If you take a peek inside the U.S. cannabis market, you’ll find a dynamic and fast-moving universe that spans 37 states: comprised of thousands of individual cannabis brands, tens of thousands of industry-specific businesses, and nearly half a million full-time professionals. If you want to hack it in this highly competitive world, your business must operate as a well-oiled machine – but where do you begin?
At MJstack, we believe the road to optimization and success for cannabis businesses starts with excellence in process. Having reliable and well-documented processes means an easier path to success in an industry as highly regulated as cannabis. When strong operating procedures work in combination with a tech stack that’s a perfect fit, cannabis businesses can automate, streamline, and collect data that fosters continual development and growth.
From large-scale MSOs to tiny mom-and-pop operators, the success of our clients has always revolved around one central theme: upgrading and optimizing processes by way of personalized tech solutions.
The Importance of a Well-Fitting Tech Stack for Cannabis Businesses
In today’s digital age, an estimated 99% of all businesses rely on SaaS solutions to power their businesses, automate crucial processes, communicate internally, and work more efficiently. The world of cannabis and the technology sector are inherently linked – businesses are even more incentivized to rely on software services to stay on top of regulations and a step ahead of competitors. Yet, nearly one-third, 29%, of SaaS software spend is underutilized or wasted.
As former cannabis industry professionals ourselves, there’s a reason why we affectionately refer to ourselves as “recovered salespeople”. When we worked in cannabis, we saw the battles that businesses were facing when it came to finding a great fitting tech stack that met their unique needs. To us, it was only logical that the needs of a standalone dispensary owner in Massachusetts would be different from a vertically integrated operator in California. Yet, many software providers were marketing to cannabis businesses without an understanding of our industry or how pain points varied across various sectors.
The divide was clear: SaaS and B2B companies were eager to market their services to the influx of new cannabis businesses, yet were often far removed from the industry itself and the unique challenges within it. One-size-fits-all solutions from software vendors promised cannabis businesses an endless list of benefits but often failed to address the root of their problems in practice.
Cannabis business owners don’t have time to review hundreds of potential software vendors or trial-run multiple services. Most cannabis businesses don’t have a dedicated team member in their corner to help ensure cohesion across their entire spread of software solutions. As a result, cannabis businesses were often swayed into signing on with vendors who ultimately weren’t a strong fit for their needs, overlooking better SaaS options they were unaware of.
That’s why we founded MJstack – to help take the burden off cannabis owners and operators who know that the tech stack is essential to their business, but may need guidance or direction when evaluating different cannatech vendors.
Now, we’re giving you a peek behind the velvet curtain and taking you on a deep dive into our unique process and methodology, so you can understand what to expect and how your business can benefit from a custom-matched tech stack.
“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”
– William A Foster
Step 1: Consultation
We saw an opportunity to flip the script – and put cannabis businesses back in the driver’s seat when it came to selecting the software that makes their business go ‘round.
Today, the first step in our process reflects the same sentiment. You can expect to meet with us directly, face-to-face, and enjoy a genuine conversation as you describe, in your own words, what your needs and pain points are.
In your first consultation, we determine and establish 5 key points of information:
- Your business model and license type
- Your state’s unique compliance requirements
- Your business phase
- The size of your operation
- Your goals and plans for growth
Step 2: Understanding Your Business:
Our goal is simple: to know your business inside and out – from your process, to your goals, and even your competitors. Consider us your expert tailor, as we take the “measurements” of your business, we get one step closer to creating your perfect SaaS fit and helping you establish highly efficient systems for your business.
Where software vendors provide reactive fixes that measure success on a project-to-project basis, our consultation process is designed to provide proactive, results-driven solutions that benefit your organization as a whole.
Once we’ve established a clear understanding of your business at a 30,000-foot view, we take our understanding a step deeper by diving into other factors, such as:
- Your expansion goals
- Revenue goals
- How to cut costs
- Customer retention and loyalty strategies
- SOPs
- Your existing tech stack and vendor contract analysis
Step 3: Making Recommendations
Tech stack mismatches are one of the most impactful problems cannabis businesses face today. Recent data highlights that businesses waste nearly a full workday every week dealing with SaaS struggles that hinder productivity and cause stress. What’s more, the cost of an ineffective tech stack amounts to $84B annually in wasted time – or $10M for every hour of every day. When you work in one of the most competitive industries in the world, there’s no room for wasted time or money – especially when you’re an industry rookie.
Efficiency and reliability are the names of the game, so you can rest assured knowing that your tech stack will be a seamless fit even before you ever roll it out in practice. After steps one and two of the evaluation process are complete, our experts make recommendations with the help of our network of over 250 professional partners.
This individualized recommendation takes into account facts such as:
- Market and model fit
- Integrations
- Company and product stability and reliability
- Customer support options
- The solution pricing model
Step 4: Finalizing and Following-Up
This is the phase of the process where you level up: it’s finally time to try on your custom setup for size. We understand that implementing your new systems can be intimidating, especially when multiple software systems are in play. That’s why we work with you to establish an implementation timeline that introduces individual components of your tech stack over time, prioritizing the most essential solutions first so you can ease into things.
But, we won’t leave you hanging either. You can move forward with confidence, knowing that we have your back as you roll out your new systems. We will work closely with you to finalize a follow-up cadence to check in on the health of your operations and follow the growth of your business.
Make Your Business Our Next Success Story Today
The cannabis industry only continues to grow – and that means every second counts when it comes to giving your business a competitive edge this year. If you’re a cannabis business that is ready to take operations to the next level, there’s never been a better time to work with us.
We’re accepting our very last round of FREE clients now – don’t miss out before we move into a paid model. Book your consultation today!
