One positive aspect of the burgeoning cannabis industry is the fact that many young people see it as an accessible industry for employment. For many, their goal is not just to work in the industry, but to lead a business. It can be hard for a small business venture to establish itself. One way for a cannabis business to make an impact, though, is through data.
It’s likely you’ve heard that before. Some new business owners might have trouble figuring out exactly what the data can tell them and how it can help their organization thrive. Here are a few ways in which technology can help your organization gather data, and what that data might mean for your business.
Growing
There are a huge number of data points to gather about cannabis growth. Whether it’s related to lighting, temperature, nutrients, or any of many other variables involved in growing the product, cultivators are constantly recording data to make sure they are producing the best possible plant, and then replicating the process. Agricultural technology companies are capitalizing on the cannabis industry as well, developing more and more products specifically designed for cannabis growth.
What analytics can do: Much of the data that used to be gathered manually (and painstakingly) can now be done automatically through sensors that track elements such as temperature and light. Some solutions automatically adjust based on the data, but cultivators can also manually adjust settings remotely. The data-gathering is customizable so information can be gathered by the minute or hour, depending on what growers want to know.
Tracking sales
Just as with any other retail store, running a cannabis dispensary can provide a flood of data. If you start by figuring out what information is important to you, you can harness that information to make data-driven decisions to benefit your business. Everything from product performance to managing your sales workforce can be broken down into actionable data.
What analytics can do: Sales can be broken down by any number of categories, from product type to regions where items are or are not doing well. That information can be used to inform inventory, or possibly to evaluate how a salesperson in a certain area is performing. An analytics solution can provide not just sales numbers for your organization but also information about the overall market trends and how your sales compare to others in the industry.
Legal ramifications
One of the trickiest aspects of getting started in the cannabis industry is its legal status. While the fact that a state legalizes the recreational use of marijuana could open the door to entrepreneurs in that state, that newness can also be a drawback. Among the possible challenges is the fact that a larger, established business could move into the state to do business; marijuana is illegal at the federal level and that limits certain possibilities; and the license application process can be difficult to navigate.
What analytics can do: While it may sound inconvenient to meet regulatory standards, the fact that they exist is to protect consumers and make sure licensed businesses are where customers shop. Analytics can help make the process less of a burden. One example is if there is an issue with a certain ingredient or product, tracing data can help you quickly find and address any potential issue with that product. Though each state has different requirements, most require knowledge of a product all the way from seed to sale, information that would be harder to provide for non-licensed sellers. Analytics can track that information more quickly, saving an organization time, and by not having to face penalties and fines, it can also save an organization money.
Just as there are countless data points to be gathered within the cannabis industry…there are countless ways of using the analytics to work to your advantage if you’re just starting out. These examples just scratch the surface. You need to figure out what is important to your specific organization and then start collecting the relevant data.
As legalization comes to new states, it is an exciting time for someone looking to build a cannabis business. Analytics can help make that entry into the industry easier. While it may sound like an easy decision to involve an analytics solution in your decision-making, a lot of companies don’t do it immediately. Part of the problem is it sounds like a big investment. But a lot of organizations say the investment is worth it, because they can leap ahead of the companies that aren’t using analytics and are still a step behind.
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