Marijuana Business Magazine - Issue 09, Oct 2017

in 2015 that she had one month to get her dispensary ready for opening – or she’d lose the license.Macias returned to Washington DC and, with the landlord’s permission, met with the other tenants in the building to explain her business. The views of the tenants – who included lawyers, architects and a bagel store operator – had progressed in the roughly year and a half since she had won a license. So, changing minds was easier. By emphasizing the medical and health aspects of her business, Macias disarmed tenants of their prejudices against cannabis. Macias also brought her security chief with her to answer concerns that her dispensary might be a target for armed robbery. “They wanted hard-core facts. I gave them research, and let them talk with my security chief, who explained to them how we keep things secure,” Macias said. The education blitz worked: Macias was granted her final license on July 17, 2015. Shut Out of Supplies Macias, however, wasn’t able to open right away because she couldn’t source any product. At the time, there were only four vertically integrated MMJ businesses in Washington DC.They all had limited product and weren’t eager to wholesale to the new solo operator who threatened to swipe market share. Why didn’t she have her own cultiva- tion operation? Macias had been interested in running a grow with her dispensary. But she couldn’t secure the necessary capital – at least $500,000 – to pay for a grow site. She was well aware of studies that suggested banks and other lenders discriminate against minorities, who are disproportionately denied capital more than non-minor- ity capital seekers, and suspects that discrimination played a role in her struggle to raise funding. “Being a minority, it was hard for me to get funding to fund a grow. It was hard to find the investors that would help fund a grow. It’s hard for minorities to get fund- ing period. For a grow, it cost at least half a million (dollars), and I just couldn’t get that kind of investment at that time. So I did what was in my capacity,”Macias said. Macias’ supply troubles changed when she was in Colorado on business and by chance met Corey Barnette, CEO and chief cultivator at District Growers, one of DC’s vertically inte- grated marijuana businesses. Macias won him over. Impressed by her science- driven approach to business, Barnette ended up selling a pound of Skywalker OG and a pound of Buffalo Soldier O n top of the day-to-day rigors of running the National Holistic Healing Center dispensary in the nation’s capital, Chanda Macias has used her business acumen to become a sought-after cannabis consultant. Macias found that people would ask her about the ins and outs of operating a dispensary. In response, Macias always seemed to have the answers to their questions. Having survived suspected discrimination, skittish tenants, price-gouging cultivators and software crashes – and having won a license in a limited market like Washington DC – Macias figured she could parlay her experience into consulting. “There was a need in the market. When I started, I couldn’t get information from anywhere,” Macias said, recalling fruitless searches for standard operating procedures and best practices that she could refer to in getting her own business set up. “That meant that I had to make them myself.” She added, “With our success rate and high (patient) retention rate, I felt confident about sharing my skills with businesses.” Being a consultant, she explained, was also a natural extension of her previous science-academic life, where she would take younger students under her wing. “The heart of what I do is training people,” Macias said. “I consider myself a mentor. As a minority woman in this industry I know what obstacles there are to face.” She also knew there would be several minority clients in Maryland, and wanted to help. Now, Macias – whose consulting business goes by the name of National Holistic – is working with eight license winners in Maryland, advised one client in Pennsylvania who was ultimately unsuccessful and has started taking enquiries from Ohio, where she has one confirmed client. She charges $100-$200 per hour, she said. For her Maryland clients, Macias has helped arrange bulk discounts with ancillary product vendors that she uses. “I know howmaking those first buys (of packaging and other products) at premium prices can be burdensome,” Macias said. What Macias doesn’t do is take financial stakes in other people’s businesses, and she strongly advises her clients to avoid giving up a piece of their business for capital. “Don’t sell your business and end up working for other investors,” Macias said. “Don’t sell off any interest.” – Omar Sacirbey 64 • Marijuana Business Magazine • October 2017 SHARING THE EXPERIENCE