With pigtails and giggles, the four-year-old Harper Rose is always ready to wear outfits inspired by her.
Although this past April marks the second anniversary for H. Rose Boutique, Rachel Becker and her mother Mariann Godwin have seven years together as a business team. “We started with a wholesale women’s clothing line,” Rachel told us, “and that branched into children’s clothing before we opened up the boutique in West Chester.”
“I grew up surrounded by family entrepreneurship, so it became second nature to me, and I never doubted for a second that joining forces with my Mom wouldn’t lead to success,” she said. “H. Rose is genuinely a three-generation boutique. It has always been inspired by my own daughter, Harper Rose, who is now four years old and frequently rocks our apparel and sits behind the counter entertaining customers with her pigtails and giggles.”
Managing the dynamics of family and business takes a plan, and Rachel and Mariann have one. “From the beginning, we decided to create a time in the night where we would shut off from work and just be ourselves — just, Rachel, Mariann, and Harper, as mother, daughter, and granddaughter,” she said. “We have created an entirely different relationship on top of our mother-daughter relationship where we are able to conduct business and respect each other outside of our everyday bond.”
She acknowledges the reality of being a small business owner means that there’s never really an end to the workday. “But, we never complain because we love what we have created. We are a team, we are a family, and we love every second of it!”
