Tag Archives: expertise

March 15, 2019

How To Choose The Right Cannabis Consultant For Your Company

By Martha Ostergar

The cannabis industry is growing fast as more states implement legislation to legalize cannabis in different ways. If you’re trying to break in or keep your place in this new market, it can be difficult to understand and comply with ever-changing government regulations as you try and scale your business.

Cannabis businesses need to comply with a range of new local, state and federal regulations related to cannabis specifically, in addition to regulations already in place for the pharmaceutical and food industries to ensure their products are safe for public consumption. On top of that, there are the complexities of managing a supply chain, including growing, warehousing, transportation, food safety requirements, product labeling, business plans, marketing, selling and any other necessities that come with running a businesses.

This is a lot of new information when you’re vying for your place in the cannabis industry. That’s why some businesses are turning to consultants to help. Consultancy is a great and time-tested way to grow your businesses and keep a competitive edge. But just like every other industry, when you choose a consultant, there are specific things to look for and avoid.each party will have work to do in order to communicate clearly, define responsibilities and execute on a plan.

Understand the Role of Consultants

The expertise of cannabis consultants can vary widely. Usually there’s no “one stop shop” for everything you need to run your business, meaning consultants often specialize in a specific area. Consultant expertise includes specialties such as cultivation, manufacturing, food safety, dispensary, transportation, legal, accountants, human resources and more, all within different regulatory compliance wrappers.

It’s important to remember that consultants are usually not responsible for setting goals for you, but the right consultant can help you refine, meet and even exceed your goals. However, each party will have work to do in order to communicate clearly, define responsibilities and execute on a plan.

Focus on Your Specific Needs

Identifying your specific needs and understanding what success looks like for you is a critical step to take before contacting any consultant. This prep work helps you identify what kind of consulting you actually need and what you’re willing to spend to get it. Some consultants can help you tackle more than one area, but most will specialize. In fact, choosing several specialized consultants (if you have many needs), may feel like it costs more up front, but it will likely save you frustration, headaches and money in the long run. Additionally, if a consultant claims they can do everything in several areas of expertise, they may be overpromising on what they can actually deliver to you as a customer.

Ask the Right Questions

When vetting a consultant, it’s your job to ask probing questions. Don’t hold back and don’t be put off by vague answers. If a consultancy avoids questions or can’t give clear answers, they may be overpromising or being less than honest about their skillset. Here are some general areas of discussion to help you get started when interviewing consultants:

Consultants can help you get through unfamiliar territory or help you to manage your team’s workload.

The consultant’s relevant experience.
Past or current client references.
Detailed discussion of your specific needs as a business.
How much time can the consultant dedicate to you as a client.
Detailed outline of the consultation plan, including a clear timeline.
Responsibilities of each party, deliverables and what success looks like for customer sign off.
Certifications and credentials if relevant to your consultation needs (e.g. legal, accounting, regulatory).
What is and is not included with their quoted fee, and what you may be charged for as an “add on” to your contract.
Any possible conflicts of interest, including how consultants separate work for clients who are competitors.

Avoid Red Flags

As with any burgeoning market, there will be consultants who get into the cannabis space that are more interested in making money than helping you as an individual client as businesses work to legitimize the industry as a whole. Doing your research and asking for referrals helps, but there are also red flags to look for. Some of these red flags may pop up due to inexperience and some may be a sign of bad actors in the consultant market.

Asking for equity as payment.
Refusing to provide references.
Avoiding questions or giving unclear answers.
Unwilling to track time and itemize costs on bills.
Overpromising AKA “this sounds too good to be true.”
Dominating the process instead of treating you like a partner.

Build a Strong Relationship

To get the most out of a consultancy experience, it’s important for both parties to work at building a strong business relationship. You know you’re hitting the sweet spot in business relationships when you have well-oiled communication and feedback loops, including honesty around expectations and frustrations from both parties. A great consultant wants feedback so they can improve their process, therefore they will actively listen to and address your concerns. Additionally, it’s important for you as a client to also be open to feedback and ready to make changes to your process to get the best return on your investment.

September 21, 2016

Cannabusiness Sustainability

Dear Cannabusiness Community

By Olivia L. Dubreuil, Esq., Brett Giddings

2 Comments

Dear Cannabusiness Community,

You may have read our two recent articles. We received so much positive feedback that Aaron Biros (editor-in-chief of Cannabis Industry Journal) has invited us to continue with our own column at CannabisIndustryJournal.com. We are very happy to launch this column, and we thought we would take this opportunity to introduce our project, our vision and ourselves so you can understand where we are coming from when you read this series of articles.

Brett and I both have a background in business sustainability and corporate responsibility. We both have backgrounds in management consulting, with a specific expertise in sustainability issues along the supply chain. We have been working together for almost nine months now on sustainability issues in the Bay Area. In May, we started to get interested in sustainability in the cannabis industry and before we knew it we were diving deep into research relating to the environmental, social and ethical impacts of the legal cannabis industry. It was actually difficult to find a lot of information, as the reign of prohibition still very much influences what is available.

In June, we attended the National Cannabis Industry Association’s conference in Oakland to open up the conversation with cannabis industry players and to find out about people’s attitudes and approach to sustainability. The results were overwhelmingly positive. Not only were we encouraged to launch a project, but also excited to discover that many of the speakers presenting at the conference referenced sustainability in one way or another when they talked about environmental impact awareness, social justice, ethics or about staying competitive when “big business” enters the market.

What started out as a side project quickly became the center of focus this summer when we decided to incorporate Project Polaris, a California non-profit, to deliver sustainability knowledge and expertise to the cannabis industry.

Our thinking is as follows:

Thinking about sustainability, means thinking strategically about business. As we forge a new and upcoming industry, let’s seize the opportunity to make it a sustainability-focused one! Let’s create generally accepted industry principles that fosters a positive image of the industry and teaches newcomers about best environmental and social practices. Let’s create a voluntary and industry-led socially responsible code of conduct for cannabis business owners and suppliers, helping the regulators, as they will be drafting all of the future regulations of the legalized cannabis market. Let’s do more research on the market and the consumer. Let’s develop clean and green alternatives to dirty processes or practices. Let’s elevate the discussion and create a model industry, one where short-term, large-scale, quality-lowering corporate interests are kept at bay.

With this vision in mind, we created Project Polaris because we believe that this is a real opportunity for the industry to be a role model for other industries (and educate legislators as well as drive public opinion in those states that are still under prohibition laws). We believe there is a real economic opportunity for those businesses that understand how to embed sustainability properly within their business model. Because we know that sustainability influences legislators in a positive way because it sheds a positive light on businesses.

In the upcoming months, we will continue to research and report on sustainability-related issues facing the cannabis industry, such as packaging, edibles, “organic” in cannabis, butane extraction versus CO2 extraction and so on. We also welcome questions from our readers. If you have a question, please post it in the comments section below.

We will also take this opportunity to call out to cannabis industry organizations, cannabis businesses, or cannabis related services and product suppliers to get in touch with us if they wish to find out how to integrate sustainability more concretely into their action plan. We are not planning on doing this alone, we are seeking partners to join us on this journey, and we want to partner with you on your journey to Cannabusiness Sustainability.

PS: We still have one seat open for the board of directors and would love to hear from you if you are interested!

September 6, 2016

Adam Jacques and Team Launch Sproutly, Dispensary in Eugene, Oregon

By Aaron G. Biros

2 Comments

Adam Jacques and his team officially launched the newest arm of their business last week, Sproutly, a dispensary located in Eugene, Oregon. “This is an extension of what the Grower’s Guild Gardens does and what the Microgrower’s Guild was,” says Jacques. The Grower’s Guild Gardens, Jacques’ award-winning cultivation business, is known for their high-CBD genetics and patient-focused work, most notably with Leni Young, which helped lead to the passing of legislation in Alabama called Leni’s Law, decriminalizing the possession of cannabis oil for patients in the state.

Sproutly’s shelves boast over 75 strains of cannabis from Jacques’ farm.

Sproutly is a medical and recreational dispensary that boasts a wide variety of high-CBD strains, a reflection of the team’s focus in the past. “We are extremely medically focused with a variety of unique CBD strains in stock,” says Jacques. “First and foremost are the patients, but entering the recreational market means we will be carrying a wider variety.” The opening of the dispensary is well timed as the team received their Tier II cultivation license, allowing them to grow cannabis up to 20,000 square feet in an outdoor space and 5,000 square feet indoor. So in addition to the handful of brands they carry, including Lunchbox Alchemy edibles, Northwest Kind and Marley Naturals, they also carry over 75 strains from their own Grower’s Guild Gardens.

Adam Jacques in front of a display shelf at Sproutly.

Adam and Debra Jacques pride themselves in rigid standards for quality in sourcing, so it should be no surprise that they plan on supplying their dispensary with over 150 strains coming from more than 1,200 plants on their farm. “We really only take products from people we know and trust,” says Jacques. “That is why most of the flower in the dispensary is coming from our farm, so we know exactly what is going into it.” Jacques points to third-party certifications such as Clean Green, for other vendors to find reputable growers. “I need to know where it is coming from and that requires a personal relationship to trust the quality of their products.” The value of trust and personal relationships is also why they go through extensive training of their staff, using their own expertise for in-house training.

The team includes Chris West, Elton Prince and John De Kluyver, all of whom have a decade or more of experience cultivating cannabis and working with patients. “We take our bud tenders through training classes, they get tested on their knowledge of products and the science of cannabinoids and terpenes and how the combinations affect people differently,” says Jacques. By leveraging that high level of in-house expertise, the team prides themselves on customer service, helping patients and customers find the right strain or product that suits them best.

In the front of the dispensary, a receptionist greets patients or customers, checking identification and showing you to a bud tender. As you walk into the retail space, you immediately notice the professionalism of the staff, taking time to personalize each customer’s experience without making him or her feel rushed. The clean aesthetics, product selection and knowledgeable staff provide for a friendly retail culture without the common ‘stoner culture’ that usually follows.

Jacques and his team will not be trading in their overalls and work boots just yet as they are inching toward harvesting their 1,200 outdoor cannabis plants soon. Grinning ear-to-ear, Jacques showed off his Tier II cultivation license on the farm, and with it came a glimpse into their exciting growth.