Today we’re going to talk about how to put a cannabis business application together. The agenda for today is essentially we’re going to begin with the thing that makes a software successful and then we’re going to break it down into sections with financials, location, architects, security standard operating procedures, staffing, community benefits, labor, and plenty of other activities that we’re going to tie up neatly ultimately.
Just a couple things to give you an idea of whatever we do right here at Green Growth CPAs. Perform 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 now have clients from California, Colorado, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington.
We’ve also performed over a dozen audit related projects during the last year and we’re anticipated to hit seven digits in revenues in our second full business year. We all do would like you to know that there exists a thorough and deep understanding of tax compliance and assurance related requirements for your 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 an organization within the cannabis industry.
So like I said, we’re going first of all the thing that makes a software successful. I think what all applicants prospective and current applicants really learn as you go along would be that the instructions and understanding them is all about eighty percent of passing an effective application. You must know what exactly the city or even the state is looking for, the way that they wanted delivered. Most of the time, you know, the headers from the requirements may be misleading.
Like I said, you understand, they can say, oh, we need a business plan, but when you look at the requirements are what they’re asking for. It has nothing concerning your typical notion of what a business plan really is. So half the battle or over half of the battle is really being aware of what could they be requesting, how do they want me to submit this and then submitting it. You’re planning to wish to thoroughly address every part of the application in depth. You would like to make sure that you understand the prerequisites. Although more often than not applications do have the identical requirements. They might want specifics that other applications don’t.
For instance, let’s say Lynwood, the metropolis of Lynwood in California. They really want a cannabis business strategy that needs you to demonstrate and explain your daily operations, which includes cash handling practices, a little bit of security, some inventory and record keeping where versus the town of LA that may say, oh, we want a business plan that wants you to show financials what your company’s mission and vision is, which is really what you’d expect in a business strategy. So just be careful and check out the descriptions in the headers because sometimes the headers can be misleading.
Next you’re going to need to surround yourself with all the right people. You would like to show within the application you have the best team in position to operate an effective operation. Usually they will likely ask for the owners or licensees to include a quick writeup demonstrating expertise in either the cannabis industry or related field, and in case you don’t have this experience, you’re going to desire to find people who do and include them in your team.
You’re also going to want solid financial projections and security measures to avoid fraud. Everbody knows, cannabis is actually a highly regulated industry and these are the two pillars that a lot of states, if not all of them, would like you to focus on. You’re also planning to wish to vet your partners, do your due diligence. You will have to go by way of a background check and also this background check is necessary by all cities and states.
Another vital thing that you should consider before even obtaining cannabis staffing plan is you’re going to want to make sure you have enough money to build out and operate for at least 6 months to some year. We get plenty of inquiries from potential clients who would like to enter into the cannabis industry and they’re always blown away by the amount of money actually goes into building out and operating a cannabis business before it becomes profitable and you know, there’s hardly any other way round the financials, you already know, cities and states will never issue permits to individuals that can’t demonstrate a financial capacity to begin a business whilst keeping it running. And second, if a person. Perform get lots of clients which do not have experience in the cannabis cannabis industry.
On the other hand they have experience with business, successful business, and that is a thing that cities examine also because not everyone may have cannabis industry experience as it is illegal. It had been illegal over a state level and it is now legal. So you know, if you can to demonstrate some kind of experience with the cannabis industry, you already know that’s a self revealing, but if you don’t, then you really need to consider putting a group of people together that will show strengths in operation, finance, HR, that every soon add up to an organization.
As an example. We receive a lot of inquiries from individuals who want to become cannabis business operators which have no training even running their particular business so they might have some cash, you already know, that they’ve inherited or or some friends, a small group of friends that, hey, you understand, decide one day that, hey, we need to enter into the cannabis industry and when we pool our money together, then we can easily start one end and quite often they are doing have the funds for.
But the question is who are the group members? And lots of 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 have a doctor or perhaps a pharmacist in some manner, shape or form on the staffing plan. A minimum of for that first six to twelve months. This always strengthens your odds of being issued a permit along with a license because you know even if you have the money, you must have employees and also the members to trudge forward successfully in this particular industry and remain compliant because that is a really big issue…compliance. And as soon as track and trace is fully operational and vodnsg over the board, compliance will be among the big determinants of if cannabis business is going to be successful. So if I were you, a good thing to do is to enter your banking accounts or maybe your asset portfolios and find out just how much money you may have, how much cash you’re going to have to raise, and how much money you’re likely to need to placed into this cannabis business. Because it’s not cheap.
You’re also likely to wish to have an extremely solid comprehension of state and local regulations. Usually, applicants will hire consultants to achieve this for them. Regulations can be tricky simply because they’re very vague. There’s a lot of wiggle room, so you’re likely to desire to find somebody that may either be part of your team to assist you with compliance moving forward, or you’re going to wish to engage the services of a business or even a consulting group that can do that to suit your needs like us.
The very last thing that you’re really gonna want to think about before you apply for a cannabis business licenses is wondering what will almost certainly set my company aside from everybody else’s? And plenty of time this is accomplished through, you understand, giving to a major city, but it’s a little more about community integration, you understand, flipping the thought of cannabis is bad into how cannabis can in fact be helpful, the actual way it can reach out and touch lives, you understand, throughout the board, whether it’s for patients or consumers and particularly for that community where you’re going to put together.