Abby and Sadie Bowler, sisters and founders of the personal care company SadieB, shared their entrepreneurial journey with BYU’s Women in Entrepreneurship Club on Thursday, Sept. 26.
According to the Bowler sisters, the idea of SadieB was born on a backpacking trip with their father, who is an entrepreneur himself and the sisters’ mentor. They were on the hunt to find clean products to bring on their trip, which led to conversations and ideas about a personal care brand that would lift empower Generation Z women and create social impact.
"Our idea was to create a personal care brand that was really about taking care of yourself and feeling good rather than fixing things about your appearance,” Abby Bowler said. "Really a brand that is more supportive of your mental health — of girls’ mental health in particular.”
The Bowler sisters started their business when Sadie Bowler was still in high school, and Abby Bowler had recently graduated. Now, Sadie Bowler is a senior studying marketing at the University of Utah, and Abby Bowler is a senior studying economics at BYU. In May of 2022, SadieB launched 16 different products and is now featured in Target.
"We definitely knew that we wanted to launch into retail eventually. We definitely saw ourselves in Target one day. It came a lot sooner than we were expecting,” Abby Bowler said.
Samantha Jex, president of BYU’s Women in Entrepreneurship Club, expressed her interest in helping BYU students learn from the Bowler sisters. Through the event, the club hoped to inspire and help attendees know that they can start their own businesses, too.
At the event, the Bowler sisters recommended that students seek out mentors as they start their businesses and ask questions from people with business experience. They also explained that making mistakes can be an opportunity to learn and grow.
Sadie Bowler said that there isn’t one right way to be an entrepreneur and that they had to trust the process as they launched SadieB.
“There is no formula. You don't have to do it perfectly. It's really driven by your passion and it's going to be so different for everybody else,” Sadie Bowler said.
For the Bowler sisters, trusting the process also meant trusting God and not beating themselves up for failures. Both sisters shared that their relationship with God was a key part of their business.
“There is a whole spiritual aspect to this journey where, not only have we been praying about the business, but also just praying to learn through this experience and become better people at the end of it,” Abby Bowler said.
Jex concluded the event by encouraging attendees to reach for their dreams by following the Bowler’s example of faith and trust in God as they start their own businesses.
“These ladies are such a great example of trusting the process, trusting when they felt like it was right to start a business, trusting Heavenly Father to be able to feel like he was going to guide them through, because it’s such an important thing,” Jex said. “This is not just your business, but your lives.”