Professional Growers, Please Provide Insight.

[TerpeneTom]

Hello,

I am looking to inquire about the business of growing cannabis, legally or not.

Could those that rely upon the cultivation of cannabis please provide an account of their costs, revenue, profits...

Also, could you elaborate as to what the barriers to entry, competition, pricing, positioning, etc... are?

Would you recommend this endeavor to any aspiring entrepreneur?

I understand their are mannnnyyyy variables dependent upon a myriad of circumstances, but in general, your thoughts?

Truly appreciate the responses; I have always been curious as to how specific businesses operate and their returns, but hesitant to flat out ask an individual in person as it seems socially taboo.

 

[MrGoodBudz]

I have tried many paths in my life with commitment. In the end I always come to the same conclusion. Grow more cannabis!!! I literally grow all day for work and all night as a hobby. I dream about my garden when I'm sleeping. Give it a go! You will loose some money for a little while. Then you will figure it out. (Mostly) or quit! Now I dabble in the 1% of perfection and changes to my plants/environment. So on..

 

[bigshrimp]

If you know you can put out a good product and can get rid of it, i would consider growing. The market price for weed is likely going to drop in the next couple years so there is no time for fucking around if your in this to make money.

If i had that sort of capital, i would be looking for more conservative investments.

 

[TerpeneTom]

Thanks for the advice.

The market is currently saturated with commercial inferior product; certainly not up to medical standards.

There are no branded cannabis producers which consistently deliver quality product. Certainly a plethora of opportunity within this industry. Someone needs to establish themselves and prepare for the retail market when inevitably cannabis becomes legal for recreational use.

Plans would be to position the product as superior quality, demanding high prices, (connoisseurs, wealthy recreational users...)

I know talented artists that recently graduated who posses the ability to develop designs that will capture/appeal to a luxury oriented market. Dispensaries are available for retail sales, although I would require certain sales practices and product positioning.

A lot to think about, just a rough idea. Will it ever come to fruition? I don't know. Difficult to find investors.

This is not a cheap investment, nor an easy endeavor... Calculated risk

 

[supermanlives]

I have always made money .... if you got skills and genetics the rest will fall in place.... if you don't depend on the weed for all your bills and got side cash you will do very well.i can get by on my jobs and income alone.the weed just gets me toys,food and babes lol...sometimes I make a shit load sometimes not so much... I am on the not so much right now but that's gonna change soon... I aint gonna go into dollar figures.. but one year when back east after partying, buying all I wanted, eating like king. I saved over 100k... should of stayed there

 

[budleydoright]

The laws from state to state are going to vary too much for a national brand to appear for a while. Then as you mentioned there will be questions of quality. I'm of the opinion that a true national brand will be difficult to create without some sort of blending ground flowers. Will there be some standards that must be met? If you claim a certain % of thc what will be the tolorences allowed.

Will a true pot head buy a ground blend?

Currently, the financial industry is not working with the cannabis industry due to the federal laws that govern them.

 

[TerpeneTom]

Thanks, supermanlives.

That is a shite ton of posts you have, that certainly suggests you possess practical experience! Always appreciate a veterans response!

Quantifying it all is difficult, and not very accurate, as you must calculate all the opportunity cost, inputs, depreciation, revenue vs profit, etc....

I have a small operation currently, but would love to expand as my interest and knowledge has GROWN exponentially, certainly faster than my plants (albeit I am still an amateur grower among all these revered and experienced professionals online).

Slowly developing a business plan worthy of presentation and significant investment.

Thanks!

 

[TerpeneTom]

Just a local branded producer within the somewhat immediate community. If the product is exceptional, the brand will expand and market itself.

I'm not looking to breed specifically, but i'd love to create a partnership with a revered seed producer and cooperatively develop a controlled climate specifically tailored for that unique strain. Every business needs its core product that continually attracts established and new consumers, and i'd love to focus all of my capital on optimizing ONE specific strain.

I believe that is the best strategy, as there are soooooo many varieties and strains available, so it will be hard to compete in that respect. Thus I will allocate all my effort to producing one core product that will continually improve and provide as consistent results as possible.

 

[Floridian]

And you don't lose money in the beginning that's give up talk lol.I sure didn't it was unbelievable from my first grow c99 and apollo11.Man do I wish a still had some of those cuts!Its been a big hoot from the beginning no losing anything,ever.Except cuts maybe lol

 

[TerpeneTom]

To those who invested within large operations, what motivated you to do so? Did you invest within new infrastructure? Or were you "lucky" enough to have adequate space within your current living parameters?

Thanks!

 

[supermanlives]

I bought greenhouses and did a few guerilla grows to get me up an going,,now I am starting all over and prob will do the same..

 

[TerpeneTom]

Without property located in a remote area that would prove difficult for me, although greenhouses certainly seem to allow for some massive production.

Anyone else care to contribute?

Thanks

 

[shaggyballs]

 

[WaterFarmFan]

EDIT - Post was removed by mod.

 

[CrushnYuba]

It's something i have been thinking about allot lately.. I'm a career grower. Growing ganja has always been my sole source of income.* I'm getting on the older side though.* 20 years ago when i thinking cultivation would be my job, it was allot more lucrative.* Then the 2008 market crash kind of locked it in.* I don't regret the choices i made but if 20 years ago, the market was this developed i would have chosen something else.* There is just so much more competition and the value of a lb makes it much harder.** I have been cutting down. Simplifying. Getting out of properties. Growing less.* Some of that is just for my own sanity.* But allot of it is just for efficiency.* The margins ain't what they used to be.* When covid started, i moved up to a farm i got in the mountains.** The house is about paid off.* Its already set up with greenhouses.* It's probably the best climate in the country for greenhouse and outdoor. I can grow a few hundred lbs a year at a pretty low cost from home. If production costs aren't ROCK bottom, it's out. i can't even imagine a new endeavor.

 

[WaterFarmFan]

These are interesting times. Oklahoma provides a lot of insights for people looking to make moves. Low cost and unlimited supply of licenses has brought people from all over. Might have been good for a while, but too many people came, and are still coming. Too many greenhouses, that likely got severely whacked with recent ice/power issues, growing too much low quality swag. The stories I read of people killing it describe high quality flower and building a brand with satisfied customers.

In my mind, there is only a single viable path going forward and that is completely vertical - seed to sale - operations involving A+ flower. If you do not have a means to directly sell finished products to consumers, you are someone else's BITCH. Period. You will be at the mercy of market forces, middlemen and bottom feeders in a race to the bottom.

Most people on this site know that it is difficult to grow perfect cannabis. So many little things can cumulatively reduce quality. It is a 100% fact that there is certain point where quality goes down as the scale of operations increases too much (ie anything grown in a large industrial greenhouse). The secret to success will be putting out a better product (hand trimmed, amber trichs) that commands a better price, which you actually get paid.

Retail is hard in a different way than growing, and if you really want to succeed going forward, then you will need partners that are as dedicated as you. Mr. Covid is here to stay, and he has fucked up a great deal of plans for many. Who has been fucked amongst the most? That would be restaurant owners. What are they really good at and enjoy? Retail and serving customers... All markets are different, but food for thought...

WFF

 

[CrushnYuba]

I have friends that left California to build operations in Oklahoma. Friends from the east coast. Allot of $ from Texas. Cheap land, cheap power, cheap everything.* Everyone expects it to be oversaturated.* They will make $ from diverting and exporting just like California has always done.* The climate isn't really good enough to produce high quality greenhouse there. But you can produce high quality indoor anywhere. And on a pretty large scale. I got friends with ALLOT of $ behind them that recently made the move to OK. They are pretty good at producing perfect flower by the ton.
The one thing i have seen in this business is people chasing what they see as the next opportunity in the green rush.* Recently the cost of indoor has gone up. So everyone is running around putting up these large indoor ops. As supply goes up, price goes down. "Perfect" indoor is not really a unique product. It's just easily reproduced anywhere. I wouldn't go making any investments that don't pay out double what u need Forit to be worth it. For whatever reason, demand for nice indoor flower has made it 3k a lb right now. A year ago it was like 1700.

 

[WaterFarmFan]

The climate isn't really good enough to produce high quality greenhouse there. But you can produce high quality indoor anywhere. And on a pretty large scale.

Truth. A lot of mold floating around out there in different seasons and greenhouses are a losing proposition with quality and the elements. Seen some 150-200k sq ft canopy corporate greenhouses in different states that will crush the mids category for years to come.

Indoor is the future for the smaller operator. Will be interesting to see what incentives the green new deal types throw out with solar. Cheap power is the key to indoor. You are absolutely right about cranking out A+ at scale, but it takes love and passion. There is a point where scale is your enemy with disease, pests and labor - small problems can become very expensive big problems if the grow areas are too big and not divided.

Another issue with large scale commercial operations is corners are cut for economic reasons. Bean counters will only want to run the shortest flowering periods possible to get the most cycles per year. 10 week strains get run 8 1/2 weeks kind of thing. Thats why I said amber trichs. If the biggest commercial guys run a strain to mostly clear trichs, and a warehouse scale indoor grower takes the same clone to mostly cloudy with some amber, we both know who has the A+.

I wouldn't go making any investments that don't pay out double what u need Forit to be worth it.

I would say pay out double in the first year to be safe. People are raising $40-50 million dollars to build out corporate greenhouses. These are the people that will either go bankrupt or take a considerable portion of the extracted oil space for pens and edibles. A+ flower is something they can not produce at scale.