While President Barack Obama is trying to fix the economy, some saavy and creative entrepreneurs are using his image as a way to generate their own economic stimulus. Following the model used by brands like Pepsi, who modeled their advertising after Obama’s “Yes You Can!” campaign, small-business owners have followed suit.

“I’m always a glass half-full type guy, and I think that, in every downturn lies opportunity. I didn’t have any hesitation,” said Brian McElroy, founder of My Pic with Obama, a service that allows Obama fans to share Photoshopped photo-ops with our president. “I was surprised that no one had done it already.”

When Obama won the presidency, McElroy looked at the front pages of the newspapers and bought the commemorative issues of Time magazine. Browsing the website of The Harvard Crimson, McElroy noticed that Harvard University (his alma mater) students were lining up to have their picture taken next to cardboard cutouts of Obama and wondered if he could create a similar service. Co-founder Pedro Sostre helped him create the website.

The customer chooses a source photo from McElroy’s pool of fourteen photos; scenes give the customer the chance to shake Obama’s hand, share a secret with our sexy leader, go on a date with Obama, introduce your child to Obama, or take the oath of office with our president. Next, submit one to three digital photos so that McElroy’s team of professional designers can choose the one that fits the best. Within hours, the customer will receive a customized digital picture ($9.95).

McElroy, who also owns McElroy Tutoring, Inc., a tutoring business in San Diego, CA, has an entrepreneurial spirit. However, McElroy’s personal political beliefs also motivated his efforts. “I’ve been a big Obama fan since day one, and I supported him in the primaries. I’m a politics junkie in general.”

Other entrepreneurs started their Obama-centric business because it was the most effective way for them to contribute to the campaign.

(Pictured above: McElroy with Obama, courtesy Brian McElroy)

Said Daniel Flahiff, President and CEO of Big Fig Design, LLC, “We first began selling Obama merchandise in March 2008 as a way of being involved in the Obama election effort. Our shop is small, and my wife Julie and I are raising two young boys. We don’t have much time to volunteer for the causes we love, but we do have some decent design skills.”

Based in Seattle, WA, Big Fig is a design group that provides environmental, interactive, industrial, and graphic design services to clients from a variety of industries; “from entertainment to IT consulting, shoestring-start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations”.

Their Big Fig Design t-shirt shop, which customers can find on Zazzle, includes a variety of modern, minimalist, and trendy styles. One shirt simply reads: “Malia&Sasha&Michelle&Barack,” a design which hip parents can appreciate. In one comment on their Zazzle site, a fan wrote: “Your imagination is working overtime!”

Entrepreneurs like Jason Feinberg, founder of Jailbreak Toys and creator of the Obama Action Figure ($12.99), anticipated Obama’s popularity and launched his toy in anticipation of the hype.  Said Feinberg, “I came up with the idea back in 2007 and showed the first prototype at a toy convention in early 2008. At the time, I was betting on a long shot and wasn’t sure if buyers were going to have the same belief in his success that I had.  I was out in front of the avalanche of memorabilia that followed.”

Feinberg’s action figure represents the way he feels about Obama’s “larger than life” energy.  Six inches tall, the Obama Action Figure has eight points of articulation so that customers can “pose him presidentially.”

(Pictured above: Obama Action Figure, courtesy Jason Feinberg)

“If President Obama was ‘just another politician,’ I wouldn’t have created a figure,” said Feinberg.  “I grew up in the time of Star Wars and Happy Meals where the action figure was what it was all about. Those figures were representative of something larger than life and I think that Obama tapped into people’s imaginations the same way. I know he tapped in to mine.”

Feinberg, a former schoolteacher and now full-time toy maker, was motivated, like Flahiff, by his desire to support Obama’s campaign and his presidency. For every action figure sold, Feinberg donated one dollar to Obama’s campaign.  He worked hard for Obama, shipping 50,000 pieces of inventory per week on his own.

Though Flahiff, Feinberg, and McElroy are new to the business of selling political merchandise, Jack Goldenberg, President of Obama Watches ($60), has some experience.  During the 2000 election, he sold “Gore for President” and “Bush for President” watches.  “Both were so boring and sales were so light,” he said, that he sold eight times as many “Anybody Else for President” watches.  He also had four designs with photographs of people he thought would make better or more interesting candidates.

Now, Goldenberg sells 13 different Obama Watches to people in the US and abroad. He frequently receives e-mails from customers who thank him for creating “such a lasting memory of America’s most historic election”. Three of his watches are in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. In addition, Goldenberg claims that the president has five of his watches, which he gave Obama himself.

Said Goldenberg, “In December, 2007, I wore an Obama watch that I had made to a friend’s birthday party. At the time, I had no intention of making and selling Obama watches. The next day, I got five e-mails and phone calls from friends asking me where they could buy those Obama watches.”

This time around, Goldenberg is particularly inspired by Obama’s call for Americans to take responsibility for their own lives and destinies. He said, “Early on, people thought I was crazy when I not only supported Obama, but opened up a business that could easily have gone bust if Hillary got the nomination. But we hung in there, never wavered, and it paid off.”

(Pictured above: Obama Watches, courtesy Jack Goldenberg)

Obama’s journey to the presidency has affected sales, in a predictable way. Said Flahiff, “Our sales have followed the pattern you might expect. Sales began slowly, ramped up to election day/day after, and then slowly tapered off.”

“During Inauguration Week, we sold thousands of watches to people all across the country. Now business has, of course, dropped off, but it’s still pretty strong,” said Goldenberg. “Our business at retail now is just a few watches each week per location, but during the height of the campaign, one of our stores in Washington DC, a jewelry store named Ann Hand, sold over 300 Obama watches.”

Fluctuations in sales don’t deter these entrepreneurs from pursuing their dreams. Said Goldenberg, “Because 13 is an unlucky number, we’re producing a 14th watch, and we’re planning an even bigger Obama business in the fall when we launch Barackofthemonthclub.com. Plus, we have three more Obama business we’d like to launch nationally if we get the backing.”

McElroy won’t let the poor economy stop him from expanding his business. In the future, he plans to launch more My Pic With (insert political figure here) websites.

“If he does turn the economy around, purchasing a 10 dollar photo would be a great way to give credit to Obama,” said McElroy. “There are two types of people: the people who admit that the economy is hurting them and the people who pretend the economy’s not hurting them. One attitude that entrepreneurs want to share is that they don’t want to seem vulnerable. But really I think it’s hurting everyone.”