SOCOMMJ and others, I'll try to make this short as I could go on for days....
SOCOMMJ, I do not sugar-coat things so here it is, straight up, bro. If you are making less than your employees you are failing in your business ventures, pure and simple.
I ran a chiropractic business (solo) for 20+ years. It was no picnic. Yes, in my good years (pre 911) I made great money but never had any free time to enjoy it. When things got tight I had to make adjustments. And when things started to go downhill I decided to sell everything and cash in my chips. It got old shoveling the walkways, plowing driveways, cleaning bathrooms, hiring and firing, training, doing my books, donating time to the community, etc, etc and not to mention dealing with customers who had a host of ailments and problems. Hell no, it's not easy and non-business people do not realize what goes on behind the scenes. It is said you can not be a "nice guy" and run a sucessful business and I think there is some truth to that. As a businessman your number one job is to MAKE MONEY. Yeah it's nice to say I love my work but if you ain't making a profit you are basically fucked. One must be business-smart and have business saavy but that doesn't mean you have to be a prick about things. And do not spend ALL your friggn profits either, lol. (easier said than done)
I see and hear about some MMJ club owners going broke and then I have seen other guys making bigass bucks and riding the gravytrain. Some of the highly successful ones are scum but some folks are doing it honestly and professionally. But the latter ones have some business knowledge which covers everything form overhead costs to patient relationships. One can be an expert MJ grower but without business skills they have a high rate of failure. IMO there is no such thing as LUCK when running a business. It's hard fucking work and either you go balls-to-the-walls or you say fuck it. I stopped keeping track of my "working hours" as it was too overwhelming for me. Fuck man, I just wanted to a chiro, adjust spines, collect money and go home and party. No one told me how to be a bossman, how to run an office and especially not a business that had 6-7 employees.
Overhead will kill you. (this should have been thought about and put into your business plan documents) Adjust accordingly. There are always ways to save money. ALWAYS! But sometimes saving money will cost you YOUR time. It's a balance thing and fine tune it to your likes/dislikes. Utilities will continue to rise. There are many ways to cut costs. Think of investing in solar panels, solar heating, ect. In summer think about gowing some of your MJ outdoors. Think about driving a less expensive vehicle.
Employees. Screen them out with a passion. There is no sense hiring and training an idiot or two (been there, donme that) You want people you can trust and get things done without holding their fucking hand. Running a successful business is teamwork. Get team members who mesh into your vision. I liked to have incentives for my employees. Incentives get employees motivated and they can increase your sales while promoting your business. You can offer a smaller hourly wage and add incentive programs. Yes, in the end you may pay them more but they will generate more overall revenue for you. Keep employees part-time and do not pay for sick days, holidays and all that jazz. In the MMJ business I think a great incentive program would be to reward employees with MJ as their bonus. Hell, you may even consider paying your employees MMJ for a large portion of their entire salary (of course for legal/tax reasons you'd have to show some employee pay-out on your books). If you grow your own I would imagine it would cost you less to pay them in MMJ than paying them in dollars and cents. I also found buying my employees lunch or taking them out for the night was a nice "thank you" and they really appreciated it. Sometimes some of the little things go a long way.
OK, so here we are. In CO. Let's look into the future. Most business failures that end up in the red never see it coming. By the time they realize they are in deep shit it is far too late to bail out or save that sinking ship. I am sure most of you agree that MJ sales prices will continue to go down. IMO that's a given. As a MMJ boss/owner what adjustments will you make? That is the question. We all know prices of EVERYTHING will continue to rise (food, gas, utilities, supplies etc) except weed, lol. Do nothing and die. Do something and you may float above the red temporaly. But if you really attack it and make the correct adjustments you will kick ass. Taking business seminars and buying business operation books are often great tools to hone you skills.
If anyone is running a business and just breaking even or barely making a profit it's time to throw in the towel and take a job flipping burgers OR sit down and make serious adjustments. Lay out numbers and goals and plans how to obtain them. Have weekly or monthy meeting with employess and keep everyone on the same page. Have your goals (quotas set) and discuss it openly.
Talk with other successful MMJ club owners and find out what they are doing to make their profits. You will find that some of the most successful people have failed once or twice before (ie Donald "King of the Comb-over" Trump and money-guru Dave Ramsey). Pick the brains of the successful ones and avoid the failing ones as they will drag you down.
I know some folks like to give away their products for free. Let me tell you that it is a huge mistake to do so. The only exception is when you are making a comfortable profit. DO NOT GIVE AWAY FREE SHIT when you are trying to make a profit. When I was a young buck I was told this many years ago but I did not listen. I quickly learned that the freebie give-aways were NOT good business saavy (unless you are making a nice profit). In this day and age do not dismiss bartering with folks. I posted a list on the wall of my waiting room area that listed what items I was willing to barter spinal adjustments for
(eggs, horse hay, tools, lawnwork etc)...just make sure it is a fair exchange so no one feels ripped off.
I think I am the minority here in that I have respect for some MMJ clubs and owners. IMO not all MMJ shops are pricky scoundrels who sell moldy buds. Hell, I have seen undergrounders selling shitweed and overchanging people.
I do not know enough about all the friggin rules and regs to operate a MMJ shop but it scares the fuck out of me to even dwell on the thought. Pay thousands of dollars per year for a fucking MMJ license? Then give up and sign away many of your rights? Then rent a huge building to grow in? Then heat and cool the place? Then hire boobs to work for you who might steal your weed and give out "deals" to their buddies. Then pay outrageous taxes? Then find out you can not even deduct your business expenses?? WTF??? How about having paperwork overload where everything needs to be tagged, marked, inventoried, counted and recounted, etc? And finally after jumping through all the fucking hoops you still have to lay in bed at night wondering if a fed SWAT team will be kickng down your door? Or coming to work one day and finding the feds took all my shit including all my grow equipment?
Honestly, me thinks the underground is the ONLY way to go... But hey, that's just me.
For all my rantings, I do wish you good luck and great success, SOCOMMJ.
*revised one million times for typos and spelling errors.
