To The Rescue
Help for Y2K shows up in the form of a loan bill in Congress.
As one Capitol Hill staffer puts it, small business is
"doing the ostrich." Entrepreneurs are ignoring the Year
2000 (Y2K) problem, in which computers and embedded microprocessors
in telephones and other equipment fail to recognize dates after
December 31, 1999, causing havoc at the start of the new
millennium.
In introducing a bill that would make $50,000 loans for fixing
Y2K problems available, Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-MO) said that
testimony presented to the Senate Committee on Small Business,
which he chairs, indicated that as many as 330,000 small businesses
would shut down due to the Y2K problem and that an even larger
number would be severely crippled.
Bond's "Small Business Year 2000 Readiness Act"
(S.2372) would allow the 1,000 banks already participating in the
SBA's Preferred and Certified Lenders programs to make loans of
up to $50,000 with minimal paperwork. The SBA would guarantee 50
percent of the loans. The bill was introduced on July 30, just as
Congress left for its August recess, limiting the possibility that
it will pass before year-end.
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Despite the imminent Y2K disaster, too many small businesses are
keeping their heads in the sand. A study by Wells Fargo Bank showed
that one in five small businesses has taken preventive action;
another one in five plans to do so before January 1, 2000; two in
five plan to do nothing; and one in five doesn't even know the
potential problem exists.
The SBA provides educational materials via a Web site (http://www.sba.gov/y2k) and a
toll-free phone number (877-789-2565), which is hooked up to a
"fax-back" system.
"Time is running out," says Bond. "We need to
begin a series of programs to help small businesses very soon if we
intend to avoid a calamity in the year 2000."
Stephen Barlas is a freelance business reporter who covers
the Washington beat for 15 magazines.