Meet Gretchen Saffles of Well-Watered Women in Lawrenceville

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gretchen Saffles.

Gretchen, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
A few months after I got married in 2014, I had a crazy idea to start an Etsy business. My husband and I had very little to our name and I had almost no money to invest in a business, but I knew I wanted to at least try. I’d visit local garage sales and antique shops in search of any scraps of material or unwanted items I could potentially create into something new. In those early days, I made anything I could create with these unwanted items: headbands, stamped key necklaces, scarves, art. For about a year, I traveled to craft shows and sold these items online, trying to find my niche in this vast market of creatives.

One day a friend of mine became extremely ill and was admitted to the ICU. I pulled out my paints that day and began to create art with watercolors. Art has always been a way I worship God, the ultimate Creator, and in that moment of need I listened to worship music and painted a truth I needed to remember: Jesus only Jesus. After picking up my brush set again, I began to paint more and more and decided to sell stationary and art prints. That same spring, I ventured into a creating a brand new product I had never created before: a journal.

I’ve always been an avid journaler, and creating a journal women could use to study their Bible was a big dream. I began dreaming up what this journal would be like and asked close family and friends for their input. That May in 2014, I launched the first Give Me Jesus Journal out of our tiny newlywed apartment and sold out of the first set of journals within an hour. I was floored and knew this was the direction God was calling me to take.

That fall I released my first Bible study on the book of Ruth in my shop, which at the time was called Life Lived Beautifully. About a year later, the shop had grown so much my best friend came on as my business partner and team member. She took over the shipping and I continued to dream and create. As we continued to grow, I knew I needed to change the name of my business to better fit the overarching vision I had for it. We renamed it to be Well-Watered Women.

Today we ship journals and Bible studies to women all over the world out of our warehouse in Lawrenceville and have grown to having eight team members! It has been quite the journey along the way, and I give God all the glory for the growth!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Not at all. There have been many times I have wanted to quit altogether! But if you want to do something worthwhile it will take grit, determination, and hard work. There are several struggles that come to mind:

1. Growth – This may sound a bit backwards, but with growth has come a lot of hurdles we have had to embrace and face. We’ve had to grow our team, work out shipping issues, and take giant leaps of faith!

2. Time – Owning a small business takes a lot of time and it is not something where one can easily clock out at the end of the day! Implementing healthy boundaries with work has also been a struggle, but it is necessary in order to flourish in the long run.

Please tell us about Well-Watered Women.
We exist to encourage and equip women to be rooted deeply in God’s Word. We do this in several ways: through creating free content online to point women to Jesus and through creating products that will help women open their Bibles. We ship to women worldwide and are always looking for ways to make our products a blessing to the women who purchase! But we believe this business goes beyond selling a product: we want to serve women and love God as we do it.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
That is a great question. Honestly, if I were to start over I would remind myself to always work from a bigger vision. Rather than trying to keep up with others, to keep in mind the greater goal and take tiny steps toward it. It is so easy to compare your business to someone else’s business, but when you compare you don’t move forward or do your best work! I’d tell myself to stay focused and do what I am called to do really well.