Les Taylor (Offsite Ltd)

Offsite is a small, but perfectly formed graphic design and print company with a large dollop of marketing savy thrown in for good measure.

We are happy working on just about anything that ends up being printed from a business card to an exhibition stand and somewhat unusually we can print all of it in-house. My co-director Nigel Gibb and I have worked together since the last century (1978) and have worked for a lot of well known companies. Four years ago we moved our business from London to Chelmsford to concentrate on a completely online model, but we soon missed the personal contact with our customers and have since developed a local offline business too. We love working with start-up companies an enjoy watching them develop into substantial businesses and we hope long-term clients. Currently, we are in the final stages before a launch of a completely new online business that we have been developing for the last few years...more of that later.

Born : 1953

Location: Hackney, London

Education: I went to school in the east end of London. My parents having given me what most of the other lads considered a girls name made sure that I quickly toughened up. It could have been worse they may have called me Sue. I spent most of my school years wanting to leave and judging by my old school reports 'I could have done better' I was never in any doubt about that, but I am surprised the teachers had realised  that too. Anyway it wasn't too terrible as I did manage to scrape a few GCE passes together and even managed to get an A level in Art a year early. This was just as well because the school finally gave up on me and sent me packing at the end of the lower 6th. My A level art got me into Hornsey Art College and my desire to earn money got me out again not long afterwards.

Hobbies: Cycling, Hockey, Gardening, Cooking and tinkering with motorbikes.

Work experience: I started as a junior artist in a commercial art studio in 1971 and have been involved in the Graphic Art and Printing industry ever since.

I started my first art studio 'Blades' in 1973. The business was an instant success, but I was very inexperienced and made the mistake of bringing in two other people as equal partners. This was not a happy partnership and I left in 1980 to start an Audio Visual production company....Blades did not survive! My partner in the audio visual business was Nigel Gibb who is probably the most talented and practical designer I have met and although the nature of our business has changed over the years Nigel and I continue to be in business together.

1973 was a milestone year for me as I met my soul mate and future wife Jacky. I took me a few years to convince her I was worth marrying and she finally gave up saying No in 1978. We have been happily married ever since ( well not all the time!!) We have four sons Chris, Mike, Jon and Rob. Chris now works with me in the business and Mike is a client. The other two boys are still finding themselves!!

A few years ago we moved the business from London to Chelmsford in Essex. Initially we intended it to be an online business only, but we soon tired of that and have now built up our business around local clients which is far more rewarding.

Since joining 4Networking in March 2010 I have gone on to help successfully launch the Chelmsford 4N Group, where I was the group leader for the first year. My intention from the beginning was only to do the job for one year as I wanted to leave on a high and not become as stale as a three term prime minister. I also believe that the group benefits from the renewed enthusiasm that a new GL brings to the post.