Setting up a small business has always been a risky enterprise. Small firms come and go.

But for one Medway company, the signs have always been good.

Browse Bion Architectural Signs, run by husband and wife team Jon and Sheila Browse, has been in business for 30 years and is still going strong.

The achievements of the firm were recognised many years ago when it won the 1997-98 Medway Small Business of the Year award.

At the time, Browse Bion was said to be among the UK’s top seven signage companies, a ranking it still holds 15 years later.

Jon has expertise in graphic design, while Sheila’s field of expertise is screen printing. As in every other field of manufacturing, technology has dramatically changed design and production methods. Many of the designs incorporate CCTV cameras.

Another change is the off-putting amount of bureaucracy, including health and safety restrictions, involved in bidding for some contracts.

The current workforce of about 15 makes the signs at their base in Medway City Estate in Strood, using Jon and Sheila’s designs. A team of sub-contractors, some of whom have been with Browse Bion for 20 or 30 years, work in the field.

”We have a wide range of clients, from museums to local authorities and a lot of our work involves transport in one form or another,” said Sheila, whose maiden name is Bion.

Browse Bion’s products can be seen all over the UK. The free-standing signs outside Kings Cross underground station are theirs, as is the signage on the Emirates Airlines cable car over the Thames at Greenwich.

The company made the bicycle stand at the Docklands Light Railway and the bomb-proof hi-tech information board at Gatwick’s South Terminal.

Signage and information boards in public parks, funded by lottery cash, have also been a good source of business for Browse Bion. They can be seen in parks in Brighton, Lewisham, Beckenham and Clapham Common.

While many small firms stood still or went backwards during the recession years, Browse Bion was unaffected.

“We are not the cheapest,but customers keep coming back to us because of the long-lasting quality of our products,” said Sheila.

“We used to have a couple of employees doing marketing for us, but it didn’t really work because we are the best people to market our products and we don’t have the time to do it. So we very much rely on our reputation and word of mouth.”

What of the future? Sheila believes the business is more likely to grow through spin-off company Help Point.

As railway stations up their game to become more customer-friendly, that’s where Help Point steps in.

Customers can use interactive information units, fitted with cameras, if they have a problem at the ticket barrier. So, far around 70 have been installed in stations across the UK. And there are many more to go.