It has long been said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is especially true in the business world, where ensuring your ongoing profitability is literally the difference between the life and death of your organization. Today, we’re going to take a look at few simple best practices which, if established and maintained over time at your business, can help ensure you run a profitable cannabis retail operation for many years:
1. Implement the ‘Buddy System’
The first thing you’ll want to do is implement the ‘buddy’ system at all points in your operations where cash or product is handled by employees. Internal theft is a much bigger problem for profitable cannabis retail operations than for nearly any other retail outlet in any niche; not only do you lose product/currency directly, but it can also put your license to operate at risk since you won’t be able to fully account for your inventory. Help combat this by ensuring no one employee ever has unsupervised access to your cannabis products or your money as they flow through your dispensary.
2. Hire Only the Very Best People
While every business wants to hire the best people, it is again of added significance in the context of a profitable cannabis retail operation, where simple human error can cost you your license. Thankfully, the cannabis industry is well-positioned to take advantage of this principle at relatively limited cost; wages in the industry are not high ($10-15/hr for budtenders, comparable to fast-food wages), and the supply of people interested in working in the industry is huge. Pay people a bit more competitively, avoid the common pitfalls of the hiring process, and you should have your pick of the cream of the crop from a fairly large talent pool.
3. Rely on the Eye in the Sky
Security is the number one external issue faced by profitable cannabis retail operations. These days, however, there is an immense array of technology dispensaries can rely on to provide excellent protection at relatively minimal cost. Everything from alarms to video surveillance, to safes and vaults to protect currency and product are available and should be considered for use in your dispensary.
Technology isn’t just changing the way dispensaries handle their security; it is also affecting the way in which they transact their business. A well-designed cannabis POS system can revolutionize the way your dispensary operates, saving you dozens of man-hours in transaction times and other administrative functions while empowering your sales staff to maximize their performance with your customers and directly impacting your bottom line. Staying ahead of the curve regarding usable retail tech is definitely one of the most important keys to success for profitable cannabis retail operations.
As the cannabis industry continues to mature, hopefully, most of the specific challenges it faces will continue to be addressed by evolving legislation and product development. Until then, staying ahead of the curve on technology, and all of the various ways it potentially impacts the day-to-day operations of a cannabis dispensary is one of the best moves an owner can make if they are looking to ensure their long-term profitability.
credit:420intel.com
