If you start up a business today, there are many resources at your disposal to help you along. A quick search online will give you access to thousands of coaches who have “been there, done that,” and offer you step-by-step guidance to grow your business.
A start-up cannabis business owner isn’t quite as lucky. In just a few years, many states have moved from illegal to legal status, with business owners maneuvering to try and keep cash, product, and other assets safe in the process. How do you keep the most critical parts of your business safe and secure when there’s little support in doing so? If you can’t bring your cash to the bank, doesn’t it put more than money at risk?
Still, things are changing. As states make cannabis legal, and move closer to nationwide acceptance, more security options are available to business owners. It’s more than just protecting cash, product, and employees. Decreasing risk also protects the public, making dispensaries a welcome business venture in cities and towns across America.
Step-by-step strategies are starting to appear in abundance. Growing a cannabis business is becoming easier every day. It’s a win/win when techniques and strategies are in place to protect both product and people, and everything in between.
Cloud storage
While regulation continues to be forged, states agree that reliable video surveillance is a must. Cannabis regulatory authorities require dispensaries to have 24/7 video surveillance on-site, and store it for anywhere from 45 to 60 days. In many cases, business owners are choosing to keep it even longer. Yet that amount of footage takes an immense amount of space.
Storing it on-site can require cannabis owners to become technology experts. The costs of storage can be prohibited too. That pushes some to offload it to the cloud, but that presents its own set of problems.
A hybrid system may allow you to keep specific files on-site, while using a service for storage for the long term. But before you fully define what’s right for your business, it’s important to consider all of your options, and plan for growth at the same time.
Cybersecurity
How much of your business is currently performed online? Like other industries, cannabis businesses can find growth and opportunity by honing their digital marketing skills. From building an ecommerce website, to promoting your business through social media, business owners can discover unlimited growth potential by focusing on digital opportunities.
But that changes where your risks come from. A data breach by a former employee released personal information of current and former employees in one incident. In another, an internet privacy firm gained access to more than 30,000 medical marijuana patients, recreational users, and dispensary employees from several states.
As you’re growing your business, it’s important to follow in the footsteps of other medical practices and create a secure data environment. If you don’t have a cybersecurity team in place, partner with a security company with experience in the cannabis industry to regulate and secure your data and technology.
It takes time and energy to ensure your business is fully protected. Why rely on your own part-time research when you could have full-time support from a team that knows the ins and outs?
For IT Strategy, Security and Compliance, or Help Desk Services, reach out to us at Cannabis Technology Partners 360-450-4759.
