A business plan is very important in your dispensary business. Whether you will be granted a license or not, depends on your business plan. Whether you will be successful in this field or not, depends on your business plan.

1. T H E D I S P E N S A R Y E X P E R T S :
H T T P : / / W W W . T H E D I S P E N S A R Y E X P E R T S . C O
M
How to Write an Effective
Dispensary Business Plan

2. Introduction
 Business plan, no doubt, is the defining document
you will ever create for your marijuana dispensary
business.
 There are lots of enthusiasts out there who want to
get in the action and start their own dispensaries.

3. What to do first?
 If you don’t know much about the laws and
regulations governing marijuana usage in your state
of residence, it would do you good to check out the
official website of the Health Department belonging
to your state government.
 You can ask any of your questions to their
representatives and get all the answers you need.

4.  This is the best way of getting to know the laws and
regulations of your particular state, especially
because marijuana laws keep changing regularly
across the country and it’s not possible for us to keep
up with these laws every now and then.
 That said, there are some things that hardly ever
change, and drawing a good business plan is surely
one of them.

5. To begin with, to state the importance of putting in
place a great business plan, it would be essential to let
you know that without a good business plan, your
dispensary license will never be granted.

6. The Importance of a Sound Dispensary Business
Plan
 The very first thing one has to keep in mind while
even thinking of starting a marijuana dispensary
business (or any business for that matter!) is the
future.
 Any successful business person will tell you how
important it is to stay a step ahead of the clock.

7.  You need to know the trends on your niche.
 You need to be able to forestall future losses or even
better, build profits from good speculation of market
trends.
 Thus, having a good idea of your market, your
customers, your competitors, and your supervisors,
are the underlying stepping stone to the success of
your dispensary business.

8. And where does one get all these information?
 Market research is the only way you can learn about
the little secrets of your market and customer base.
 To let your investors and official licensors know that
you are serious endeavour, you need to put this
knowledge across successfully.

9. You need to be able to drive home the point that you
are not a casual sheep in the herd, but you are serious
businessman and you can run your marijuana
dispensary with responsibility and care while abiding
by all the applicable laws, rules and stipulations, set by
the state as well as federal government.

10. Why the need for a good business plan?
 Your marijuana dispensary business, just like any other
business, won’t find investors or licensing officials unless
you convince them through a good business plan.
 As much as important it is to know what you need in
order to come up with a perfect dispensary business plan,
it’s equally important to know where one can go wrong
while drawing up a business plan.
 That is why we thought that we should summarize the
points for you.

11. Mistakes Dispensary Enthusiasts Often Make
 Hasty models
 Many marijuana dispensary enthusiasts draw up business
plans without devoting enough time for idea or research.
 This often result into a “half-cooked” plan which is no good for
anyone.
 Thus, it is a rule of thumb that weeks, sometimes months, need
to be devoted to carry out research and brainstorm ideas for
your dispensary business plan to be a success.

12.  Lack of understanding of market
 Many people who apply for marijuana dispensary licenses
show very little understanding of the business and the market.
 Very few of those actually understand the gravity and
sensitivity of this business.
 Medical marijuana dispensaries need to be and must be run in
highly professional manners, just like any other pharmacy or
even hospitals.

13.  This lack of understanding is often visible through the business
plans drawn out by such dilettantes.
 So, before you even begin to start writing your marijuana
dispensary business plan, take some time to research the
market and also how you touch lives of patients who seek
palliative care through medical marijuana.
 This is a noble endeavour and should be treated like one.

14.  Unconvincing use of language.
 While writing a business plan, the language used has to be
persuasive and confident.
 Many people don’t heed this fact and the resultant business
plan, however sound in technique, ends up reading like an
essay.

15.  Hence, the use of language in your business has to be
confident, convincing and should reflect the fact that you have
put in lots of hours for market research and business
understanding.
 Experienced investors or officials can easily tell apart a good
plan from a bad one, so it’s always good to be on the safer side.

16. In summary?
 So, in essence, you need to devote time, efforts,
energy, and even your own money to carry out solid
research before writing a dispensary business plan.
 This investment of time and money will definitely
not go in vain, as this will come in extremely handy
when you actually begin to run the business.
 Nobody can put value on knowledge, and good
business plans underline that sentiment.

17. What should the structure of my dispensary
business plan be?
 There is no definitive structure of an ideal business
plan.
 People generally tweak and turn things around to
suit their needs.
 That said, there is certain skeleton model that is
normally considered to be standard.

18.  It is supposed to cover every major aspect of your
marijuana dispensary business down the stream.
 This standard structure is described in this
presentation.

19. Business Plan Structure
 The following structure is often followed by the best
business plans:
 “Confidentiality Agreement”
 Table of Contents
 Executive Summary
 Business Summary
 Start Up Summary
 Products and Services
 Market Analysis Summary
 Strategy and Execution Summary
 Sales Forecast
 Milestones

20.  Management Summary
 Financial Plan
 Start up Funding
 Projected Profit and Loss
 References
 Notes

21. Confidentiality Agreement
 At the start (and preferably at the close too) of every
business plan, no matter what the business is, there
is a confidentiality agreement located.
 A confidentiality agreement is a piece of semi-legal
agreement that legally binds the potential reader of
your dispensary business plan not to disclose, reveal,
copy, or disperse or use ANY information, business
strategies, trade secrets or facts ad figures central to
your business idea.

22.  This is particularly important as your business plan
is your own intellectual property and there has to be
in place proper protection to pre-empt the use of
your property in unpermitted ways.
 A typical marijuana dispensary business plan
confidentiality agreement maid body reads as
follows:

23. Example of the Main Body of a Confidentiality
Agreement
The reader/readers of this plan agree/agrees not to
disclose any information contained within this business
plan, without the proper written consent of _______,
_______ and ________.
The said information is deemed sensitive and important
for the mentioned business and hence this business plan be
returned immediately to the undersigned owners of this
business plan.
Signatures
Date
Place

24. Table of Contents
The name says it all. A proper table of contents is
necessary for easy navigation through your business
plan.

25. Executive Summary
 Executive summary of a business plan, often decided
by many people as management-speak, is of
importance as a reader gets to take glimpse of what’s
contained inside your marijuana dispensary plan by
just reading at some points.
 This means that if you want to pursue your reader to
go and read the plan right to the last page, you
MUST have a great executive summary.

26. So, what exactly should one write under the head
executive summary?
 Well, to put it very simply, business plan executive
summary should contain the essence of what’s to
come.
 The gist of your business idea and structure
explained neatly, in no-uncertain terms and more
importantly, in short, should be the nature of
content under executive summary.

27. Business Summary
 This is where the actual body of your business plan
will start,
 This would ideally start with how and why you
wanted to get started with the marijuana dispensary
business idea.
 This should include an honest, but also an ideal,
answer of what you exactly want to achieve by
entering this business field, other than merely
driving profits.

28.  Many modern investors look for a little social facet to invest
in.
 For example, an encouraging association with a promising
local charity would provide for a great business value, not to
mention the social service you would be able to achieve
through this tie up.
 Such little points, that only increase the transparency of your
business but also help you contribute to much larger goals in
whatever capacity are often overlooked by start-ups and many
investors, especially in this day and age, definitely prefer a
start-up that’s socially aware along with making a successful
business.

29. The business summary should have the details
about the following contents:
 The name of the company
 Business inception idea
 The name of the owners/partners/associates
 The proposed location of the headquarters of the
business
 The proposed locations for the potential
branches/expansion themes
 The supposed area of operation (important for legal
reasons)
 The proposed business structure

30.  The sub-header mentions start-up summary.
 The start-up summary, at it’s core, is a listing of all
the assets, investments, revenue streams (if any),
and debts of your start-up business.
 Most commonly this would include money you have
put up yourself by the date of the submission of the
dispensary business plan.

31. A typical start up summary table may look like
this:
Startup Expenses ($)
Expense Stream 1
Expense Stream 2
Expense Stream 3
Total Start-up Expenses

32. Start Up Assets
Asset 1
Asset 2
Asset 3
Total Start Up Assets
TOTAL REQUIREMENTS (Including
the Total Start Up Expenses)

33. Products and Services
 A methodical list of ALL of your products and
services is to be provided under the heading
“Products and Services.”
 This list should be exhaustive and comprehensive
and should leave no product or service unaccounted
for.

34. The content under “Products and Services”
should contain the following points:
 All the products along with unit prices
 All the services along with unit prices
 Customer centric product variations
 Regional product variations (if any)
 Membership services (if any)
 Exclusive services
 Miscellaneous

35. Market Analysis Summary
 As mentioned countless of times earlier, a lot of
market research should be at your disposal before
you even begin to write your marijuana dispensary
business plan.
 Every business plan that puts in significant resources
(time, money and efforts) to carry out extensive
market analysis has a head start over many others
who don’t.

36.  The underlying principles of sales is that you have to
be aware who your customers are.
 You have to be able to target the section of
population that make up your customer base.
 Having identified this section of society, you will be
able to better understand their changing needs,
changing expectations and feedback.

37.  That’s precisely why, a lot of research would go into
writing this particular section of your marijuana
dispensary business plan.
 In the section ‘Market Analysis Summary’, you
should be able to answer the following question
satisfactorily in order to convince the readers
(investors/officials) that you are a responsible and
committed business person.

38. Who is your recurring customer?
 Here, you should be able to identify the bulk of your
customer base.
 This group of customers will ideally be recurring
customers with frequent needs for your products and
services.
 These are the customers you don’t want to lose out
on because these customers will contribute the most
to your sales in the long run.

39. A proper demographic analysis that identifies targets
and explains the concerned customer base from the
given population is important to decide the further
plan of action of your dispensary business.

40. Who are your local and off-base competitors?
 Another important part of market analysis involves
the identification of your existing as well as potential
customers.
 As a marijuana dispensary owner, you can expect to
face good competition in your area of operation from
the local as well as off-base (online) competitors.
 Having identified your competitors, you can estimate
the percentage of market share you are likely to get
to yourself.

41. This will help in taking a close look at that section of
the market that actually yours for the taking, instead of
wasting resources on the market share that’s already
been taken up by existing competitors.

42. What plans do you have in mind for the next five
years?
 You will have to come up with well thought out plans
for expansion and growth of your dispensary
business for the near future, typically for the next
five years.
 This will determine what path you want to go down
as a dispensary owner.
 The prior assessments of demographics will certainly
influence this answer.

43. A typical market analysis summary can look like
this:
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5
Potential
Customers
Growth Sample size
Region 1
Region 2
Region 3
Region 4
Region 5
Total

44. Strategy and Execution Summary
 In this part of your dispensary business plan, focus
will be shifted on the ideas again.
 You need to chalk out detailed analysis of strategies
that you might have in pushing the sales further
down the line.
 This would involve marketing, promotions,
advertising, executing pre set strategies to perfection.

45.  The point of this is to give the reader an insight into
how you are planning to continually improve the
performance of your company by staying up to date
with the changing needs of the market and your
niche.
 There are a number of factors that can be
incorporated into strategy and execution methods.

46.  The most important of these will be how you are going to
push your services and productions into the target
market and how you plan to stay ahead of the
competition.
 This means a detailed analysis of marketing exercises
and promotional events.
 The mode of marketing will vary from one businessman
to the other, and so keeping it simple, it will suffice to say
that your strategies for increasing profits through
increased sales will all go down in this part of the
business proposal that you plan to write.

47. Sales Forecast
 With a detailed research of the market, competition
and target customer base at your disposal, you can
draw out good marketing strategies.
 With good marketing strategies, you can safely
predict future sales in the nearby future (ideally 3-5
years).
 While forecasting your sales, it is important to keep
the moderation of the numbers.

48.  It’s generally advisable not to be too easy on yourself,
while it’s important not to sound too bashful of the
future sales.
 A right balance in forecasting sales can give you and
your readers a fair idea about the money making
potential of your dispensary business.

49. Milestones
 In management of a business, milestones play a huge
role.
 Milestones are nothing but a measurable, a directly
palpable result that can ensure that the things are
moving in the right direction.
 While operating the business, things need to be kept
simple and short term goals often achieve that effect
to a good degree.

50.  Reaching a milestone is a testament to the fact of the
normalcy of operations.
 Milestones can be both financial and strategic.
 Milestones can be monitored easily by setting up a
quarterly or bi-quarterly basis for the assessment.

51.  Many businesses often offer added incentives for the
managers of various sections of the business to reach the
milestones prior to the deadline, without compromising
on the quality of the work completed.
 For example, in your marijuana dispensary business, you
can set up a short term milestone of two months for
achieving a particular sales figure.
 Milestones often motivate the employees and favourable
results can be achieved through this medium.

52. Management Summary
 The management summary of your business plan
will lay out the structure of your marijuana
dispensary business.
 Choosing the most suitable business structure is very
important.
 Management summary will describe at length the
hierarchy structure of your business.

53.  This will determine the number of employees you
have or need to have in order to run efficiently and
profitably.
 This will also help you determine if there are any
management lapses that need to be taken care of, in
terms of employee numbers or managerial positions.

54. Financial Plan
 All the previous sections of the business plan are
ultimately aimed at the attractiveness of this section.
 The financial plan of your business will tell the
investors/officials whether you have a solid business
or business idea in going forward.
 The current stream of revenue and/or assets as well
as the current stream of expenditures or losses will
decide if the business is financially profitable or not.

55.  Start-up Funding
 This will include the initial injection of funds you might have
received from other investors/banks.
 Often mistaken for capital, this is a recurring stream of
investment, rather than the zero-revenue capital.
 Projected profits and losses
 This will carry the numbers for projected profits and losses for
the next few (typically 3) financial years.
 It is a general practice to mention the projected profits and
losses prior to taxes, depreciation, amortization and interests.

56. Conclusion
 In conclusion, it can be clearly observed that a lot goes
into the making of a marijuana dispensary business plan.
 So, hasty preparations of business plans must be avoided
at all costs in order not to end up with a discouraging
business plan that no investors will be keen to look twice
at.
 However, if you follow the guidelines mentioned above,
your marijuana dispensary business plan will have a solid
foundation and it will be attractive for the investors as
well as the officials.