Thoughts on going commercial???

[Tank333]

Hey guys. I'm in Washington, and I'm thinking about the possibility of switching from the medical realm to the commercial realm, once the rules all get set up and clarified. I'm a huge proponent of medical cannabis, and one of my biggest goals is to help cancer patients get the medicine and oil they need to treat their illnesses. Organizing as a non-profit working in the commercial realm will allow me to accept donations (for startup and operating expenses) and volunteer workers (much easier than dealing with payroll).

I think getting into the commercial field will give me a great opportunity to do some breeding on a massive scale. If I don't have to worry about plant counts, it would be much easier to identify and isolate very rare phenotypes... flowering out 10,000 rooted clones in a warehouse is much easier to do if you don't have to worry about the feds banging on your door... lol


What do you guys think?? Have any of you spent any time thinking about entering into the newest legal industry in our country? :D

 

[Seamaiden]

My first thoughts are capital. Got capital? I'm thinking you're going to need about $100,000 to get started and moving along. Never mind the legal stuff.

 

[soserthc1]

My thoughts are first a large investment on a uncertain field as as your aware are trying to take growing away from Wash and handing it to the liquor control board and could take away your freedom in a blink . Second thought is popping out 10,000 rooted clones will only give you what the mom of that clone brings to the table unless you plan on popping some beans for male's i don't see the breeding aspect of it.... personally of it was me i would go semi large scale but not commercial - registered until all the legal stuff is sorted out...
you have a beautiful state up there had the pleasure of visiting hemp fest and was amazed at the beauty of the area
best of luck in which ever you decide

 

[Tank333]

Yea, capital is the biggest obstacle, that's for sure. I figured I wouldn't needd to go balls-to-the-wall straight from the start, unless I found a financer. Granted, to get to a place where I would like to be, yea, it would cost upwards of a quarter mil, including the property and building.

Getting the paperwork all in order would be of more importance to me, for the start-up at least. I would start with a small facility and work my way up to a large space. Once the paperwork is in order, finding a financer shouldn't be too tough. Venture capitalists are always looking for new innovative ways to make money. Since the DoJ announced they wouldn't challenge the laws here in Washington and Colorado, I think it would be decently easy to find someone interested in cashing in on this HUGE new market. If we organize as a processor, producer AND distributor, we can avoid huge amounts of taxes on the product, and market directly to the customer. I see absolutely no reason to have seperate businesses for the processing and distributing.

 

[squiggly]

If you want to be successful in that space--find financial backing and sell your growing expertise as a reason to side with you. Whoever throws more money at this thing at the onset is going to be the guy who comes out on top. That's how these industries work in their infancy.

 

[Tank333]

My thoughts are first a large investment on a uncertain field as as your aware are trying to take growing away from Wash and handing it to the liquor control board and could take away your freedom in a blink . Second thought is popping out 10,000 rooted clones will only give you what the mom of that clone brings to the table unless you plan on popping some beans for male's i don't see the breeding aspect of it.... personally of it was me i would go semi large scale but not commercial - registered until all the legal stuff is sorted out...
you have a beautiful state up there had the pleasure of visiting hemp fest and was amazed at the beauty of the area
best of luck in which ever you decide

Well, the 10K clones I mentioned would be clones of mothers grown from seed. Pheno hunting is best done with a large base to work with, as far as I understand.

As for the LCB trying to take growing from the people and give it to the commercial growers, I don't think that is what is happening. There was a comment on the LCB's website about lumping the medical realm in with the commercial aspect, but it was only a suggestion. One of several hundred that have been made by the public to the LCB on what direction they should take things. IF it does come down to that, I wouldn't be surprised. Big business always does what it can to squeeze out the little guys. You just gotta get in there and be active in the rule-making process. They won't know we want it to be different unless we tell em so, and loudly! That's why I'm making my own comment to post on their website about how I feel the new rules should be written.

And I wouldn't go balls-to-the-wall from the start either. The largest I've ever dealt with was a little over 500 sq ft. Lol. But there's PLENTY of potential there. With the right space and proper funding, one could potentially start the "Dunkin' Donuts" of cannabis! :D

 

[Tank333]

If you want to be successful in that space--find financial backing and sell your growing expertise as a reason to side with you. Whoever throws more money at this thing at the onset is going to be the guy who comes out on top. That's how these industries work in their infancy.

THIS. Exactly! That's why I'm looking into it now. Honestly, I expected the DoJ to come out and say they would be opposing the new laws.

 

[purpleberry]

Id pick six flavors, Run 1 per room and get to work. Youll waste time growing dozens of different strains. Youll make a lot more money spending your time dialing in rooms. In the end the guys who pull double the weight for the same cost will come out ahead and be able to under cut the prices others have to charge just pay the bills. And of course the quality will be higher. That's where most cash croppers mess up trying to chase down the holly grail, and trying to grow so many different cuts at the same time. You learn a lot running the same cut over and over. Yield increases ,quality increases, efficiency increases, profits increase. Getting a extra 8oz a light x200 light could be $100,000 x 5 harvests a year could be all your profit, especially when prices start to drop. If your going to something that big you should already know what cuts to run and some what how to run them.

 

[Tank333]

Oh, I completely agree. I run hydro, and its more efficient to have everything on one system be the same strain. Its easier to dial everything in and get familiar with the particulars of each seperate strain. Having more than one strain on a hydro system you'll get one dialed in perfect, and the other thinks the PH is too high, or the nutes are too hot. Lol.

When I talk about pheno hunting and growing a 10K plant sog, that's like 10 year plan status. For the time being, I'm just working with 4kw in a single room, and I've never had more than 5kw of light running at once, ever.

 

[mello]

"If we organize as a processor, producer AND distributor, we can avoid huge amounts of taxes on the product, and market directly to the customer. I see absolutely no reason to have seperate businesses for the processing and distributing."

FYI, the state will not grant any business a production/processing license in addition to a retail license. They will let you combine on the production and processing but that's all.

 

[Tank333]

"If we organize as a processor, producer AND distributor, we can avoid huge amounts of taxes on the product, and market directly to the customer. I see absolutely no reason to have seperate businesses for the processing and distributing."

FYI, the state will not grant any business a production/processing license in addition to a retail license. They will let you combine on the production and processing but that's all.

I was a little worried they might do that. Weak sauce... well producer/processor is better than only producer either way.

 

[ttystikk]

Hey guys. I'm in Washington, and I'm thinking about the possibility of switching from the medical realm to the commercial realm, once the rules all get set up and clarified. I'm a huge proponent of medical cannabis, and one of my biggest goals is to help cancer patients get the medicine and oil they need to treat their illnesses. Organizing as a non-profit working in the commercial realm will allow me to accept donations (for startup and operating expenses) and volunteer workers (much easier than dealing with payroll).

I think getting into the commercial field will give me a great opportunity to do some breeding on a massive scale. If I don't have to worry about plant counts, it would be much easier to identify and isolate very rare phenotypes... flowering out 10,000 rooted clones in a warehouse is much easier to do if you don't have to worry about the feds banging on your door... lol


What do you guys think?? Have any of you spent any time thinking about entering into the newest legal industry in our country? :D

...only once or twice every waking moment since January, brother!

 

[ttystikk]

Oh, I completely agree. I run hydro, and its more efficient to have everything on one system be the same strain. Its easier to dial everything in and get familiar with the particulars of each seperate strain. Having more than one strain on a hydro system you'll get one dialed in perfect, and the other thinks the PH is too high, or the nutes are too hot. Lol.

When I talk about pheno hunting and growing a 10K plant sog, that's like 10 year plan status. For the time being, I'm just working with 4kw in a single room, and I've never had more than 5kw of light running at once, ever.

You better find a way to increase your experience with larger grows. Your setup is too small to scale up effectively, and you'll have hvac and other problems that you don't see with the size your op is at now.

 

[Tank333]

You better find a way to increase your experience with larger grows. Your setup is too small to scale up effectively, and you'll have hvac and other problems that you don't see with the size your op is at now.

I do completely understand this point! I should have been to the point of expanding by now, but I've beeen stalled for the past year, unable to find somewhere to grow at and no actual income to be able to obtain my own house. Fortunately, a couple months ago a friend of mine expressed an interest in starting to grow, and I offered my services. Long story short, I moved into this house a week ago and he's paying all the bills for the next five months solid. For a 50/50 cut!

 

[ttystikk]

I do completely understand this point! I should have been to the point of expanding by now, but I've beeen stalled for the past year, unable to find somewhere to grow at and no actual income to be able to obtain my own house. Fortunately, a couple months ago a friend of mine expressed an interest in starting to grow, and I offered my services. Long story short, I moved into this house a week ago and he's paying all the bills for the next five months solid. For a 50/50 cut!

This sounds like a great opportunity!

 

[Theoneandonly Z]

Spend the $ and get a good lawyer whom specializes in the laws of in your state, spend time with he/she and fully understand each and every aspect and learn what permits you may need. Speaking of permits, everything done to a commercial space needs to be code with viable permits: electrical, structural, fire safe, etc... ive seen a grow come down due to failure of.

The growing part is easy, being covered to a "t" is not.

 

[Tank333]

Spend the $ and get a good lawyer whom specializes in the laws of in your state, spend time with he/she and fully understand each and every aspect and learn what permits you may need. Speaking of permits, everything done to a commercial space needs to be code with viable permits: electrical, structural, fire safe, etc... ive seen a grow come down due to failure of.

The growing part is easy, being covered to a "t" is not.

Those are great points, Z! I think we will get a lawyer on retainer once we move to our own property. I'm figuring that will take us about two, maybe three years of steady work from this point on to get a decent down payment on a piece of property and start on our own large space. That's honestly later than I want to be getting into the commercial game, but you do what you can with what you have, right?

Licencing and permits ARE gonna be important. Not as important as it would be if we were renting/leasing, but we do want to make sure everything is done 100% to code. There's not much room for macguyvering shit when you're running 200+ amps in an enclosed room! Lol just means I won't have to get permits for my framing, electrical and HVAC guys, I'm pretty sure.

 

[fractal]

Does anyone know, where the WA state legal growers are going to be getting their genetics from? What strains they are going to be running?

I assume it's going to be cuttings, sexing plants from seed would be way too labor intensive.

 

[Tank333]

There's nothing in the current laws that specifies a particular place or source for genetics. I assume they will be sourced the same way most medical growers do....

 

[mello]

Does anyone know, where the WA state legal growers are going to be getting their genetics from? What strains they are going to be running?

I assume it's going to be cuttings, sexing plants from seed would be way too labor intensive.

Once you obtain your license you are given a 15 day window to bring any non flowering plants (no larger than 8" tall) and seeds into your licensed facility. After that, no more.