What makes a cannabis cultivation operation successful?
Success is often measured in more than just high-quality and high-volume yields, and decisions made early on at the launch of a cultivation business will have long-lasting impacts on operators’ chances of success.
Here, ahead of her session at Cannabis Conference 2023 on how to launch a cultivation operation, Christina Betancourt Johnson, owner and CEO of Standard Wellness Maryland and Rooted Therapeutics, provides insight into how to successfully launch and operate a grow, from securing a location to building relationships with dispensaries, and more.
Editor’s note: Christina Betancourt Johnson will speak at Cannabis Conference on the “How To Launch A Cannabis Cultivation Business Workshop,” which will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 15. In this in-depth workshop, experienced and successful cannabis business leaders will share essential considerations when mapping out a start-up, along with some of the key lessons they’ve learned along the way. Visit www.CannabisConference.com for more information and to register.
Melissa Schiller: What are some important considerations when it comes to finding a location for your cultivation facility?
Christina Betancourt Johnson: As new operators consider locations for their cultivation facility, the two most critical considerations are access to their distribution points—ease of logistics is a serious consideration—and the second one would be access to a strong and competent workforce. And, obviously, a third [consideration] would be the price of the location and suitability for use.
MS: Which factors should business owners consider when sourcing genetics?
CBJ: Every business is different. I have the benefit of working with partners who are established in three existing markets, some of which are medical and others of which are recreational. So, as I ventured into genetic selection, we had an extensive library of options from which I could pull.
If you’re a new operator, I think you want to work with established and well-respected and vetted cannabis operators who have strong genetics that have been tested in the marketplace. I want to work with strong mothering labs that can give you high-quality cannabis genetics that have been tested and tried. The strains for cannabis are not, in my opinion, one of those things that you want to leave up to chance. I think you want to look at strong genotypes and phenotypes, and depending on what kind of market you’re in, the medicinal application of your product or the recreational use application of your product. I just think it depends on your business, but for me, I’d like to work with really strong labs.
MS: How should operators approach hiring for their grow?
CBJ: Luckily, I think there are a number of staffing firms that people work with these days. [They] are all great resources for new operators to tap into. Cannabis in general is one of those industries that is still pretty nascent and therefore, by attending conferences, you can really get access to incredible talent. By vetting in your local areas, you can get access to incredible talent, as well, depending on the size of the state or city that you live in. The larger markets, I think, have talent that has traveled from the West Coast to the East Coast, and they’re constantly looking for great businesses.
I think what would be critical in any business is still critical in cannabis, and that is having a well-functioning business that has a really strong culture that people are attracted to, that offers good pay and respectable benefits. I think you have to start with your company’s infrastructure and then go from there, but I think you want to have either your ownership group or yourself constantly networking and scanning at events for people who could potentially work at your facility.
I also think that universities and colleges—that includes community colleges—are also a great source of talent in our space. Here in Maryland, we have several universities with really strong cannabis-focused and agricultural-focused programming. I think that’s another option for potential business owners to consider when looking for skilled help.
MS: How can cultivators build relationships with their dispensary customers to ensure long-term success?
CBJ: In Maryland, we have an incredible dispensary association and I think that is where you should start if your market is already established. Working with the dispensary association, new operators have the ability to tap into the existing operators on the dispensary side, with whom they can build relationships. They can also learn about what dispensaries’ needs are, as well as learn about the marketplace because those dispensaries have firsthand knowledge about what clients in the marketplace want and need and desire. If it’s a brand-new market, I don’t think it hurts to reach out to operators on the dispensary side that are going to be entering the market at the same time to start building those relationships early with supply agreements and just for information exchange.
I always think it’s also good to tap into the cannabis culture in your community—whatever is native. Some communities have a far more established underground cannabis culture that’s existed for decades before licensing and before legalization, and so to be able to tap into that culture and understand, again, what the market demands will be once the market has legalized, I think is always great. Of course, you can do that before any applications or awards are released for licensure.
MS: What is one thing you wish you’d known before launching your cultivation operation?
CBJ: I have the good fortune of doing a lot of reconnaissance before we pursued licensure, and we’re still in the process of operationalizing the business here in Maryland, but I do think that the value of having a really strong team—that includes the ownership team, your day-to-day operating team, as well as your extended team of service providers—is absolutely critical. Though that’s something that I knew, it wasn’t necessarily something that I fully appreciated until I was in the business of being in the business and had won our license because that’s when the real work starts.
MS: What is one of your favorite lessons that you’ve learned from launching a cannabis cultivation business?
CBJ: The best lesson that I’ve learned going in is to expect small failures along the way and to see them as an opportunity for refinement. I don’t think that you can set down a path of entrepreneurship without understanding that failure will be inevitable in some things, but at every single turn, you have to be your biggest and most convinced champion.
MS: What is one thing you’d like attendees to take back to their business after attending your session this year?
CBJ: The idea is to give attendees a playbook for building a cultivation operation, from pre-application through operationalization. We’ll give them a step-by-step process, and my goal is really to speak to smaller entrepreneurs about how they can leverage their existing experience and knowledge base and resources to be incredibly successful.
There are a lot of conferences and panels that you can attend. I think where this differs is that this is a concentrated amount of time where cultivators, in particular, have the ability to sit down with peers and learn from them in a way that could provide them with a real roadmap to success. This is a comprehensive opportunity, soup to nuts, to understand what existing operators are doing, how they got there, how they started, why they make the decisions that they make, and when they do have hiccups or failures, how they bounce back from that. I think learning from people who are already doing what you want to do, who fully appreciate the nuances of this very nuanced space, is incredibly valuable. I think this is a different opportunity because you’re getting a playbook. It really is a step-by-step how-to in the cultivation space, and I think that’s unique.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for style, length and clarity.
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