Operating legally isn’t all that different from the trapping days.
Ruben Seyde, who goes by the moniker “The Cannabis Guy,” is the founder of Delivered, Inc, a Worcester area cannabis delivery business based in Clinton, Massachusetts. He’s known for sharing his “experiences as a Mexican entrepreneur”—from cannabis insights, to behind-the-scenes action, and motivation—with his followers on social media, and we found this new dispatch so insightful that we asked if we could share it here. We hope to further collaborate with Ruben in the future and encourage you to check out his service if you are in their delivery area. -TJM Editors
After operating a legal cannabis business for just under two weeks, here are my biggest takeaways …
1. If you can get past all the insane regulations, operating legally isn’t all that different from the trapping days.
Maybe this one is unique to some of us, but I always had high standards for customer service, product procurement, and operations to give my customers the best experience possible. This meant pretty packaging, clear communication, accurate ETAs, etc. The legal market is the same exact game, just with more rules to follow.
2. Basket sizes differ significantly.
Going into this, I had Headset’s data available so I knew the average cart total is in the mid-$60s on the legal market, but I thought given the delivery model, things would be different for us.
I was wrong. Back when we were trapping, the average delivery was around $200 to $300. Our current average delivery? Around $145. While it’s higher than the market average, I was optimistic it would be much higher—even if it meant we would only see a fraction of the traffic a typical dispensary sees. I was so wrong that we already had to drop our delivery minimum—twice.
I can only assume that this difference is because of taxes and the differences in quality. I don’t think prices are the issue giving that they are very similar at this point.
3. You have to pivot and roll.
As referenced above, we’ve already had to pivot our game plan multiple times for multiple reasons. That’s okay though, it just means we’re learning and optimizing our systems!
If we didn’t make the pivots we’ve made, our cart average would be over $200—but we would have a fraction of the orders that we do now. If you don’t listen to what the markets are telling you, you’ll get left behind.
4. And the most painfully obvious take away—marketing is still king.
And given the extreme regulations, this is the hardest part of the business to nail down. Every marketing channel has its own requirements, needs its own content, and it all needs to be tailored in a way to best get the consumer to act—otherwise you’re burning money.
And burn money we did. Thankfully, this department hasn’t been too big of a leak, but it’s definitely happened. So if anyone has any advice or suggestions in this area, we’re all ears!
5. Last but not least… Impressed Cannabis is impressive!
These guys have been our number one selling brand for two weeks in a row. Huge shoutout Kara Bertrand and Ralph Greenberg.
That’s all I have for now, but stay tuned for more.
