We are in a state which has recently legalized cannabis and are drafting a business plan, looking at equipment, etc. The actual start up date will be in 2021.
We have some limited knowledge as to cultivation and extraction but would like to find a consultant to visit with for a couple of days prior to the end of the year. There would be one or two people making the trip.
Our plan is to go to the consultant’s location on a date convenient for the consultant and to get an overview of the main areas: commercial cultivation, extraction, end products, and any other areas that the consultant feels are beneficial. This would be a “preliminary/informal” session. We are not trying to get formulas, SOP’s, detailed technical training, etc. on this trip. The opportunity to get a first hand look at ongoing operations would be great (again, I mean a brief walk through but not looking for detailed processes and such yet).
Most of the posts regarding consultants are fairly stale and I wanted to check with the experts to see if there were any recommendations about a possible consultant. We understand that time is money and are not looking for a free ride.
You need a little more than a technical consultant my friend. You need an entire firm to perform an F.B.O.M.
F = Feasibility Assessment
B = Build Business
O = Operational Training
M = Management Ongoing
Unless you have all the front of the house…but from your post it doesn’t sound like it…the technical aspects are just one spoke of a much larger wheel that must be balanced to achieve success…administration, business development, compliance, design, etc etc.
I really appreciate the responses and feedback. I am reaching out to a couple of people this weekend to see about working something out.
As for the concerns that og_extracts brought up, I understand the skepticism and assumptions. I will be providing anyone I talk with detailed information about me and my main partner and my reason for being vague in my public post. Yes, I am looking for a “tour” of an ongoing operation, primarily of the extraction side, along with a day or two of someone’s time which I will pay for in advance. If you (og_extracts) are ok with it, I will gladly DM my phone number to you and give you whatever information you need to verify who I am and my intentions. NONE of that is meant sarcastically or anything like that. I really do understand how you (or others) could have concerns and I don’t want to start off in this community on the wrong foot.
As to the issues Mosaic_Co-Labs raises, I appreciate you taking the time to lay those points out for me and agree with everything you said. Some of the pieces are in place but we will need MUCH more in-depth services as we go along. We hope to be open around the summer/fall of 2021, and this is the beginning of trying to finally put everything together. We can then figure out what we can handle internally and what we will need outside help on. But yes, we have a very long and expensive way to go.
Edit: OK, I am an idiot. I just reread my original post, and it is not clear at all. It does sound like I am looking for a big tour of a facility. My apologies. When I am talking about “areas”, I don’t mean physical areas of an operation. I mean areas of knowledge or such. As for a “tour”, yes I would like one. But when I said seeing an operation would be great, I meant great as in it would be a bonus. My assumption is that most of the time will be in some type of office or pretty much anywhere that three of us can gather around a table and do some work. Thinking on it, a good ice cream shop or snack bar would be perfectly acceptable, lol. I want to hire someone, not sponge off of for free, for help with a very general outline of an operation (cultivation to packaging or at least extraction) for my specific circumstances but am not trying to hang around an ongoing operation for a day or two. Being able to take a quick unobtrusive look the physical operation would be a great addition though!
. I’m hella skeptical of this post for a few reasons but I’m just assuming.