Are you looking to start a business but have no clue what kind of partners you need? The key to unlock a successful search is to look for partners that can bring areas of expertise that you lack. Let’s take school as an example.

You may be good in language but not quite so in science or maths. In school, teachers are trained to encourage students to focus on subjects that they are poor at to improve their overall grades. This habit of teaching students to “focus on improving weaknesses” while harmless at first glance, actually prevents students from honing their “good” skills (language in this example) to become extraordinarily great.

By focusing on a weak subject, you might bring your grades from 3/10 to maybe 5/10 or 6/10 at best. However, if you focus your time and resources on your strongest subject, you could possibly improve from a 7/10 to a possible 9/10.

What is the message I am trying to bring across here? Only this – society pays good money to those who are excellent in their field as opposed to those who are average. People pay good money to see a 9/10 or a 10/10. Mastery commands a premium.

Now, in a business, there are 3 important functions. I call it the MAP. Here it is:

  1. Marketing
  2. Administration
  3. Production

Marketing encompasses areas like branding and sales. Administration encompasses areas like finance, logistics, paperwork and compliance. Production includes areas like product line and product efficacy.

If you are like most of us, it is unlikely that you are great at all three functions. You might be good in marketing but poor in administration. However, you do need to know where your strength lies. Choose that area to focus on. If you’re good in marketing, focus on that. For the areas that you are weak in, you can either choose to outsource those functions or look for partners to help you in those areas.

With different people focusing on different functions in your business, you can increase the brand and productivity of your company as a collective effort and work towards a successful enterprise.

Start searching for those partners or look for companies that you can outsource these functions from your hands so that you can always keep your eye on the big picture. Start making your business into a well-oiled machine with the MAP model today!

To your success,

Mario