The medical cannabis industry is evolving almost daily, and therefore gaining approval to operate can be extremely difficult. Because of this, it’s wise to have someone guide you through the compliance process. Brown Consulting can help. Our services include:

Feasibility Analysis

In this industry, like all, there will be a number of potential or unforeseen hurdles that must be taken into account. Discovering these now, before large investments are made, diminishes the surprises and allows you to make informed decisions. For your medical cannabis business we’ll be looking at “need to know” issues such as the financial potential and any obstacles looming on the horizon which could impact, for better or worse, the future of your initiative.

Having these answers, we can then develop a pro forma to assess the financial soundness of your medical cannabis initiative. After this phase you will be more confident in making a go/no go decision.

The Business Plan

Business plans are a requirement of financial institutions, investors and regulatory authorities. In general, this is the document which outlines all considerations for a medical cannabis business. But due to the nature of this industry and cautiousness on the part of state or local authorities, the business plan must be correctly worded to fit the industry and state guidelines.

Here are just a few of the things we’ll outline:

• A general but well constructed statement about your particular medical cannabis business; i.e. cultivation, being a dispensary, creating edible cannabis products or other.
• Needed start-up costs, detailed budgets and estimated profit and loss statements for several years into the future.
• Applicable regulations and authorities you must comply with and how you intend to secure approval.
• How you will market your business (being careful to make sure you are within varying local regulations), the number of competitors and an estimation of the market share you believe you can capture.

As you can imagine, business plans are not light-weight documents. For the medical cannabis industry they become very complex. It is very important that this document be constructed carefully.

Start-Up Services

Application Preparation

As part of our medical cannabis compliance services, we’ll prepare necessary applications and supporting documents for submission. Because this is an industry in development with no clear standards, states are making up guidelines as they go and changing procedures almost daily. In many instances regulations seem to contradict one another. We stay up to date with the latest versions and rule changes to help you make the right preparations for your state and locale.

Policy/Procedure Development

The medical cannabis industry is like any other in that it needs a certain level of professionalism and protocol. This calls for the creation of procedures that impact day to day operations. Brown Consulting will put together the policies you’ll need going forward to be both successful and compliant. Typical development includes human resource procedures, financial and external contracts, risk and insurance assessment and, in some cases, the need for clinical procedures (HIPAA controls) should you sell directly to consumers.

Facility Consideration

What your medical cannabis business will physically look like and what it will need in terms of office, consumer and production space are all part of facility considerations. In addition, we’ll take into account work flow, security concerns, storage and access, along with traffic routes and parking. There is nothing worse than entering into a long-term lease agreement or building project only to find out later that the space is inadequate for work and profitability, or that it doesn’t fit local or state requirements such as distances from schools and other public places.