How to manage a microbusiness

When it comes to opening and operating a dispensary – like any business –there are many requirements and hurdles along the way. Oftentimes, people have an entire team to collaborate with and work out any challenges that may arise. However, when it comes to running a microbusiness, everything is different.

Florence Cannabis Co., a licensed cannabis microbusiness, was founded by Chris Rivers in 2020.

As a married father of three, Rivers said, “I’ve always been the sports dad.” Whether it be driving to a practice, attending games or even going skiing, most of his time was spent with his children.

Aside from being a father, Rivers works full-time as a software engineer for a company in Albany. Be- fore COVID-19, Rivers would often commute to the office. “During the [coronavirus] pandemic, once I started stacking up the extra hours I had available – I mean my commute time over the course of a week – I would spend between eight to 12 hours in the car. Add up all those soccer practice times, I was looking at another work week on my hands,” he said.

To put that time to good use while everyone stayed home and quarantined, Rivers decided to venture down the path of cannabis.

For some time, Rivers has been a homegrower. “I’ve always liked what I’ve grown better than what I was given at the dispensaries,” he said. As a result, he decided to open Florence Cannabis Co. in his hometown of Florence. He explained that the main office is in his home and the facility is about two and a half miles down the road. He noted that the proximity to the facility played a major part in the process as he still works full time at the software company, remotely. Rivers said, “it was luck” to have found a facility that was available, zoned correctly and had a structure to build out to a viable grow.

“Finding a facility to retrofit is pretty difficult and then obviously building is expensive so it was a stroke of luck with the availability of the building,” he added.

Through a connection with mutual friends, Rivers was introduced to Tyler Snyder, who has years of experience in the cannabis industry. Rivers said

Snyder was affected by the coronavirus pandemic as well because the large grow facility he had been working at shut down. After meeting, Rivers said they started working together and looked at different genetics that Snyder was familiar with.

“[From] working with Tyler and starting to poke around a little bit, it started to kind of come together as far as what we wanted to do with the process of growing,” explained Rivers. This includes how it would be grown, how to give it nutrients, conducting the post-harvest process and so on.

Rivers said he and Snyder had similar approaches to growing which

“worked out in that regard.” Snyder now serves as the director of cultivation at Florence Cannabis. Co.

In addition to Rivers and Snyder, the Florence Cannabis Co. team has one other member – an Army veteran named Phil. “We’re a pretty close, tight knit unit,” said Rivers. “The three of us pretty much do all the growing. Tyler leads it and Phil does a lot of the work. I do all the licensing and operational stuff.”

He continued, “I do sales, marketing, shipping and I’ll help out with the grow as well. We all pitch in everywhere.” When it’s time to package orders for the week, Rivers said the three of them sit down and fill orders all day.

As Florence’s approach is different from other dispensaries, Rivers said they take a bit of a “home grow” approach to their operation.

All the products at Florence Cannabis Co. are handcrafted. Rivers shared that it includes a lot of basic fundamentals: a good environment, growing in soil, good organic nutrients, maintaining the plants and plenty of water and light.

“Our motto is: ‘Keep things pretty basic and take care of the fundamentals – the genetics always help – so that’s kind of what we’ve been sticking to,’” he said.

Currently, Florence Cannabis Co. has five different strains on the menu that are available in different sizes and configurations. In total, there are about 16 to 20 products.

With the microbusiness license, Rivers said he can grow up to 5,000 square feet of canopy and manufacture, meaning they can make extracts, tinctures, edibles and more. He noted that they also get an endorsement to transport their own product. “Transportation is very expensive so that’s a big benefit,” he added. “What we cannot do is open a retail shop. As the industry sort of matures, the model is to become vertically integrated,” said Rivers. This means that if you are a brand, you have your own product and then you have a retail outlet to sell it. “That’s just kind of how the progression goes,” he said.

Rivers went on to say, “The successful industries going across the state have been vertically integrated companies that are able to control their whole supply chain from beginning to end, whereas we’re at the mercy of wholesale prices and competition which is pretty big right now.”

For a microbusiness like Florence Cannabis, Rivers said there are few resources to assist with marketing and sales. Therefore, to get the company’s name and products out on the shelves, Rivers hops in the car with menus in hand and delivers them to dispensaries across the state. Other methods include attending conferences and cold calling to name a few. Because of his efforts, Florence Cannabis products can now be found in six Massachusetts dispensaries.

Without the retail aspect, Rivers believes it “sort of hinders” the growth of a microbusiness.

When starting a small microbusiness, Rivers said they were lenient in some respects. However, to obtain the license, being a Massachusetts resident was a requirement. “It made sense,” he said. “I’m truly a microbusiness. I don’t have any kind of experience in the cannabis industry. I have some experience with business as far as technology and software, so they gave me kind of a break to be able to get into this industry which is awesome.”

One downfall to a microbusiness, as mentioned by Rivers, is that they “kind of cap you off.” For instance, he explained that if he wanted to expand his canopy to 10,000 square feet, he would have to sell his microbusiness license and reapply for a new license. Based on the way the regulations are currently written, it doesn’t assist with expansion.

Nonetheless, Rivers said there are many advantages to a microbusiness as well. “The advantages are that we can manufacture without having to get another license and we can transport our own products. Also, we have discounted licensing fees,” he shared. “There are a lot of advantages to it which is why I chose that.”

When it comes to licensing, Rivers said a microbusiness is put in a faster queue. If there’s a big multi-state operator waiting to have something looked at – depending on where they are in the process – a microbusiness can be bumped up before them.

“It is a really good program I think, but like all things, there’s definitely room to improve it,” said Rivers.

For the next year, Florence Cannabis Co. is going to continue to add products such as keef and refine strains that are offered. With the ability to run six different strains, Rivers said they are going to focus on what strains they want to grow and produce more products in the same space.

“Beyond that we have some space that’s not built out so once we get our feet under us and have everything filled up in the current space, I have the ability to triple the square footage for my canopy so that’s really the main goal,” he concluded.

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