Smart entrepreneurs know they can’t afford to stay complacent after launching a new cultivation facility. In such a dynamic and competitive business environment, operators must constantly search for ways to leverage their investments and maximize profits. Realizing additional revenue from an existing production site is a great way to start.
This 3-part series aims to help cultivation businesses increase revenue from their existing production facility without incurring substantial new costs or changes to their current business.
The first installment will focus on the need for comprehensive cannabis education programs.
Create a cannabis “Masterclass.”
Leverage your cultivation assets by offering educational courses, certificate programs, or “masterclasses” on cannabis cultivation.
While there’s plenty of grow information online, there are very few authoritative sources of cannabis education in the United States. Oaksterdam University in Oakland, California, is one, and Green Flower Inc. offers various education certificates and training.
These programs offer valuable instruction and are well-received, but they don’t have the capacity or breadth to service every cultivation business or interested grower that’s out there.
The success of these programs is an indicator that more similar programs are needed.
A few universities have begun introducing novel cannabis studies, but most cover vast swaths of the industry, from health and cultivation to regulations and retail.
Imagine how many new cultivation businesses will be started in the US over the next five years. There will be a tremendous demand for comprehensive education and training programs in the cannabis space, and there is certainly room for more players.
Most cultivation businesses already have what’s needed to create a rich, hybrid cannabis education program. Follow these four tips for launching your own profitable cultivation curriculum:
1. Develop an online course from your existing SOPs.
If your company has standard operating procedures, you already have everything you need to create a comprehensive cultivation curriculum.
Convert each SOP into a lesson plan. Omit anything proprietary to your business and keep it general enough that lessons learned can be applied to any cultivation facility.
Complement each learning topic with photos and videos from your production site, and at a minimum, include the following course topics:
• Cultivation team roles and responsibilities
• Stock plant production
• Propagation
• Vegetive Plant Growth
• Flowering Plant Growth
• Pest and Disease Management
• Nutrient management
• Harvest and Post-Harvest
Issue a certificate of completion that can be shown to potential employers and uploaded with online resumes.
Keep an eye out for students that would make an excellent addition to your team. It’s a great way to covertly hunt for students that have the potential to become great growers.
2. Supplement coursework with onsite visits.
This is one area where you can really differentiate your program from the competition, but it may not be feasible for every business.
If your site is far from the nearest airport without any hotels nearby, this option likely won’t work. But if you’re within two hours of an airport and within 30 minutes of hotels, give it some thought.
Students or their employers would cover travel and lodging, and you can likely work out preferred hotel discounts for participants in your program. Offer group transportation as an option, but make sure to bake this cost into the program so it doesn’t pull from your profit.
Keep onsite visits to less than one week (arrive on Monday, leave on Friday), and don’t feel obliged to provide programming for the entire day. Just a few hours of live instruction or Q&A from your head grower can dramatically solidify student learning.
Break for lunch, circle back for group discussion, and then call it a day.
Arrange trips to local dispensaries to see how the final product presents at retail and learn about what’s hot and what’s not.
3. Offer job placement advice.
This could be a valuable add-on with help from your hiring managers and HR department.
Teach students how to hunt for cannabis cultivation jobs and where to do it.
Show legacy growers how to safely position themselves to find legal jobs, and show novice growers how to get a “foot in the door” if they’ve never held a cultivation job.
Instruct students how to customize their resumes for each position they apply for and show them how to highlight positive experiences while downplaying their deficiencies.
Advise participants on how to secure a job interview and then role-play to help build confidence once they land one.
Teach student cultivators how to apply for a job and how to follow up.
These are critical skills that are seldom taught but are vital to building a rewarding career.
4. Charge for the value.
Programs in other industries charge thousands of dollars for similar non-accredited courses. Why can’t you?
Like most novel things in cannabis, the lack of competition lets you name the price. At just $4,000 per course with only 25 students, that’s $100,000. Do that just five times a year, and you’ve made an extra half-million dollars in revenue. That’s a new cohort every two and a half months.
On several occasions, I have been asked if there is a boot camp or training center where new companies can send their employees for training. Today, few options exist.
Perhaps soon I can refer them to you?
The post Beyond the Bud: Earn More Money From Your Cultivation Business, Part 1 appeared first on Cannabis Business Executive - Cannabis and Marijuana industry news.
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