{"id":546,"date":"2021-08-18T22:13:55","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T22:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/CBMiU2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm5iY2Nvbm5lY3RpY3V0LmNvbS9uZXdzL2xvY2FsL2NhcGl0YWxpemluZy1hLWNhbm5hYmlzLWJ1c2luZXNzLzI1NjM4OTgv0gFXaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubmJjY29ubmVjdGljdXQuY29tL25ld3MvbG9jYWwvY2FwaXRhbGl6aW5nLWEtY2FubmFiaXMtYnVzaW5lc3MvMjU2Mzg5OC8_YW1w"},"modified":"2021-08-18T22:13:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T22:13:55","slug":"capitalizing-a-cannabis-business-nbc-connecticut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=546","title":{"rendered":"Capitalizing A Cannabis Business – NBC Connecticut"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Those who want to get into Connecticut’s new legal cannabis industry need an early start. Investors and credit unions want to start planning now. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe cannabis industry is a multi-million dollar industry, going into upwards of a billion dollar industry,\u201d Luis Vega, a hemp farmer and member of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, says. <\/p>\n

\u201cStep one, make sure you start your business plan, make sure you are a viable business with a roadmap on what you would like to do,\u201d Vega says. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not cheap. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust in Connecticut the fee to go is $3 million,\u201d Vega says. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s for a grower or cultivator license, which will require a lot of equipment and lighting. A license for a dispensary’s start-up costs might be around $1.5 to $3 million. <\/p>\n

Access to capital will be a challenge for some. <\/p>\n

\u201cFriends and family will be the first part. That’s where people are going to scrape together the money in order to get the funding they\u2019re going to need just for getting the license and doing the application,\u201d Devin Schleidt, owner of the Greater Hartford-based business advisory firm Schleidt Works says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is the state has relatively low dollar amounts in order to put that together. A lot of people can apply and be part of the lottery,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Schleidt, who plans raise $30 million for his new Connecticut Cannabis Capital fund, is ready to start investing soon after that. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe real thing to do is to start now if you\u2019re interested. You start talking people, having the conversations, getting those dollars in,\u201d Schleidt says. <\/p>\n

Bruce Adams, president of the Credit Union League of Connecticut, says these businesses will need a place to put their money and credit unions are ready to help. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat matters is your books and records and the ability for you to show you are running a clean business. Conversely, the more owners you bring in the door with you, the more investors, those folks will have to go through the due diligence process as well.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cannabis is still illegal at the federal level which is why compliance for these companies will be strict and necessary. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re taking money in exchange for providing goods and services to a cannabis business you have now entered the world of being a marijuana-related business,\u201d Adams says. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen somebody is going to come in and say \u2018ok, I can front a $3 million fee for you and that\u2019s just the fee, where do I send the money? You have to have a place that you can do business,\u201d Vega says. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those who want to get into Connecticut’s new legal cannabis industry need an early start. Investors and credit unions want to start planning now.  \u201cThe cannabis industry is a multi-million dollar industry, going into upwards of a billion dollar industry,\u201d Luis Vega, a hemp farmer and member of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, says.  \u201cStep one, make sure you start your business plan, make sure you are a viable business with a roadmap on what you would like to do,\u201d Vega says.  It\u2019s not cheap.  \u201cJust in Connecticut the fee to go is $3 million,\u201d Vega says.  That\u2019s for a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/capitalizing-a-cannabis-business-nbc-connecticut.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}