On the verge of securing a one million dollar note for the marijuana business, while my son turns two years old in a few weeks. My wife and I are blessed. Our son was likely conceived between one day to a week after getting married. Even though the pregnancy wasn’t easy, the uneasiness became a blessing.
Cam was born three weeks early at only five pounds 11 ounces and in perfect health, fitting from the tip of my fingers to about halfway down my forearm. It’s all about instincts, and, love, raising a child is natural. My relationship with my parents has been healthy, and this may contribute to the natural feeling of raising my son.
As a teenager, I got my start in business, working a family cleaning service. After finagling my way through higher education, handling millions of dollars in sales for healthcare products and selling over $9 million in renewable energy systems, there is nothing more loving and natural as raising a child.
Now the task at hand, acquiring a couple million for our marijuana business and believe me, it feels natural, and I feel the love. I love it! With or without love, you might be wondering, “how do you raise money for a marijuana business?” When you are hunting for capital, enjoy the reason why you are raising it, but love cannot be the burden of mismanaging spending habits. Instead, allow your logic and passion to fuel sustainability.
According to entrepreneur.com, seven out of ten new companies fail within ten years. With staggering failure statistics like that, it’s important to know how your business will be making money and project for at least the first five years. Through financial analysis, project how much money you will make and how the company will spend. If you know exactly how to make money and what you will pay to acquire sales then, you know your companies business model.
The business model has to be unique enough to gain market share by either joining a growing market or taking away customers from competitors, or a combination of both. Financial reports wouldn’t be complete without a great deal of market research. To become a player in the market, you need capital. Maybe not millions like me but the outline above is a one-size-fits-all, make funds, raise funds, spend funds, naturally again and again.
If you are interested in accumulating money, it helps to have a robust network of people that make money in ways that are equal to or above where your business wants to be! Your business-network is an extension of your personal and professional experience with an emphasis on developing and maintaining healthy relationships.
When a relationship isn’t where you want it to be, work at it. Acquiring funds is like building a healthy relationship, its work. If you need a loan from the bank, you’d need a history or records of your relationship with borrowing money and the longer, the better. While running a business and raising funds, your duties extend to also managing the company by building stronger connections with investors, employees, and customers.
During my business studies, I failed numerous, accounting, finance, and statistics courses. In my professional sales and marketing experience, I’ve always been in a frontline role working with the market. The combination of my strengths and weakness has granted me the opportunity to build relationships with people who are like-minded but have different skills than me.
During my MBA studies and while working full-time, I was able to directly learn from different management styles and also analyze theories from course business cases. I had limited classroom experience and virtually no experience raising funds so a few months after finishing my MBA I decided to expand my network. In 2017, I spent the year meeting and interviewing entrepreneurs, investors, and finance-minded people. In the summer of 2017, I met a guy who finds projects to invest in for affluent clients. He mentioned his network is worth over $50 billion. Was he telling the truth? I don’t know, but we’ve yet to do business together. In other cases, I’ve proposed products or services to successful business owners, only to sit back and soak-up game while they drop jewels on the balance of their character, business success, and business status.
My parents have always been supportive. I’m nearly 30 years old still, making moves with weed. When I was around 17, during a school break, my dad found a bag of weed in my car. I specifically remember telling him not to worry; marijuana won’t ruin my life, and in fact, it enhances my life experiences. He took my word and not the weed.
With three older sisters who smoked marijuana, these experiences happened often and were as routine as the wine bottles on your shelf, but my weed was stashed in the trunk, shoe box, garage or doubled wrapped in my dresser drawer.
I do not think my parents would have ever imagined I’d be raising millions of dollars for a marijuana business but if somehow, that was my goal as a teenager, they would have supported me. Instead, they gave me the tools to be successful in life. Most importantly, they taught me how to be a great parent! I do not call them for parenting advice, but I know they are available as my wife and I grow our family. Being a son, brother, husband, father and a friend, has helped me gain a larger perspective on raising capital.
