Selecting the best Virginia Beach cannabis dispensary for your needs might be difficult. Numerous elements must be considered, such as product selection, customer service, experienced budtenders, and location.
It is also vital to prioritize compliance. Having consistent and robust employee management SOPs is essential. This includes ensuring that you are auditing and tracking your inventory accurately.
Location
You may initially feel overwhelmed when you walk into a Maine dispensary. You may need to determine what to do or what products are available. This is why they have budtenders, people who are knowledgeable about the different products and how each one will affect you. They can help you get the perfect item for your needs.
Finding a location for your dispensary is probably the most critical step to opening a new cannabis business. You must research the municipalities you are interested in operating in and pay special attention to any zoning requirements. In addition, you will need to create a dispensary business plan and submit it with your license application.
The plans should include the workflow your business uses to handle customers and orders, a description of any areas or rooms only authorized personnel can access, including keys, passwords, or combination numbers, and any security measures you use. The plans should also describe how you plan to keep your dispensary and its operations compliant with state regulations.
Hours
Depending on where you live, strict local and state laws may dictate the hours your dispensary can operate. It is essential to understand these requirements before investing in your new business.
Aside from the legal requirements, a dispensary requires substantial upfront capital to get up and running. It is also a highly regulated industry, so owners must adhere to city, county, state, and federal laws that dictate the growth, production, sale, and use of cannabis.
The most common way to raise the necessary funds is through equity financing. This involves selling chunks of ownership in the company to investors who will give you cash in exchange for their shares. This can be accomplished through venture capital, angel investments, crowdfunding, or Snoop Dogg’s Casa Verde Capital.
Alternatively, dispensaries can seek debt funding from banks or credit card companies. However, these options often come with high-interest rates, making them less attractive for most startup businesses. Regardless of the type of funding you select, developing a solid business plan that includes clearly defined goals for your new dispensary is essential.
Products
A reputable dispensary will have an excellent selection of cannabis products. They will have smokable flowers, edibles, tinctures, vape cartridges, cannabis accessories, and more. Additionally, they will have a large selection of strains with varying THC and CBD potencies and concentrations. Since cultivators and geneticists are constantly creating new strains, you want your dispensary’s product selection to evolve constantly.
The budtenders should have a lot of knowledge of their products. They will be able to educate customers on the benefits of each product and provide recommendations based on the individual needs and preferences of the customer. They will have the ability to upsell or cross-sell based on the customer’s current needs.
A dispensary should make it easy for consumers to pay for their purchases. This can be done by providing multiple payment options such as cash, credit, or debit cards. They should also allow for home delivery of their products. This way, the consumer can have their cannabis delivered to them at the most convenient time.
Customer Service
Customer service is the backbone of any retail business, and dispensaries are no exception. To ensure that every consumer has a great shopping experience, a well-trained and experienced crew is necessary. Whether they’re clarifying misinformation, serving impatient customers, or dealing with intoxicated clients, dispensary staff must be able to handle any situation professionally.
In-store education is also essential, and budtenders should be able to answer any question that a customer may have about a specific product type. In addition, many cannabis products and brands supply product information booklets or pamphlets to be distributed to customers upon request.
An in-store loyalty program is another way to build brand loyalty and encourage repeat customers. Select a customer loyalty platform that integrates with your dispensary’s POS system so you can automatically opt-in loyalty members, track their rewards, and redeem points at checkout.
Pricing
While all retail stores must decide on their network, hardware, security, and software partners, the cannabis industry brings additional challenges. For example, marijuana is a highly theft-prone product, and security systems are essential in dispensaries. Ensure your store’s cameras function well day and night and can continue to work during power outages. Look for systems that alert responsible parties in the event of a failure (either sound, text, or visual) and have limited access to only authorized personnel.
State compliance tracking is also essential for dispensaries, and choosing the right POS system is crucial. Consider selecting a vendor that specializes in cannabis and can offer the best integrations with cultivation, production, and distribution platforms.
An excellent way to determine pricing is to go shopping at your competitors’ shops and find out how much they are selling similar products for. Use this as your ceiling price, and then make sure that the general standard markup you choose covers your overhead expenses and provides a profit for your business. Lastly, consider offering loyalty programs and other incentives that appeal to your target customer base.
