Business View Magazine | June 2019

31 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JUNE 2019 times the amount of money you thought you were getting. At the same time, the opposite could happen.” Diane: “I think there are still some who are riding on the wave of people being excited about having access to cannabis, and they haven’t worked hard on standard operating procedures or differentiating their business and making it better. They’ll find out soon enough that it’s going to hurt them in the long run because, although there are so many mergers and acquisitions going on in the industry, not every business is going to get bought. Some are just going to have to close their doors.” BVM: What services do you provide most? Jay: “We do a lot of early business planning and modelling, but the crux of what we do, still, is competitive licensing. Probably 15 to 20 percent of our business is post-license, where we provide field services. We help put together and launch dispensaries, cultivation facilities, as well as processing and manufacturing facilities.” Diane: “We also help customers understand how they’re going to present themselves to their customer base. It’s a new experience, so they might be thinking of images they’ve seen in the media, like the big lines outside of a dispensary. But in true medical programs, it’s not going to be like that. It’s more us guiding them along the lines of: it’s not appropriate to have a cartoon character as your brand in a medical marijuana program. And really think beyond what the logo is and what their company’s commitment is to the community. And what image they want to project to their clients.” Jay: “What we advise people most is that there are no instant riches in this industry. Depending on who approaches us, we may advise them not to pursue the industry. It is certainly a long game with no guarantees. But if people are smart and work hard, they can absolutely do well in cannabis.” INVESTMENT CORNER