Happy National Small Business Week!

National Small Business Week started off great on Sunday with a few events and a networking reception. The event is hosted by the Small Business Administration. The two and a half day conference in takes place in Washington D.C. at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel & Conference Center. The 2012 conference focuses on small business accomplishments, networking opportunities and educational workshops.

CEO Blog Nation and DMV CEO will be covering the event throughout the week.

With entrepreneurs twitter.com/DMVCEO/status/…

— DMV CEO (@DMVCEO) May 20, 2012

Workshop

How Small Business Can Win Big with Large Companies

Speakers: Holly Bohn, Founder and Creative Director, See Jane Work; Linda Boykin, Vice President Merchandising Supplies, Office Depot; Mark Dobosz, Executive Director of the SCORE Foundation and Vice President of Development for SCORE.

Key Remarks: Holly Bohn who spoke of her desire to make connections with individuals reminded the audience that she “collects people and not things.” Bohn also discussed some of her mistakes, but stressed that entrepreneurs remember to “do your homework.” Linda Boykin spoke of the importance of mentoring and that everyone has particular strengths and weaknesses and a mentor can help business owners focus more on their strengths. A mentor can “help you check one of those boxes off”. Mark Dobosz reminded entrepreneurs that they should “plan, plan, plan.” While Dobosz spoke about the free opportunities that SCORE provided through their 364 chapters nationwide, he also stressed that entrepreneurs remember that success is “10% execution and 90% planning.”

Check out the site: http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/

Check out the schedule: http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/schedule/

Watch live: http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/watch-live/

UPDATE: Check out our post on Day 2!