A strong voice for small business.

It's time for power brokers to listen, Televideo owner says

City and county budget cuts. The possibility of military base closings. The certainty of a fading defense-related industrial base.

Linda Bejarano Stepp observes these signs of San Diego's troubled economy with some complacence. It isn't that she revels in disaster. It's just that finally -- finally -- the powers-that-be may pay attention to the silent, slighted giant on which San Diego's economy has always depended.

"This is a time when the small business community can demand attention," said Stepp, 42, owner of Televideo, a local video systems design and supply firm. "While everyone is talking about what we can do to help San Diego, forming the round tables and appointing the task forces, we need to get down there and talk to small business."

Stepp has been an effective advocate for small business since she and her husband, David, began their own in 1976. As a board member and, last year, as president of the San Diego Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Stepp brought her relentless networking skills to play, helping the 5-year-old chamber to grow to a healthy membership of 500.

A petite woman with a gentle, thoughtful manner, Stepp talks with confidence about the Hispanic chamber's role in forging San Diego's economic future. Dominated by a close-knit network of small businesses, the Hispanic community could be a natural leader in small business advocacy. And, with its cultural ties to Mexico, it can serve as a bridge between the Anglo business community and Mexico in pre- and post-North American Free Trade Agreement times.

Such potential is not lost on the larger Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce, which recently tapped Gil Partida, a Hispanic chamber founder, to lead it.

And, for the first time, the chamber entered in December into a reciprocal, non-voting membership with the Hispanic chamber, as well as with the Asian and black chambers. Stepp represents the Hispanic chamber as an honorary member of the Greater San Diego Chamber's board.

Dave Nuffer, chairman of the San Diego chamber, calls the new reciprocal arrangement a "progressive move." It is also one that "the Anglo business community wasn't ready for until now," he adds.

"It is a question of economics -- who is running this town and who are the important players in town," said Nuffer, who notes that Hispanic, Asian and black businesses comprise about one-third of the total local business community. "It's mutually beneficial for us to embrace each other and work together."

Stepp agrees -- guardedly. The chambers need to hammer out details of their new relationship in coming weeks, focusing on specific agendas and projects, she said. A likely subject will be transforming the honorary board positions to voting ones, she said.

"At one time, the San Diego chamber didn't take us seriously -- I remember calling them to try to organize events together and the comment was, 'We'll talk some day,'" said Stepp. "Now they realize they need us, and we need them as well.

"Basically, we want to know what is in it for us. Are they just picking our brains, or are we really going to work together? We need to have a sense of that."

A Formidable Advocate

Whatever the future of the chambers, together and individually, Stepp promises to be a fierce proponent of small business interests. It is a subject on which she is both passionate and hard-eyed practical.

Partida, president of the San Diego chamber, calls Stepp an impressive and well-positioned advocate for local small business interests.

"She's a very advocacy-oriented person, able to articulate the problems of small business," Partida says.

And the time is ripe for such advocacy, he adds.

"In better economic times, there maybe wasn't much of a focus on business," says Partida. "We had the sun, the surf, and a very solid defense industry -- an industry that we don't have anymore.

"I think we'll see more of a city focus on large issues that will have impact on small business people -- the regulatory issues, the workers' compensation. People are realizing very quickly that San Diego is small business, our growth is internal and driven by small and micro businesses."

Stepp's own small business acumen was honed during a singularly eclectic career. A fourth generation Mexican-American and San Diego native, Stepp studied film production at San Diego State University and the San Francisco Art Institute, but never finished her degree.

She dropped her studies in 1971 to become a partner in a Beverly Hills health club. Three years later, a French corporation bought the club and, with her share of the proceeds, Stepp took a year off to travel with a friend in Venezuela.

There, Stepp found herself moving in high-powered political and television industry circles. Her friend and traveling companion was the daughter of Rene Ottilina, a Johnny Carson-like Venezuelan television personality who was running for political office. (Ottilina was later killed in an airplane crash, after his plane was sabotaged.)

Stepp returned to San Diego intending to resume her studies, but friends from the Pala Indian Reservation hired her to produce a video documentary on the American Indian Movement and that civil rights organization's historic Longest Walk protest march from San Francisco to Washington, D.C.

It was during that march that Stepp met her future husband, David, a sociologist and videographer who was also working on the documentary. With David's skills in the then-young art of video filming, and her own film production and management experience, the couple decided to open a video production and supply business in San Diego.

Growing Televideo

The Stepps formed Televideo in 1976 in a small suite in the Hillcrest area. By 1981, the company had expanded and moved to a warehouse and office facility in Kearny Mesa. Televideo closed the production side of its business, perceived as direct competition by some clients, and concentrated solely on video system design and supplies. It now employs 24 and grossed $8 million last year.

Over the past few years, Televideo has won numerous impressive contracts. The company completed a $5 million contract in 1990 to design and produce 63 portable video systems for the U.S. military, units that were used during Desert Storm to instantly film, edit and disseminate video footage of the war to the military and the media.

More recently, Televideo completed the delivery of 10 cockpit video recording systems for the Top Gun school at Miramar Naval Air Station. The systems were developed for the Navy's F-14 and F-18 aircraft to record video images from inside and outside the cockpit, enabling flight instructors to assess trainee performance.

Since it completed the $100,000 project last month, Televideo has been visited by the Blue Angels and the Australian Air Force; each discussed purchasing the system.

While pursuing its majority stateside business, Televideo also began venturing into Mexico in the mid-1980s. About 25 percent of its business is done with the Mexican government and Mexican broadcast facilities, including XETV Channel 12, Stepp says.

Treading Carefully with NAFTA 

Next year, the Stepps plan to open a Tijuana office if what they call "pre-NAFTA glitches" can be worked out. As with everything else, NAFTA could mean trouble for small business if small business isn't very careful, says Stepp.

"I've been to a lot of these NAFTA meetings and met these NAFTA officials who discuss NAFTA on the larger, societal level," she says. "But try to get them down to the nitty gritty . . . they don't know."

Stepp cited the Mexican government's recent enforcement of consumer safety and labeling requirements on Mexican imports -- a badly executed move that has resulted in export chaos. Stepp said she contacted city and federal officials in San Diego, but no one could provide any information about the problem.

"I want to know where I can go when I'm in trouble," says Stepp, who is proposing that either the city or the chamber establish a NAFTA office. "With all the rapid changes going on, it is a little like the old, hard days of trying to figure out how to do business in Mexico."

Stepp said she and other small business owners will press the new city leaders -- from Partida to Mayor Susan Golding -- to take a more aggressive approach to lobbying state and federal officials on issues affecting small business, including workers' compensation, new taxes and regulations.

"Task forces from the governor's office and from Washington, came through here last year to gather community input about business problems," Stepp says. "I talked to them about insurance problems, workers' comp, financing for small business -- and haven't heard diddlysquat since.

"If we are going to get anything done in this direction, city leaders will have to talk on our behalf with the state and the federal government."

Yet, before the city can take the lead, it first must do some serious sorting of priorities, she says.

"We need to fight for small business -- how to retain it, how to grow it," says Stepp. "But the agenda that some want to address -- the international airport, for instance -- some of it is grandiose and will probably never come about.

"I think the city needs to spend some time sitting down and seriously evaluating what is going to help San Diego."

TITLE: Co-owner and CFO of Televideo AGE: 42 RESIDENCE: Clairemont EDUCATION: Studies at San Diego State University and San Francisco Art Institute, no degree taken. FAMILY: Married; husband, David, daughter, Ondrea, age 11.