By: Tony Reese and Tyler Stratford, MJ Platform Consultants
We understand compliance can be stressful. Despite the stress, it’s imperative that you know not only how to safeguard your business from the fines and costly failed inspections, but unwanted interference too. Recently our cannabis consultants developed three clear, actionable tips that you can implement to prevent enforcement interference.
Here’s what you should know:
Adopt an attitude of compliance as a company culture. From the top-down, everyone should model compliant behavior as well as an attitude of rejecting non-compliant behavior. Examples of compliant behavior include personal accountability, responsible management of people, and good neighbor practices.
- Personal Accountability is about taking responsibility for your personal actions and includes avoiding the practice of “making exceptions” for senior executives, special employees, or family members.
- Responsible Management is the practice of adopting clear and concise rules that govern employee behavior that includes a detailed explanation of consequences for behavior. This ensures both the management and employees are responsible for transparently upholding the rules.
- Being a good neighbor includes considering the impact of the company’s practices on the neighborhood. This includes traffic patterns, parking situations, times of operation, enhanced security, and controlling odor, and noise.
Reduce operational risk It may sound crazy, but involve the local police department, fire department, health department, and city officials to tour your facility. The more familiar the people of these organizations are with your facility, how it operates, and the people who operate it, the better.
- Engage in banking service. If you can’t have a bank, what’s your next best option? Minimize cash you have on hand, internal ATMs, vaulting services, etc.
Record Keeping Best Practices Cash and inventory have a symbiotic relationship. Where one is off, so is the other. That’s why you must be accountable for 100 percent of your product and your cash at all times. We recommend the following:
- Conduct regular inventory counts by adopting routines for the most valuable products.
- Randomly count cash throughout the day. The focus on accuracy with cash will demonstrate management’s level of concern.
- Routinely check the number of canceled orders, refunds, and discounts given.
Combined, all these practices can prevent enforcement interference. In addition to these steps, seek out a team or consultant with prior expertise who can help you make the best decisions for your business.
Tony Reese has over 18 years of accounting systems experience and is a seed-to-sale cannabis industry expert. He joined the Colorado cannabis industry before there were regulations, and has real-world experience operating a cultivation facility, processing facility, and a high-end retail dispensary. Tony, a certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, will provide expertise in accounting, cash management, and compliance both virtually and on-site.
Tyler Stratford, Colorado native and former US ARMY Infantryman, joined MJ Platform two years ago as a Support Specialist. Now an Operations Consultant, Tyler uses his expertise in seed-to-sale tracking, business efficacy, and workflow efficiency to strategically advise clients in cannabis cultivation and retail dispensaries. When Tyler’s not working with clients, he can be found outside, rock climbing, spending time with loved ones, and representing Harpo’s FC on the soccer field.
