Marijuana Business Magazine - Issue 09, Oct 2017

74 • Marijuana Business Magazine • October 2017 Business: Accounting firm founded in 2009 that is just dipping its toes into the marijuana industry – although it expects MJ could ultimately account for more than 51% of its business. Headquarters: Kenneth Square, Pennsylvania Preventive Measures The company hasn’t established a wall between its marijuana and non-marijuana segments, but going forward, its accountant and others who service can- nabis clients will work exclusively for them – and not others. “It’s not like we want to bifurcate our business, but we will have a department or a division where teams work exclusively with marijuana clients,” said Richard Wortmann, the firm’s founder. “It just wouldn’t make sense to have people working on cannabis 75% of the time and then spend 25% of the time with a broker- dealer client or something.” Past Mistake or Notable Development In April, Wortmann met with the junior and senior partners of an architectural firm.The junior partner mentioned he had been approached to design a grow facility and a dispensary – but he nixed the assignment. Wortmann was concerned this would segue to criti- cism of his efforts to serve the MJ industry. Quite the opposite: The senior partner turned to the junior partner and exclaimed: “What do you mean you turned away a client?” Advice Wortmann used this incident as an opportunity to educate the junior partner on myths surrounding marijuana – i.e., unsavory types typically purchase can- nabis, or MJ leads to the use of harder drugs. He also discussed how medicinal marijuana can help patients without the side effects of opioids or other drugs. “Some people in the business world have the same misinformation about marijuana as some legislators, so I like to use these opportunities to gently educate them,”Wortmann said. He ran into a similar situation when a “very con- servative” accounting firm decided not to buy or merge with his company because of his push to seek mari- juana clients. “They were scared about what their other clients would think. I said, ‘Why don’t you ask your clients?’” It’s not like we want to bifurcate our business, but we will have a department or a division where teams work exclusively with marijuana clients. Company: RW Group Richard Wortmann