Thoughts on going commercial???

[fractal]

What kind of sense does that make? Sounds really arbitrary and counter-intuitive.

 

[mello]

What kind of sense does that make? Sounds really arbitrary and counter-intuitive.

I lied. You'll be able to obtain additional genetics from other license holders.

 

[Texas Kid]

Ill can tell ya that pure hydro does not scale into a commercial production environment very well at all..so i would start there..you run into a ton of waste water and ground water contamination issues with the locals and state EPA guys, they are an expensive pain in the ass...most regulated states are not goin to allow you grow anywhere near 10,000 plants without some major side steppin and expense, a 10,000 plant setup is going to be well over a million dollars or more like 2 million for facilities and licenses...$100,000 will not even get you in the door..your probably lookin at close to $50k just in your first years attorney fees and about 10-$12K for every 10 lights yo plan on hangin for infrastructure and support. It is real easy to spend over $100k just on a/c's and forget gettin volunteers or anything like that, its a business and you have to pay your employees otherwise they steal from you..I would forget the 501c3 tax scheme as well, it is almost impossible to legally comply with it in this business and they have already pretty much pierced the corporate vail on that one and you will get in some real trouble with the IRS

 

[Texas Kid]

Most regulations are goin to require you to be in a commercial building and specifically in a "Ia" heavy industrial zoning with a "plant husbandry" permit in place...everything must be built and inspected to code which pretty means you can not do any of the work yourself and commercial contractors and service providers stay away from large commercial grow ops but if they do come they charge double and triple the standard rates you would be used to in a non weed or residential build out...Land use, zoning, and special use variances all have to be in place and suitable for what your doing

 

[Tank333]

You're right, TK. They aren't going to allow grows in personal residences, but they did mention in their FAQ's that farms could convert to growing, so I'm not exactly sure how that works. Maybe they mean just no indoor bedroom or basement grows?

I spent a couple hours reading the LCB's rules and faq, and it looks like I'm gonna have to wait on things anyways. I have a felony that's almost nine years old, and they still count it till it's been ten years. So I will have to wait until they re-open producer/processor licenses sometime after early 2015. :( fortunately, they did say they do not intend to restrict the number of producer and processor licenses that will be given out. Just the number of retail locations.

And you're probably right about organizing as a non-profit too. That would probably just complicate matters too much.

 

[zeke]

Lets not forget about those totally outrageous and unprecedented taxes folks. Twenty five percent from the producer, twenty five percent from the processor, twenty five percent from the distributor. Then sales tax for the buyer. And whatever other morality based tax they want to add.

Fuck that. Do the math. I still get 2800 from a tacoma shop, somehow. Take away all the taxes and pay my trimmers workers comp insurance..... We are talking either I get under 1200 a pound and someone pays $20 a gram. I'll be taking my products to another market.fuck the liquor control board and there taxes. I pay enough already. No more!

 

[Tank333]

Lets not forget about those totally outrageous and unprecedented taxes folks. Twenty five percent from the producer, twenty five percent from the processor, twenty five percent from the distributor. Then sales tax for the buyer. And whatever other morality based tax they want to add.

Fuck that. Do the math. I still get 2800 from a tacoma shop, somehow. Take away all the taxes and pay my trimmers workers comp insurance..... We are talking either I get under 1200 a pound and someone pays $20 a gram. I'll be taking my products to another market.fuck the liquor control board and there taxes. I pay enough already. No more!

You get 28 from someone in Tacoma??? Shit, I'm gonna have to find him when I finally get a harvest in!

 

[zeke]

Been paying me the same for years. They pay me that because I won't take less and my products are real and unique. If they don't , I have another market that pays me 2900. I like to just go one place. It took me a while to find a shop that had cash and not some bullshit shell game going on with all of there vendors cash. Mainly it's all about my Pink Panther. No one else has the real cut or product. It's unique. I crossed it with lemon skunk to increase the density and potency. Now I sell that as I work the line. No intersexed issues like the original cut. Problems reduced, beneficial traits increased.

 

[Menehune]

"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.

Maybe this will actually stall "big cannabis" from cornering the market once the feds change laws... keeping the producer/processor and retailer separate allows the wealth to spread more. I think this gives talented growers with low investment capital a chance to get in and try to make a run at operating a business in this industry. Also, I think it helps to guarantee that there is actual product to sell/distribute. If the whole consumer base had to count on a few big companies, and they screwed it up, then no product.

Right now in Hawaii, we have had one dispensary open in Honolulu (Oahu) and it sold out day 1. No more product available yet to stock the store again.... very lame. Also, you guys would trip out if you seen our price tags in the dispensary.

Getting in there in WA and staying on top of working with state law-makers is definitely the way to go in my opinion. Washington peeps are forward thinkers. There are many well organized associations/groups/coalitions/etc... that are big time activists. Producers and Retailers are sticking together, safety in numbers type action.

I'm heading up there in a month to run a small Tier 1 commercial grow. I'm feeling pretty good about the atmosphere. Anyone currently in the recreational business up there? Hit me up, I'd like to start getting to know everyone.

 

[Menehune]

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.

Here's my company's logo :)

We actually made a version that replaces the gold fan leaf, just in case we need to market and don't want to get hassled with rules regarding logos with "pot leaves" on them.

My company does exactly what @squiggly is suggesting. We just offer "hands-on consulting" for Producers. We made a contract to offer our expertise to a license holder and boom, we're in.