Focus on the Basics

The first part of the secret sauce: Do all the basics really well.

Here's what I mean: if you aren't properly staffed, if you aren't maintaining a presence on Google maps and Weedmaps, if you aren't keeping a reasonable variety of fresh product, if your team isn't happy and engaged, then doing fancy Weedmaps hacks or white label products are a waste of effort. The 80-20 rule always applies and 80% of your success will depend on doing the basics really well. Once that part is down, then you can focus on the really fun projects.

The Mission

Have a clear mission statement and make sure everyone who works there knows it by word, so that every customer can feel it through their experience. My favorite is Make people happy. Using this example, it would inform external-facing policies like:

• Every person who walks in the door gets a happy welcome in and friendly, non-judgemental, non-pushy service. Remember names and show gratitude.
• Trust customer feedback and be generous with refunds. For every 1 patient who takes advantage, there are 50 who will appreciate the trust and tell their friends.
• Consider staff bonuses for maintaining good reviews on places like Google and Weedmaps.

Some examples of internal policies that are consistent with this mission may include:

• Pay people with W-2 and offer benefits if/when you can. These may be out of your control, but the W-2 part is a legal requirement that many dispensaries are skipping.
• Treat everyone with respect and require the same at all levels. Pairing requests with a why improves efficiency.
  • Example A: "I need you to clear this table right away." They clear it, and you find out they were in the middle of helping a customer and had to get something from the back. Now a patient had an unhappy experience.
  • Example B: "I have a vendor coming any minute and we need space ASAP can you clear this table?" Response: "I'm helping a customer and came back to get something for them. I can clear the table but I don't want to leave them waiting." Sharing context is a sign of respect and leads to happier staff and patrons.

Staff

• You could be inheriting a great team. It could be a dysfunctional team. Treat everyone with a clean slate but also be aware that dysfunction makes good people leave. It won't take long to uncover which situation you are in. Address as needed.
• Talk to everyone 1-on-1 for a few minutes at the start and end of their shift for the first 2 weeks. Give important updates, and ask them for their opinion and feedback. Quality people will share quality ideas. And you need to build trust fast.
• Request constructive feedback, and be willing to give respectful, constructive feedback in a private setting.
• Be as predictable with scheduling as possible. This could mean the same schedule every week, or a rotating but predictable schedule that is posted well in advance.
• Ensure that everyone has at least a basic understanding of every product. Everyone doesn't need to know if a cart was ethanol or BHO, but they should be able to find out quickly. They should be able to recommend a flower strain based on a terpene, and they should know the difference between broad extraction methods like solvent vs solventless. You should have at least one expert, which might be you, ready to answer the hard questions.
• Handbook - This could be a whole HR section. At minimum, have all the major policies like attendance, dress code, and conduct expectations in writing and printed for everyone. Staff will reference it and respect it. A handbook also helps you be the bad guy without being a bad guy (or gal).

Getting the Word Out

Word of mouth is the most powerful tool. Create an experience so good that people cannot help themselves from recommending your dispensary.

• Google: You must have an accurate Google Maps listing. This takes so little effort and it's free. Good pictures of the inside and outside at the top. Link to the appropriate website. Hours should always be correct. Encourage people to leave honest reviews. Put a sign by the register. Have budtenders say phrases at checkout like "Hey if you mention my name in a Google review it really helps me out!" Create an incentive for positive mentions too.
• Weedmaps: This one can be complicated, but if you have the budget at minimum a basic listing helps a lot. Do all the same stuff as Google. In addition, most POS will integrate with WM and present your menu. There are so many hacks with WM, but just having one that shows who you are, and what you have is 80% of the battle.

Products

Until you have the basics there is no need for specialty products. $50 blunts are cool, but they don't have the same impact as going from 2 to 5+ pre roll vendors. Have a good variety of flower in both pricepoint and strains. Have a good variety of edibles, especially gummies, in multiple flavors and dosages. BHO concentrates move faster than SHO. To some extent, hash rosin a specialty product and lower priority than a good BHO offering. Baller jars are a specialty item too and often not worth it for anyone.

Have products that your patients want. You may love top shelf exotic flower, but not everyone can afford that. Conversely, you may be the weed garbage disposal. In that case, you might need to get more educated on the mid and high market products. The basic standard is everything you sell needs to be safe and from a trustworthy source. Inventory depletion rates will tell you most of the story. The rest will be patient feedback like "Hey do you guys carry x product?"

Be selective with who you work with. At this stage, nearly every company is organized and professional. If you get bad vibes at any time, move on. A recall or other compliance issue is a massive headache at best.

Here are a few tools to streamline the vendor process. These items will save you a ton of time, and they impute a high professional standard for these relationships.

• Use a tool like Google Forms where you direct new vendors to upload licensing info, products, point of contact info. When someone calls asking for a purchasing manager, any staff can direct them to the form instead of a whole conversation. You can link to the form on your website.
• Use a tool like Google Calendar or Calendly to let people schedule appointments. Use case -- you can make the last step of the above form show a link where they can schedule an appointment with you.
• Create a vendor expectations document that outlines things like what days and times you can accept deliveries, how you want to receive paperwork, and your list of contacts so they know who to contact for what. Ex: "We accept orders Mon - Wed 9 am - 2 pm. Orders over $X require 24 hours notice, under $x we prefer at least 1 hour notice or they will be handled on a first-come first-served manner. Unless specified ahead, orders may be paid with a check or cash at our discretion. All documents including labs, invoice, and manifest should be emailed to XXXX prior to arrival." Adjust as you need.

Compliance

• Read the entire OMMA rules document and takes notes.
• Retake the Metrc training periodically.
• Review demo videos for your POS periodically.
• Make sure you have an expert who you can ask questions. It could be someone you work with, an outside consultant, or ideally, an attorney.
• Follow industry groups like ORCA and others you find. Keep up with Reddit too.
• If you don't make SOPs for anything else, compliance is the one place where you absolutely must document how things are done. This includes everything from how to review and accept an order to inventory adjustment.

Use Nox Guardian

First, I want to be transparent that Nox is my project. I got special permission from both Metrc and OMMA to be able to build it. Nox watches your Metrc directly, just like OMMA, and looks for violations. OMMA will wait months and months while violations build up before they tell you. Nox will send you a text message immediately, which means you can modify incorrect Metrc data and change policies before a small problem becomes a huge problem.

The dispensaries that use it are seeing a massive reduction in potential violations. It takes about a minute to set up and currently it is free to try. If you see this comment after I stop doing the free trial, just message me and I'll take care of you. More dispensaries are joining and I want to limit the total number to something manageable.

Send me a message here when you make an account, and I will personally go over the violation report with you and provide insight on how to fix the problems.

The Advanced Stuff

There is a lot of nuance to this, but I would be happy to talk with you about your specific situation and how you can be an excellent manager. This might include vendor negotiation strategy, best hours to operate, what KPIs matter for what goals. Definitely send a DM when you're ready and I will help you privately.

You are going to do great.