Business owners tell Barb Engel, executive director of the South Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, that they're sick to death of the whole topic. In addition, dozens of U.S. Small Business Administration Y2K workshops have been scuttled because of a lack of interest. It's not for lack of numbers. But some small business owners say their firms are too tiny and unsophisticated to suffer catastrophic damage from a computer meltdown. His sole computer is an Apple Macintosh, a brand free from Year 2000 worries.
Experts agree that the smaller the firm, the less dependent they generally are on computers.
But the failure of machinery, a billing system or payroll software could be serious enough in a small business to cause the firm to fail, experts say. Even a short disruption could allow a Y2K-ready competitor to cold call customers looking to steal accounts. Small businesses aren't oblivious to the risks. In some cases, the cost of preparing for Y2K is just too great. Many small businesses are just trying to put out the daily brush fires and are hard pressed to look down the road.