Founded by experienced Occupational Therapist Steff Bee in 2016, Clever Bees Paediatric Occupational Therapy was born from a deep passion for helping children and families, providing mobile occupational therapy support in New South Wales. Over the years, the business evolved, expanding to offer outreach clinics and online support, with a focus on empowering parents to build their confidence as the experts in their children’s care. Through both personal and professional challenges, Steff has remained dedicated to making a positive impact in families’ lives. Now, with the launch of Blossom and Grow Consultancy, Steff provides support for parents at different stages of their parenting journey, offering valuable resources and guidance. Here she talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind her businesses, 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?
Ummm where to begin!?… I am an Occupational Therapist, and I’ve worked with children and families over the past 16+ years. I have always been very passionate about helping children and families to achieve their goals. When I couldn’t find a workplace that was as passionate about it as I was, I decided it was time to do it myself!! So, in 2016, Clever Bees Paediatric Occupational Therapy was born! Initially this was a service that provided mobile Occupational Therapy Support to children and families in the Newcastle and Hunter regions of New South Wales.
I grew up in Parkes, a small town in the Central West of NSW. So I have always had an interest in striving for equality in health, particularly for rural families. This led to me offering outreach clinics throughout NSW, and then online support from 2017. The use of online therapy showed me the real difference I could make when I worked with parents to build their capacity, rather than just working directly with kids. It also showed me how many more families I could reach (not just in my local area!). Over the years, I have become a very passionate advocate for working with a child and their family in their natural environment to achieve their goals. I then found that if I could also help parents to be more confident as the experts of their children, we could make an even bigger difference!!
Being part of a child and family’s journey is such an honour for me – making a difference is what fills my cup.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
In the beginning, it was just me. I grew Clever Bees very quickly, without really a lot of business knowledge or understanding. When I was pregnant with Abi in 2017, we had the realisation we’d have to add a team. So I started on the difficult task of trying to find the right team to build around my vision.
We’ve had varying teams and business structures over the years and they’ve all come with their own strengths and challenges. I am really excited that this year it’s back to being just me, with a real focus on working directly with parents!
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
Like most small business owners, I never sit still. I’m always thinking about how to grow and change to meet the next obstacle. Business owners have to be so agile!!
I truly value innovation and ‘outside of the box’ thinking, and I’ve done this a lot with Clever Bees.
I think the biggest breakthrough for me personally to do with the business would be doing business mentoring. I’m now part of an incredible group of like-minded women (mums) who also have allied health businesses. The support and community I get from them is amazing. My business mentor is incredible, and it’s how I was then able to map out my newest breakthrough – without giving away all my plans, this is shifting to focusing on my work with parents – and the birth of my new business, Blossom and Grow Consultancy.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
Someone once told me to give up on trying to balance things between work and family – sometimes you just have to give more to one side and then you have to give more to the other side, and that’s OK. They don’t have to be balanced all the time. I am lucky to have my husband Matt, and together we make it work.
When I returned to work when our first daughter (Abi) was about 4 months old, we thought we had this awesome system where Matt would come home from work of an afternoon, and I would literally hand Abi to him in the doorway and head out to go and do home visits with families. We thought this was an amazing plan and told everyone how lucky we were to be able to do this. And really, we were very lucky. What we forgot to mention to people was all the prep that went into being able to do this, and all the late nights and early starts and all the weekends that went into being able to have that flexibility. It was so hard!!
I think what helps us now the most (now we are busier than ever with two children – Abi, 7, and Madi, 2) is our routine. We all thrive off having our predictable routine, and putting the time in to be organised and prepared in advance. We also talk a lot about Team Bee – which basically means that as a family, we have each other’s backs and we all help out where we can.
