Tuesday, 03 Mar 2015 17:21 GMT

Bristol Banners and Signs

Starting a business is tricky at the best of times. Harry Mottram asks Paul Tyler of Bristol Banners and Signs about the secrets of starting a sign company from scratch

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Sign-makers often have really well-maintained homes, Paul Tyler once told me, as they have to be electricians, joiners, carpenters, metal-workers, plumbers, as well as being adept with plastic sheeting and have a comprehensive knowledge of health and safety legislation. If anyone would know this to be true, it is this self-starting founder and managing director of Bristol Banners and Signs.

Tyler has been in business as a sign-maker for some 15 years, surviving at least one protracted recession and more than a few dips in the economy. His business Bristol Banners and Signs is located in Kingswood and employs two sign-makers. Small as it is, the company has wide portfolio, focusing on local businesses and organisations in need of signage, banners, vehicle graphics, and point of sale, with universities, schools, shops, construction companies, and restaurants as their clients.

Sign-making was not something that Tyler had originally planned to do but it was fate that caused him to start in business. It all began a few years ago, he recalls, when Tyler was working as a sales representative.

He says: “I’ve sold solar panels, intruder alarms, windows, and all of those sort of things. One of the things I also sold was industrial plastics, something I did for about ten years. Some of my best customers were sign companies. I used travel around the South West and South Wales selling plastic. The beauty of plastic is that everyone needs it in some form or other. Whether it’s for machine guards or packaging, there’s always a need for it. And one of the biggest users were sign companies who I used to call in to see.

The beauty of plastic is that everyone needs it in some form or other. Whether it’s for machine guards or packaging, there’s always a need for it”


“But one of the things I noticed was that many sign firms were not very proactive. They would sit and wait for the phone to ring and when it rang they’d jump on it, do the job, and then wait for the phone to ring again. I thought that being from a sales back-ground I could do a little bit better than that.”

Starting from scratch

As many people in sales experienced, the ups and the downs of the economy led to occasional redundancies, leaving Tyler looking for another job. That is until one day when he decided enough was enough.

He takes up the story: “Having been made redundant again, I thought I wouldn’t get back on the treadmill but try something new. So I talked myself into a job at a sign-company and within a year was running that company. Unfortunately the person who owned the company realised nobody wanted to speak to him anymore; instead they wanted to deal with me. We had a parting of ways and it was then that I decided to start up on my own back in 1997.

Having been made redundant again, I thought I wouldn’t get back on the treadmill but try something new”


“I did what many people do; starting my business from my home, using the garage and the spare bedroom, until about a year later I needed more space as I had more machinery. I then looked around for a starter unit and found one on a local farm in Keynsham near Bristol where I was for five years.”

And so Bristol Banners and Signs was born, first as a sole trader and later as a limited company. His wife became company secretary, his family helped occasionally in the school holidays and several loyal members of staff, one of whom is still with him after all the years, joined to make the company a reality.

Trading places

After seven years Tyler moved the business four miles away to Kings-wood into the current premises where he has continued to trade ever since. Although as he muses about building the firm into a larger outfit, it is not so straight forward as starting up in business.

“We’ve been trotting along quite nicely,” he says, “achieving each year what we planned to achieve and a little bit more. In the last couple of years we’ve been making money but perhaps not as much as we used to four or five years ago. You have this erosion of margins, with the buyers at your customers’ businesses changing, and with big companies only wanting to deal with big companies. So unless you’ve got a whole lot of staff it’s very difficult to tick every box for them.

“The second person I employed is still with me, and has been with me for twelve years now. Currently we have two people on the books, although we have been up to five in the past when times were busier and we needed more hands on deck. Our book-keeper left two years ago, who worked part time, but I’ve managed to fill that myself. I do have a few late evenings and a few Saturday mornings but that’s the way to keep costs right down.


Worker power: Bristol banners has a small workforce of two sign-makers with lots of top kit



“The way to survive recessions (and I think we are still in the recession) is to keep costs down. We are working with a skeleton staff at the moment as are a lot of companies. But the way to survive is to cut overheads and then cut them again and see how that goes.”

Business continues with Tyler multitasking, his wife keeping the books and, as he says, the work ticking over nicely. To use a modern truism, it is a company that does what it says on the tin.

“We do a lot of banners. We like to do banners and we specialise in it,” says Tyler. “One of the biggest things we do at the moment that has come in during the last couple of years is the pull up banner, which comes in a pack. Our best seller is the Penguin banner. We sell a lot of them because they are very good and customers are very pleased with them. We have large digital printers so we can print PVC banners all day long for schools and colleges who have open days and events.


The company’s name says what it does on the tin, specialising in banners particularly for schools and universities



“We do vehicle graphics which is a good market for us, although we try to look for the people who have several vehicles rather than the one van business. We also do a lot of company branding, especially for construction companies, who want their building site to look exactly the same where ever it is.”


Van man: the firm offers a range of signage including vehicle graphics for company vans, though it usually approaches companies with more than a single van in its fleet



Sky high passion

In his spare time Tyler likes to go off-roading on his motor bike, and also likes road biking as it beats the traffic in the notoriously congested city, and he is also keen on taking to the skies.

He says: “I do a have a life outside of business. I’m training to be a micro-lite pilot in order to get my licence although that is weather permitting because from November to March nothing happens until Easter when it will be dry enough to land and take off—so we like to have a bit of a life outside of signage.

As every self-employed person knows, you don’t switch off at five and go home”


“But as every self-employed person knows you don’t switch off at five and go home. You tend to be thinking about work all day all night, it’s the first thing you think of in the morning I’ve got to do this today, got to that today, and of course you can’t let people down as it comes back to you.”

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