Obama moment is paying dividends

Steve Gordon admits his question to President Barack Obama on Thursday was a desperation move.

Blessed with the gift of gab and a tenacious attitude, the 53-year-old entrepreneur has tried in vain to win financing and a retail outlet for his water-saving faucet valve.

He nearly stalked the purchasing agents at HSN by phone, placing 40 calls to the cable retailer. At different times, he's hit up venture capitalists, the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

So, when he lucked out and got in a question to the president at the University of Tampa, he asked Obama to create direct loans to small business, without going through banks first.

"They gave AIG $170 billion," Gordon said Friday from his Clearwater company, Instant-Off Inc. "Here's a small business that needs $250,000, and they can't give it to him?"

Gordon instantly became a symbol of small business frustration, and his phone rang off the hook Friday with calls from media outlets, potential customers and others. Across the Tampa Bay area and the country, the top concern of many small and medium-size businesses is access to capital.

Countless businessmen say their banks or finance companies have called in their loans or cut their credit lines, forcing them to scramble to pay bills. One of the biggest sources of small business loans, the Small Business Administration's 7(A) loan program, took a big hit in the recession.

In fiscal 2009, the SBA guaranteed 44,222 loans totaling $9.3 billion. Two years earlier, the federal agency had guaranteed 99,606 loans totaling $14.3 billion. On a positive note, SBA loans have shown year-over-year increases in recent quarters because of the federal stimulus program, SBA spokesman Michael Stamler said.

The Obama administration also has announced a plan to use $30 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program for small-business loans.

Penny Hulbert, president of Tampa-based Links Financial, which advises small businesses on finance issues, said she's seeing a little more willingness among community and regional banks to lend money. Still, they are demanding more money from borrowers upfront and demanding tougher loan terms.

Gordon said his credit rating tanked because of the housing collapse, which has made it doubly hard to get a loan. He used to build multimillion-dollar town home projects in Trinity under the name Cypress Walk Developers.

Gordon's business imploded with the market and wiped him out financially. He turned to his second business, Instant-Off. His valves are sort of a low-tech version of the infrared devices found on restaurant and airports faucets.

He's gotten his Instant-Off valves into Home Depot stores, and he's caught the eye of businessmen in Israel and the Middle East. In his question to Obama on Thursday, Gordon said he thinks he could hire 500 people if he could just get starter money to buy patents overseas and market his products.

For now, he employs two full-time workers and 30 part-time employees.

"You can't get a loan if you have impaired credit," he said. "There is not one small business out there that hasn't been tarnished by this crash."