Top 5 Common Marijuana Dispensary Mistakes

Running a busy cannabis retailer is no easy task, especially when there are so many moving parts. Often times, the same issues arise and it’s important to know how to resolve them so your not putting your business in jeopardy. We’ve identified a few common marijuana dispensary mistakes that can limit the potential of budding business.

In this article we’ll cover a few pitfalls that cannabis retailers tend to make and provide ways to prevent them from happening in the future.

Certified Security

Protecting your dispensary with security measures is required to receive a cannabis business license. Sometimes however, budgetary limitations or hasty decisions can lead to holes in your security systems. There have been several marijuana retailers that have been cited for not using certified security guards at their storefront.

When hiring your security staff it is imperative that they provide a valid certification as a security guard. Employing security guards who haven’t undergone the proper training can endanger your staff, patrons, and business. Certified security officers know what to look for and maintain a cool temperament even in stressful situations.

Paper Check-In

It might seem like a small detail but using paper clipboards to sign in your patients is a very common marijuana dispensary mistake. Not only are you wasting paper but your not collecting valuable information that can be used for marketing later on.

Investing in tablets to handle all of your check-in procedures will make your dispensary look more professional and acquire useful information about every customer. Creating custom forms and digital sign-in is simple when using IndicaOnline. E-Sign MD is an application that will generate these digital forms and sync all of the information to your point-of-sale.

Menu Organization

Another area that cannabis retailers tend to overlook is maintaining an organized product menu. Printing menus is costly since inventory is constantly changing so many storefronts have resorted to using chalk or white boards to display their menu. While this may be convenient it often times looks sloppy and unorganized.

Updating your dispensary with digital signage will resolve this problem. Menu items will be automatically removed when they sell out and new products will be displayed as soon as they are added to the inventory. This automation will save time maintaining the menu and allow customers to easily peruse your products.

Product Loss

Common marijuana dispensary mistakes often happen during periods of high traffic. It can be easily for an employee to overlook something if they feel rushed or behind. Product loss is a common mistake that really have a negative impact on a cannabis retailer.

Preventing product loss will be much easier after the transitional period when all dispensaries will be selling pre-packaged flower. Until then, ensuring that your scales are calibrated every so often and reconciling your inventory every two weeks will help you avoid product loss.

Compliance Violation

Unfortunately cannabis compliance tends to be where many cannabis retailers misstep. Staying compliant requires diligence from the dispensary owners, managers, and staff. Committing compliance infractions can result in administrative fees, penalty fines, and in some cases revocation of business license.

Utilizing a dispensary point of sale software that can streamline compliance will allow the owners and staff to focus on serving customers. IndicaOnline has developed cannabis specific features that validate age, track inventory, record sales, and send alerts for purchase limits. Now that we have integrated with Metrc all of the reporting is completely automated. Installing our system will give your business the peace of mind that you’ll be able to avoid common marijuana dispensary mistakes.