As a Paediatric Occupational Therapist, mum of four and founder of Clever Bees Paediatric Occupational Therapy and Blossom and Grow Consultancy, Steph Bee has spent the past decade supporting children and families through some of life’s biggest challenges, while navigating extraordinary challenges of her own. On her path to building a thriving business, Steph’s personal experiences have shaped her compassionate, family-centred approach. Today, she’s on a mission to empower parents with practical tools, confidence and connection, believing that by strengthening the people around a child, we can create lasting change for entire families. Here, she talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind her work, how she balances work and family life, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
Ok, so way back when I was finishing high school and trying to work out what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wanted to be an Occupational Therapist and work with children. That might seem a bit strange, as not a lot of people know what an OT is. But I was born at 28 weeks, and I saw an OT when I was little. I had fond memories of my OT sessions, and I thought how awesome would it be to get paid to play all day!
Fast forward, and I became an OT working with children and families. I worked in Australia and the UK. I then started Clever Bees Paediatric Occupational Therapy in 2016, with my goal of providing mobile Occupational Therapy supports to children and families in Newcastle and the Hunter regions of NSW, as well as outreach supports. I have become a very passionate advocate for working with children and families in their natural environment to achieve their goals. From my work, particularly with rural and remote families, I then found that if I could also help parents to be more active in their child’s therapy journey, we can make greater progress and have a longer lasting impact.
I get such a buzz out of being part of a child and family’s journey – it is such an honour for me – making a difference is what fills my cup.
All of this then led to the next chapter in my business journey when I started Blossom and Grow in 2025. Through Blossom and Grow, I provide consultative supports to families and the community (such as preschools and schools). My aim is that by upskilling the people around a child, I can have a bigger impact than if I was just working on a child directly. This way of working can then create a ripple effect. For example, a teacher working with one child on developing their focus and attention can then use those same skills with their entire class to have a greater impact. Or a parent who I’ve been working with on sleep and routines with their toddler can their share their knowledge with their friend who is having similar issues.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
In the beginning with Clever Bees, it was just me – we’ve had various business structures and teams over the years, but last year I returned to being just me. The change in business structure back to just me was really important to again signal the change in the way I was working, to being about parents and providing supports as myself. When parents work with Blossom and Grow, they are working with me directly.
Last year started with doing lots of parent tips on social media and working with preschools and daycare centres. I also started (and still do) to co-facilitate the ENVISAGE FAMILIES Program.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
I don’t think I’ve had one breakthrough – like most small business owners, I’m never just sitting still. Running a small business is hard; you’ve got to be creative and agile, and you have to be ready to pivot!
Probably the best thing that could have happened to me on my business journey was doing business mentoring. It can be really lonely in small business. I am very lucky now to be part of an incredible group of like-minded women who are all mums and who all have their own allied health businesses. It’s been invaluable to have the support of other women who are now some of my closest friends who understand the challenges of running your own business – and we cheer each other on. My business mentor is also incredible. She’s helped me to map out my business plans and helps me stay focused and accountable.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
I don’t know that I’ve got this working perfectly yet. I really think it helps to not be focused on trying to be balanced on the work and the family sides all the time. There are seasons of life where each side takes more time and energy. I’m in a particular family season right now – we welcomed our fourth child, Elizabeth, in February this year, 3 months early. So right now, family is definitely the priority and is where my time is going. As a family, we are also very focused on being a team (Team Bee) – so with my husband Matt, we’ve always made it work together.
When our first daughter (Abi) was a baby, the business was still only really new too – we thought we had this amazing plan of Matt working his job during the day, and we would literally meet in the doorway and I’d hand over Abi and go out to do home visits with families. We’d tell everyone how lucky we were to be able to do this. And we really were lucky. But we didn’t show people how hard it was to make this work behind the scenes. All the late nights and early starts and all the weekends that went into being able to create this flexibility. It was hard. But that was that season.
Like I’ve said, we really focus on being Team Bee. This focus I think really helps us. Especially now we are a growing family. We now have Abi (8), Madi (3) and Elizabeth (4 months). We have to have a good routine, be organised and communicate (because as well as being a busy business owner, we also have to juggle getting to dance and soccer and gymnastics too!). We really try to foster in our girls, and in each other as parents, that we have each other’s backs and we are all trying to help each other in the team where we can.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
Oh gosh – Clever Bees started in the year before I had Abi, so being a business owner has gone hand in hand with my journey as a mum.
There were initial challenges with us finding our rhythm after Abi was born. Once we ironed that out, we had the challenge of trying to navigate a business whilst continuing to grow our family. We went through pregnancy loss and unsuccessful IVF rounds before we miraculously fell pregnant with our son James in 2020. It turns out I haven’t had a smooth pregnancy with any of our children, but James was particularly difficult, which resulted in him being born extremely early at 25 weeks in January 2021. James then suddenly passed away in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) when he developed Necrotising Enterocolitis (NEC) at 3 weeks. This was beyond devastating for us, as anyone who has walked this road can agree. Dealing with the loss of a child and managing your own grief can be challenging. But when you’re also managing a sibling, there’s a part of your grief that you have to just package away to deal with later. We managed all of this whilst continuing to run our business. Trying to do all that, whilst running a business and looking after a team was so very draining. We were very lucky to be able to connect with Red Nose Australia and had incredible support through them, but there really isn’t an option to take the time you need to grieve when you have a business. Following more pregnancy loss and IVF, we were blessed with our second daughter in 2022, Madi. Again, I juggled a NICU stay with running a business.
When I think about the business journey we’ve been on over the past 10 years, intertwined with our family journey, they are inseparable and form part of my story. And whilst those challenges have been immeasurable, they influence who I am and what I bring to the table when I am working with families. I completely understand when things seem too difficult, and the different layers of mum-guilt. And I’m also very comfortable with meeting people where they are and working with them on what they feel they need at that point in their journey.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
Easily, the best part is the flexibility you get.
I love being able to be there for my kids and enjoy being part of their lives. I feel so very privileged to have this opportunity.
The biggest con through is that to have the flexibility, you’ve got to be doing the work and putting the time in at other times… from the outside, it might look like I’m really lucky because I’m able to pick my daughter up from school and take her to after school activities, but that means that I’m working at night, and I might not be there to put her to bed every night. There’s always a trade off.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
I’m really excited and proud of where I’ve come from and what I’ve achieved over the past 10 years in business. But when I look into the future, I’m so very excited for what I’m creating with Blossom and Grow Consultancy. At the moment, I’m releasing different resources and supports for parents at different points along their journey. So resources for new parents, parents of toddlers, parents of preschoolers preparing for school, school-age parents, the tweens and adolescent years.
You can also access my free toddler tips for parents on my website. These are delivered to parents in a series via SMS. I have some other resources and packages like this that I’m launching in the next few months.
From my work with families in general, as well as my work supporting parents, and of course from my own experiences as a parent myself, I’m really aware of how isolating it can be, and how many parents today can feel unsupported. I am a firm believer that it really does take a village to raise a child. Without giving everything away, I have some other projects planned which will focus on helping to build supports for parents (building their village).
Visit the Blossom and Grow Consultancy website to find out more, and connect with them on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Visit the Clever Bees Paediatric Occupational Therapy website to find out more, and connect with them on Facebook and Instagram.
