Are you considering a new business venture? If so, CBD could be the one for your startup dreams. The cannabis and CBD oil industry is quite lucrative and still growing rapidly. Here is why you should choose a cannabidiol company for your startup.
7 Step Guide To Starting A CBD Business
1. Get To Know The Cannabis Regulations In Your Area
While cannabis has certainly received its fair share of good attention over the last couple of years because of the research on its therapeutic benefits, the legal status of the herb itself is still quite complex.
Therefore, if you are considering getting into a business that relies on a compound found in the cannabis plant, you'll need to fully understand the legal ramifications related to it. This includes not only the use of medical but also recreational cannabis in your state.
In the United States, there was a bill introduced just a few years ago known as the Hemp Bill, also known as the Farm Bill. This is a bill that made it legal to sell CBD products in every state. The only requirement is that the CBD products contained less than the legal limit of THC which was classified at 0.3%.
Once you have become familiarized with all of the legalities of cannabis in your region, you will want to remain apprised to all of the developments throughout the industry including any major changes to regulation going forward.
2. Choose A CBD Startup Business Idea That's Sustainable
Once you've familiarized yourself with all of the legalities of starting a CBD business, you are going to want to come up with a business idea. The good thing about this is there are limitless options available.
There are a lot of different ways to enter the CBD space and starting up a store is one of the most popular. When selling CBD, you have a variety of products that you could consider. Some popular CBD ideas include:
- Vape juices
- Oil tinctures
- Pills or capsules
- Edibles
- Balms and lotions
- Tea
Along with becoming a retailer, you could consider a variety of other ideas including but not limited to:
- Being a CBD consultant in which you advise clients on CBD oil
- Becoming a CBD marketer
- Becoming a CBD supplier
- Becoming a CBD MLM distributor
- Purchasing a cannabis farm or dispensary
- Investing directly in privately owned CBD companies
- Investing in CBD company publicly held stocks
You may also prefer creating a cannabis extraction business plan. This technical and complex business model is about accumulating cannabis plants and extracting the THC and/or CBD chemical components to use in your products that you sell. While potentially more time-consuming and expensive, a cannabis extraction company could bring in sky high profits.
3. Build A Professional Website
Nowadays, having a strong and established online presence is a must. If you surveyed any CBD business, you'll likely find that the majority of them have an online website. The majority of people who shop for CBD products do so online. One of the main reasons being there is fewer legal hassles dealing with online orders. Also, there are other reasons including anonymity, convenience, and more.
Building a website for your new CBD business isn't as difficult as you might assume. There are plenty of different online building templates that you can use to do it for you. However, if you are looking to position your business in the best place to succeed, you'll want to pay for an expert to do it for you. This will not only save you time but will get you a professional-looking website with excellent branding.
4. Choose The Right Marketing Strategies
When you have your CBD oil website up and running and once you've decided on a business model, you are going to want to begin marketing your business. There are a lot of things you should be doing when it comes to marketing your business. It's important to keep in mind that the hemp oil and cannabidiol industry itself is very lucrative. Because of this, you'll have a lot of big money spenders in the arena that you will be competing with. The only way to stay ahead of the competition is by implementing the right CBD marketing strategies and being willing to spend.
There are several different ways to effectively market your CBD product either offline or online that include:
- Sponsoring tournaments
- Making partnerships with like-minded businesses
- Leveraging influencer marketing
- Leveraging affiliate marketing
- SEO
- PPC
- Social Media
- Email Marketing
- Blogging / Vlogging
5. Find High-Quality Products
This is one of the most important things to do when you are getting started with your CBD business. While it should be something that goes without saying, some people might try to cut costs and go with a low-quality product or supplier to maximize profits. This is the last thing you want to do. While you may be able to win over customers with aggressive marketing strategies with low-quality products, you won't retain them and keep them coming back for more. The quality of your products will dictate how many repeat customers you get. Buy your products at Joy Organics for guaranteed high quality.
If you have a bad retention rate, you aren't going to stay in business for long because your CBD customer acquisition costs will skyrocket.
You must ensure you are getting high-quality CBD products. The best way to do this is by vetting the products you are getting from your supplier. You want to request a Certificate of Analysis (COA) from your suppliers. Another thing you should be doing is sourcing from reliable providers that use CO2 extraction. Never buy from providers that cut costs by using hydrocarbons for extraction.
6. Getting A Reliable Payment Processor
No matter what the legal status is of cannabis in your region, you want to keep in mind that there will continue to be a social stigma attached to it. This could translate to having issues finding a payment processor. A lot of these processors might shy away from doing business with you if they find you are selling CBD. This is especially true if they figure you are a risky investment.
Luckily, there are options you can choose from that specifically cater to CBD businesses. You simply need to find one that is reputable and trustworthy.
Along with a payment processor, you want to open up a bank account with a bank that knows and is willing to accept you are selling CBD products. This is important because a lot of your customers might be paying directly through your account.
7. Have An Emergency Plan In Place
As soon as you have managed to take care of everything, you want to have an emergency plan in place for your cannabinoid startup company. This is crucial because your business will be fragile. Unfortunately, you will be entering a business that relies on your region's environment involving politics and legalities.
You need to have a good emergency plan in place for your cannabidiol company. These things can take form in many ways. You could have a business insurance policy, funds to keep your cash positive if you run into payment processor issues, or anything else.
Cannabidiol Company Conclusion
Learn more about launching a CBD company from the inspirational infographic below (click and zoom in for full size):