A mom's small business advice

Last week I moderated a panel on partnering at the National Small Business Week conference in downtown Washington.The panel was stellar: Shiv Krishnan from Indus Corp., James Partlow from Vangent Inc., David Ohle of Computer Sciences Corp. and Dan Chun of Occam Solutions.During the Q&A portion of the panel, Chun told a story about when he got out of the Army and was looking for what to do next with his life. His mother began asking him questions which quickly focused on finding a wife.She asked him, 'What are you looking for?' Chun told her: Attractive, smart, kind, serious about her career, and other attributes.His mother looked at him and said, as only a mother can, 'What makes you think you deserve all that?'The line got a great laugh, but Chun's point was serious: If you want a great partner, you, yourself, need to be a great partner. The small business partner needs to bring qualities to the partnership and not just expect the large business to carry the load.The panelists emphasized qualities such as technological expertise, customer relationships, responsiveness and doing what you say you are going to do. A small business partner needs to emphasize its unique skills as well as understand what the customer and the large business partner need.The National Small Business Week was put on by the Small Business Administration. Web casts of the event are supposed to be available soon. I'll provide the links when they are.