The latest speaker to join Lifetime’s ‘Barnsley Businesses Inspiring Students’ project is Steph Cronin.

Steph Cronin runs Black Bee Creative, which specialises in marketing campaigns, branding, graphic design and illustration (www.blackbeecreative.com).

When Steph graduated from Croydon College of Art and Design in 1999 she had a dream of using her creative skills to save the world by designing for the likes of Greenpeace or Oxfam.

However, day-to-day life got in the way and that goal took a back seat. Over the years she gained experience at some wonderful design studios in London and Barnsley, completing projects for local and multinational clients, in diverse sectors, such as property, education, health, retail, pensions and local Government.

Following a move to Barnsley, the birth of her daughter in 2010 and her subsequent redundancy, she started Black Bee Creative in 2013 so that she could have the life/work balance that she craved. Steph realised that she was finally in a place to make work a more fulfilling experience.

Today Steph works from her home studio and is revisiting her dream of making the world a better place, using her skills to help people with soul: organisations, ethical companies and all sorts of nice people who are working to make a positive difference in the world.

Steph says: “If I was invited to speak to students I would like to talk about my experience of the following:

• How the things I enjoyed as a child have filtered through to my chosen career as an adult, even though I got lost in the way!
• After years of working for other people and feeling compromised to put my work before my personal life, I now run my business so that it is in line with my needs and my beliefs.
• You don’t need to fit in someone else’s pigeon hole, but it is possible to create your own fulfilling career, and can make your work-life work for you and you shouldn’t settle for a career that you hate!