Business View Magazine | October 2019

247 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2019 Custom built cannabis hardware and packaging to drive your business forward. begreensupply.com 108 Union Wharf, Boston, MA 02109 Move your cannabis brand away from the generic. S I RA NATURALS Dundas: “Banking is not the problem that it once was for regulated cannabis businesses. However, the caveat is that it’s still difficult to do business with national banks, chartered by federal government agencies like the Federal Reserve or the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Typically, state- compliant cannabis companies will bank with state-chartered banks, credit unions, and smaller banks. We have been fortunate, here in Massachusetts, to have several banking institutions offering business services to cannabis companies. So, our organization has never suffered from the cash-only problem.” BVM: How did Sira Naturals get its initial financing? Dundas: “Under the Massachusetts medical cannabis law, we were required to be a non- profit organization. And non-profits don’t allow equity ownership. Essentially, the only type of financing that was open to us at the time was debt financing. It was very difficult. We didn’t own any of our own buildings or assets; we were leasing our pictured Sira’s Belgian Dark Chocolate Bar 413.733.6634 springfieldlabel.com • info@springfieldlabel.com