has definitely not let anyone down based on her achievements and future endeavors.  She won Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012 from her local SCORE office, and is now “focused on partnering with our local Komen Nebraska Foundation.”

Scarves, one of the many pink items to be found at The Pink Store

The Pink Store faces a legal battle with lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret, but even that hasn’t harmed her positive outlook.  Victoria’s Secret carries a line called “Pink” and in 2013 filed a petition to cancel Doolittle’s trademark on “The Pink Store.”  Doolittle is fighting to keep her trademark, and has received nothing but support from the public.  “Not one single person has negatively affected us,” she says, “we have received a numerous amount of positive supporters!”  She says the situation has forced her to learn “an extreme amount of patience,” but she “doesn’t hold any hatred” in her heart and understands that it is a “business situation,” although she calls a comparison between her store and Victoria’s Secret an “apples to oranges” situation because her store does not sell anything similar to the retail giant.

Doolittle is realizing her dream of owning her own business, being her own boss, and painting the world pink!  She advises any entrepreneurs who are just starting out to “give yourself time to learn your business.  There are so many ways to do things, and a lot of trial and error.  Patience will be the best virtue in this instance!  But, the rewards and the journey are amazing!”

Visit The Pink Store to find just about anything pink you can imagine, and to read Beka Doolittle’s ongoing story, check out her blog, Living the Pink Life.  

UrbanGirl hopes to inspire the spirit of entrepreneurship in women and girls.  We love to help support and promote woman-owned businesses.  Please see our directory of woman-owned businesses, and read our other profiles of successful female entrepreneurs.