Today we’re going to talk about how to put a cannabis business application together. The agenda for today is actually we’re going to start off with exactly what makes a software successful and then we’re likely to break it down into sections with financials, location, architects, security standard operating procedures, staffing, community benefits, labor, and lots of other things that we’re likely to tie up neatly ultimately.
Just a couple things to provide you with a concept of what we do right here at Green Growth CPAs. We do tax preparation and we’ve completed over 500 annual tax statements for cannabis operators spread across all verticals, so that’s dispensary distribution, cultivation, manufacturing, delivery, and testing. We have over 300 clients situated in various states. We have clients from California, Colorado, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington.
We’ve also performed spanning a dozen audit related projects in the last year and we’re expected to hit seven digits in revenues in our second full business year. Perform would love you to learn that there exists a thorough and deep knowledge of tax compliance and assurance related requirements for that cannabis industry and also this includes cannabis licensing. We can help you with tax preparation and planning, auditing and assurance, business plans, and anything else associated with operating a company inside the cannabis industry.
So like I said, we’re going to begin with what makes a software successful. I do believe what all applicants prospective and current applicants really learn in the process is that the instructions and understanding them is about 80 % of passing an effective application. You must know very well what precisely the city or the state wants, the way they wanted delivered. Most of the time, you already know, the headers in the requirements may be misleading.
Like I said, you already know, they might say, oh, we require a business plan, but when you look at the requirements are what they’re asking for. It offers nothing related to your typical concept of what your own business plan really is. So half the battle or more than half of the battle is really understanding what will they be requesting, how do they desire me to submit this and then submitting it. You’re going to wish to thoroughly address every part of the application in depth. You would like to make certain that you understand the prerequisites. Although usually applications do have the identical requirements. They might want specifics that other applications don’t.
For example, let’s say Lynwood, the town of Lynwood in California. They really want a cannabis strategic business plan that will require you to demonstrate and explain your day-to-day operations, including cash handling practices, some security, some inventory and documentation where versus the town of LA which may say, oh, we wish your own business plan that wants one to show financials what your company’s mission and vision is, which is really what you’d expect in a business plan. So just be careful and look at the descriptions in the headers because sometimes the headers can be misleading.
Next you’re going to need to surround yourself with the right people. You would like to show inside the application that you have the correct team in position to perform an effective operation. Usually they will likely ask for the owners or licensees to include a quick writeup demonstrating experience with either the cannabis industry or related field, and if you don’t have this experience, you’re planning to wish to find individuals who do and can include them within your team.
You’re also going to wish to have solid financial projections and security measures to prevent fraud. Everbody knows, cannabis is a highly regulated industry and these are the two pillars that a lot of states, if not completely of these, would love you to pay attention to. You’re also going to want to vet all your partners, do your due diligence. You are going to have to go by way of a background check and also this background check is needed by all cities and states.
Another vital thing that you need to consider before even applying for cannabis staffing plan is you’re going to want to ensure that you have enough money to build out and operate for at least half a year to some year. We obtain plenty of inquiries from prospective clients who would like to go into the cannabis industry and they’re always blown away by the amount of money actually is put into building out and operating a cannabis business before it might be profitable and you also know, there’s hardly any other way across the financials, you understand, cities and states will never issue permits to people that can’t demonstrate a monetary capability to begin a business and keep it running. And 2nd, if a person. Perform get plenty of clients that do not have expertise in the cannabis cannabis industry.
On the other hand they may have expertise in business, successful business, and that is something that cities take a look at also because not everyone could have cannabis industry experience since it is illegal. It had been illegal over a state level and it is now legal. So you know, if you can to show some kind of experience in the cannabis industry, you know that’s a self revealing, but if you don’t, then you should consider putting a team of people together that may show strengths in operation, finance, HR, that every add up to a business.
As an example. We receive a lot of inquiries from people that desire to become cannabis business operators that have no training even running their very own business so that they might have some money, you know, that they’ve inherited or or some friends, a team of friends that, hey, you understand, decide 1 day that, hey, we should enter into the cannabis industry and in case we pool our money together, we can easily start one end and sometimes they do have enough money.
But now you ask , who definitely are the group members? And lots of enough time, you might need to pay to outsource for such qualified staff. If you’re likely to do get into medical cannabis, you might like to use a doctor or even a pharmacist in some way, shape or form on your staffing plan. A minimum of for your first six to one year. This always strengthens your odds of being issued a permit as well as a license since you know even if you have the money, you need to have employees as well as the members to trudge forward successfully in this industry and remain compliant because which is a really big issue…compliance. And when track and trace is fully operational and vodnsg across the board, compliance is going to be one of many big determinants of if cannabis business is going to be successful. Therefore if I were you, the best thing to perform is to go into your accounts or maybe your asset portfolios and discover precisely how much money you might have, how much cash you’re planning to have to raise, and the amount of money you’re likely to need to placed into this cannabis business. Because it’s not cheap.
You’re also going to want an extremely solid knowledge of state and local regulations. Usually, applicants will hire consultants to do this for them. Regulations can be tricky because they’re very vague. There’s lots of wiggle room, so you’re planning to wish to find somebody that will either be part of your team to assist you with compliance moving forward, or you’re going to want to engage the services of a company or a consulting group that will accomplish this for you like us.
The last thing that you’re really gonna want to think about prior to applying for a cannabis business licenses is asking yourself what will set my company apart from everybody else’s? And lots of the time this is achieved through, you know, giving back to a major city, but it’s much more about community integration, you already know, flipping the concept of cannabis is bad into how cannabis can in fact be helpful, the actual way it can reach out and touch lives, you already know, throughout the board, whether it’s for patients or consumers and particularly for the community where you’re going to put together.
