Here is a google doc link to dispensary (potential sales) list which also includes contacts for those dispensaries in which we will be vending product. I have included phone numbers and emails for individuals and continue to update this sheet as members of Silver State Farms network and gather information about these individuals.
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Here are individuals that are interested in investing in MMEs from the recent MJ business conference.
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MJ Business Cannabis Conference Notes
Conference Sold OUT! Made lots of great networking contacts :)
MJ Expansion and Trends : George Jage / Chris Walsh
National Expansion and International Expansion to markets that are opening up.
Conversation has changed from getting busted by the DEA to raising money and expanding. Less risky then it was many years ago.
Projections indicate that the MJ market will be 8 billion by 2018.
2014- Washington state 200-250 million estimated in recreational sales
Il, Ma, Nv will fuel MJ growth next year
2018 - All 2016 referendums will kick in along with Alaska and Oregon legalization.
Mainstream professionals coming into the industry will bring positive attention to the industry.
2015 TRENDS:
Mergers and partnerships as people strengthen brands and increase foothold into market. Major VC deals 20million plus. New lawsuits due to edibles. California will not regulate its MJ market.
CHALLENGES:
Changing regulations, competition, legal challenges, keeping up with growth, expansion, keeping up with demand, recreational mj
Opportunities like this do not come around like this and we are still in on the ground-floor.
#mjbizcon hashtag
Ben Cohen - Ben and Jerrys IceCream
-Weed is awesome, you can make money doing what you love, you can be a socially conscious business and make money, someone is going to make a similar product so make people feel good about your brand, create an emotional connection with your product, connect with your community and this will create lifelong customers, give at least 1 percent of your gross away to charity, political contributions from companies are influencing the political process ( stampstampede.org )
Landing the account: Advanced Strategies for Selling to the Cannabis Industry
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Ingrid Joiya - Green Rush Financial - VP
Got her start in Arizona.
Listen to the patients to what products they would like and be innovative but not to the point of losing money.
Consider joint ventures to start a MME project.
Align yourself with local partners who can meet with patients and customers.
Develop a business plan and adhere to state regulations.
Look for easy opportunities to market products to customers.
Become an expert writing articles and press releases for MMEs.
Build brand recognition through linkdin.
Never stop looking for business opportunities.
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Selling Across The Country
Jessia Billingsley - MJ Freeway COO & Cofounder
Understand the differences in your market and your customer.
Northeast: Interested in compliance, credibility, business plan, value, longevity, competition for a few licenses. Jurisdictions looking to see how long companies have been in bussiness.
Northwest: Compliance in flux, social and community connections, events, staying connected in person, social media networking
Colorado / AZ - Compliance, follow rules in these markets
California / Michigan - Less regulation, show them return on purchasing your product
Spain - Social clubs, full recreational market, they want to communicate with their members.
Canada - delivery only, medical, brand recognition
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Aaron Justis - Buds and Rose President
Standards are raising for products, California has no regulations with regards to product.
Get to know products at each store.
Differentiate your chocolate after market research.
If selling flower, make sure it is well packaged.
Clean Green Certified - Organic certification in Cali
Edibles must be sealed, dosing, nutrition, legal warnings, ingredients, potency
Merchandise: small part of their revenue stream, hit man glass, Cloud V vaporizer pens (good returns and exchanges, cannabis friendly), The Wonder Seed lotions and creams non medicated and added revenue stream
Professional Services: Use people who know the industry, use an accountant that is dedicated to the industry, 280E compliancy, want a lawyer dedicated to the industry, Henry Wacolski - good MJ lawyer, Guardian Data ( help with data and merchant processing)
Vendors - find out if they have a policy at dispensary you want to sell at
ajustis@budsandrosesla.com
Q n A - Answers
Those in canna business in California should be given first crack at recreational cannabis.
Some edible companies have inspectors come in and see unmedicated product and do all their infusions on the weekend or after 5PM in California.
Shelf Life - You need to have a good exchange program for products with low shelf life.
Mistakes - Apologize and correct
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Customer Education To Make or Break the Industry
Dr Lakisha Jenkins
Cannabis Misinformation plays a part in the stigma of the herb. Provide as much information you can of the industry to the public.
Cannabis Consumers are 7percent of the population or 22 million currently.
2.5% of world population consume cannabis.
Consumers are the face of the cannabis industry.
Matt Wallsteader - Oregon Dispensary Owner / Growers
If you don't educate your customers someone will. Deliver valuable information. Educate effectively.
Deliver value and provide information to create positive relationships.
By educating customers, you keep them coming back to your dispensary.
If you don't educate, some people will misinform people.
Measure 91 - legalization of cannabis in Oregon
Teach basic information about Marijuana, how to use MJ safety, what are different strains, how to consume cannabis, current events in industry
Use words such as "patients with ADHD find this strain works for them" instead of Blue Dream cures ADHD.
Make community outreach a priority and make your marketting and community outreach efforts the same.
Over deliver value to your customers.
Give free lectures at library about how cannabis is medicine and how it can treat various conditions.
Join trade organizations and advocate for industry.
Educate customers and you have customers for life.
Bob Eschino - Medically Correct Brand - Incredibles Brand
Edibles Education
In April they had a edibles panic after some incidents. They formed a Co Edible business alliance to lobby and protect the industry.
Edibles are an important option for patients who cannot smoke.
1 gram of weed is 1000mg. There is 200mg of THC in Flower.
6.6mg of THC via smoking vs 50-100mg of THC consumed in an edible. A consumer needs to be educated to how much they will be consuming.
Every part of the process needs to educate the consumer.
It takes up to 2 hours for a edible to kick in or start.
Cannabisalliance.org Created a edibles handout to give out to all customers.
Main points in education brochure: Start with one serving, wait, don't mix, keep items away from children
Recommendations for consumers:
New Edibles Consumer: 1-5 mg
Occasional Consumer: 5-10mg
Frequent Consumer: 10-15mg
You have to see what a serving size is in an edible as a consumer.
Dispensaries must educate their budtenders and supervise.
bob@medicallycorrect.com
Batches are being tested not the extraction.
You should do a little more in the community to show value in the community.
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The Future of edibles: Regulations, Packaging, Labeling, & Lawsuits Panel
Dan Anglin - Edipure
Maureen McNamara - Cannabis Trainers
Ata Gonzalez - GFarma
Henry Wykowski - Lawyer
Train to your team to always do things correctly and playing by the highest rules possible because of the scrutiny the industry is in. 2 or more people getting ill will indicate a food born illness outbreak.
Design packaging that does not appeal to children. Effective packaging with muted colors in brown or purple. Put in plain print warning that this is a medicinal product.
Just because something is candy, this should not predispose that children will consume it to public.
All products / consumers need to be educated to lock their products up from children.
Educate cannabis consultants (Budtenders) to help patients understand the edible effects.
Some people are working on budtender certification programs to make sure your budtenders are trained when talking to consumers.
nsf.org - make sure you have smooth surfaces for sanitization
Sherman Act - Currently we do not have to worry about it because it is a federal act.
Third party certifications can assist with marketting.
Clean Green Certification - cleangreencert.com - cannabis agriculture and processing certification.
In Colorado you can not go over the dosage, they have limited this to 100mg. If over, it must be destroyed.
Trim, Oil, & Batch is tested at GFarma Edibles as part of the process.
Edipure takes existing products and injects oil into them and sells them.
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Loyalty and Retention: Capturing the Most Profitable Customers
Eric Briones - Minerva Canna Group
TRavis Howard - Shift Canna
Jazmin Hupp - Women Grow
5-10 years from now, large institutional competitors will try to dominant the market
Target Customer - Don't market to everyone, make smart choices with your limited budget. The target customers is plentiful and the most profitable in your area and these will provide the most benefit to your business. You want to determine their age, gender, income, location, desires. Survey your core customers via email or online. Pull data from your point of sales system.
Talk to your best 100 customers to gain information. Offer them lunch or dinner. Track phone, web, social, and door traffic. Pull local demographics.
Visit all your competitors and take notes. Try to establish how you are distinct or different from them.
3 categories of value -
Efficiency- fast, operational excellence
Superior - Quality, Consistency, The Best ( Great looking packaging)
Attention - Experience, Insight
Define your core customer.
Define your core strength.
Express that core strength in every prt of your operation.
Invest in your brand.
jaz@jazminhupp.com
Eric Layland - Cannaventures - Seatle Washington
Unmasking the New Canna Consumer
Survey your target demographic, analyze data, and look at your insight of the data.
4 distinct markets with clear brand preferences developing.
1. Indies - live and let live, uninhibited in consumption, 15%
2. Outsiders - largest percentage, younger and female, 44%
3. Nowists - 15%, educated, millenials, anti branding
4. Traditionalists - 26%, older, wealthy, educated,
Indies and Outsiders will return the most amount in your investment.
Indies - Fashionable, sexy, affordable, adventurous, in the know, Quality, early adopters, potency options, regular users
Outsiders - Escape, avoid immaturity, creative stylish, consistent of experience, packaging, like familiar presentations
Long Term - Indies / Outsiders are the best long term bet
Don't build your brand on shortcuts.
Develop and engaging story to engage with the customer.
Constantly and delivering brand over a period of time with a story.
ericl@canna-ventures.com
Travis Howard Shift Cannabis Company
Wholesale vs retail customers
Medical Customers - high needs, ethical issues and responsibilities, quasi medical, access to medicine is important with consistency
Recreational - Price point, volume, tourists
Quasi Medical Customers - partly medical, most profitable, also recreational user
High Margin - Hash / extracts, designer strains, wax, oils, organics, hand processed via trim or hand watered, high purity, breed your own, limit supply, inventory timings, seasonal offerings ( Halloween, Winter, Spring)
High Volume - Volume discounts, consistncy,
100-150 per customer transaction, higher may be a volume business,
Control supply and margins - 60% Flower, 30% hash / extract , 10% edibles his store in WA
The most profitable customers are the ones given multiple choices
travis@shiftcannbis.com
To market to dispensaries from cultivation, you need consistency in your product.
The majority of this person's customers are over 40 and asking how he can reach these customers. - Ask these customers why did they come in and what are they looking for, ask them how they found you so you can market in this area. Ask these customers to share your store with friends and put their name on a card
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Extraction Equation: Considerations, Costa and Advanced Technique
AC Braddock EDen Labs
Derek Cummings - Medically Correct
Heather Manus - Sacred Garden of Santa Fe
Panel / Q n A
Focus is key and maximize your marketing, start your own brands
Keep your cannabis source consistent for extractions.
Concentrates can be blends that will help you keep that consistency.
Strain specific edibles are good idea but sometimes hard to execute.
Just don't take any trim, it can be floor sweepings or tainted.
Trim prices have gone up and people are no longer giving it away.
BHO vs Co2 extraction -
Fear of hydrocarbon extraction is pushing people to Co2
BHO will get higher THC extractions
Closed loop systems for BHO in market
Pound of Flower / trim converted into Oil and What can you sell this for to dispensary with your cost? -
When moving / growing flower to oil - you care more about thc resin per plant / light then quantity of flower because turning into wax / oil. Penny a milligram cost of THC is a great number.
Co2 is a sanitizing agent that will remove molds but recommended you trash it.
Production Lab Software Recommendations - Lab notebooks - no software they know of that can assist with the process - documenting via computer docs
Water hash -some panel like it, others think extraction is better for potency
Genetics are important because you want high potency / resin for extraction.
Ethanol extraction may be better for certain demand / markets.
Butane extraction put into edibles is no harm to the patient - Derek
Is there a shelf life for co2 oils or bho oils?
-product does not appear to degrade over a period of time
-water hash does degrade
-cold is standard for prolonged shelf life
Become a certified food handler when handling food and make sure staff are trained to handle food.
Do you need to treat high cbd products differently during purge?
-thin film, thinner extractors are easier to purge
Should you pull flower early for different color?
-pull plants when mature and be happy with color
-bho results in yellow color
-Color has no baring on quality
-pulled product early has higher CBD
Thc in flower are going result in higher yield in extraction.
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Women and Boomers : Attracting this profitable consumer
Becky DeKeuster - Wellness Connection of Maine
Research your demographic before talking with them.
Women have multiple roles, 40 percent of women have kids and are sole / primary income source.
Boomers - active longer, impacting medical needs, control 70% of money in US, have access to technology, Millennials and boomer like to support business that support their values.
Make sure you have ads that appeal to women.
Have ads and store that is gender neutral and stores that are easily navigated for boomers.
Think about font sizes on flyers for boomers.
Meet the boomers where they are at.
Invest in outreach to the community, create partners in local organizations, sponsor senior and women expos, meet them in the media, let AIDS organizations know you are there to help, connect with homecare / hospice groups. do presentations at fairs / expos.
Hire and train women and boomers.
Brand a cannabox with pink ribon with part of it going to charity.
Be present and polite especially with hostile groups / organizations that are anti cannabis. Don't take no for answer, educate.
Becky@mainewellness.com
Auntie Dolores Kitchen
67 Percent of Boomers report pain as the biggest reason for using cannabis
MJ usuage is up with boomers
Women have highest use of anti anxiety meds and 2.5 more likely to use anti depressants.
MJ good for pms, anxiety, fibromyalgia, sexual function, and inflmation.
In California they do demo tastings.
More women then men on social media and use it more often.
facemark marketing shows its 60% of men on their facebook for auntie delores.
No hypersexualized marketting, fact based information, broad messaging for mass appeal.
Make your packaging:
List ingredients, use clear distinct labels, no pot leafs, deliver female aesthetic, subdued color and design to reduce children interest.
There packaging does not appear to have a call for action which should be a website or email with auto responder.
Common questions:
Professional Kitchen?
What is fat / sugar content?
How much to eat for effect? What is a dose?
Will this help with this condition?
Win the patient over -
Answer question about THC toxicity
Dispel stigma about cannabis
Educate about potency and health benefits of cannabis
Connect them with your product / brand / story and they will continue to use your product because of their connection.
Low glycemic sweeteners help regulate blood sugar, use cacao nibs, and coconut oil.
Julianna@Auntiedolores.com
469-420-0040
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Testing & Labeling : What it means for business?
Each state has their own division which is very different in each state regulating the market.
Quality assurance testing assures good branding in your product.
Communicate to patients the different types of THC / CB accessed via smoking or other forms of ingestion.
Strain fingerprinting can be conducted via testing.
Genetic analysis and sequencing are coming to protect intellectual property.
Steep Hill - creating strain fingerprint to market your cannabis
David Lampach
Mandatory Testing Experience
Cost, consistency, and delivery turn around is important to good labs.
Edipure submitted the same sample to 3 labs and there was no real consistency between labs. One lab was extremely low, which would result in overdose once infused at right level to edible.
There are no standards to how labs prepare samples.
Edibles require different kinds of preparation as lab samples.
Turn around times of your product result in different results in the lab.
If batch is above 100mg in Co it is destroyed.
Testing facilities will sometimes use fear to increase their bottom line and give anti cannabis community tinder for the fire as a result.
Increased cost for testing results in products costing more than the black market.
His company pays 250,000 a year in testing for his edibles company.
Moving Forward: Create a reference lab?, conduct testing at state run labs, allow in house testing with 3rd party audits, allow 3rd party audit of labs, manufactures should be able to test their own products, process should be able to be certified without having to test every batch
dan@dananglin.com
Investing Insight : Due Diligence on Cannabis Companies
Leslie Bocskor
Get copies of all agreements, liabilities, financial info etc..
Create investor checklist.
Do research and organize data in a comprehensive way.
Prepare all of your documents before an investor presentation to make it defensible or they will knock down valuation of your company.
Due Diligence allows for negotiation and proper valuation.
Public Companies - pink sheets and non reported information, talk to customers and vendors,
Private Companies
Crossing the line:
DOJ guidance
FinCen guidance
Common Sense
Dodge the bullet:
Discover the liabilities
Sometimes you can find out info to save your investment.
Ron Signeur
Fair Value - value of control and equity in business
Due diligence steps: qualitative and quantitative analysis, asset, income and market methods, reconciliation of value indications, business appraisal report, what is their income and market.
Challenges:
Lack of historical data, huge changes in industry, crop failure, leasehold challenges, skilled labor pool
Tax reform is coming
JIm Willett - private cannabis investor
Investing in canna industry, dangerous industry to invest in, startup investing
Due diligence in this industry is all the people involved with the project
Rare to find someone with cannabis and business background.
Be the last person to invest in a business. Make sure it is full funded before going to company.
It is going to take four times the amount of time that they probably say is needed.
Make sure you have a clause that allows you to dilute shares in operating agreement.
Investor without money is a promoter, be careful with these individuals.
Private Equity firm screwed him out of money but he got it back - took peoples money but they did not invest it in MJ business as they said they would.
Mining companies are seeing money going to MJ so they are adding MJ to their name to try to get money.
If its traded in Vancouver or Toronto then this is a redflag.
Q n A -
Electrum Partners will soon be accepting capital.
Jim - made money in public companies, some investments are going to go public
Cut through bullshit and find out who has the money.
Beware of promoters and make sure you get accredited investors.
Develop an investor questionnaire.
Transfer of equity is going to happen in the NV legislation next year to assist MME operations.
MJ is overvalued and similar to the dot.com boom.
Due Diligence Checklist - google this
Develop an exit strategy
18% returns in some investments in CO
Try to secure your investments with an asset if possible
Closing Session MJ Crystal Ball
Andrew Deangelo - harbor side
Tripp Keber - Dixie Brands
Rob Kampia - MJ Policy Project
Meg Sanders - Mindful - has some licenses in NV
