Welcome to BIPOCann’s PR corner. This is the third of a monthly blog post where the topic of canna-business intersects with public relations. What a pairing! My hope is that you will learn something valuable that can be helpful as you grow your canna-business. —Lori Shepherd

Last week, I participated in a BIPOCann workshop focused on helping business owners like you glean some points about storytelling and branding at your businesses. I thought it would be nice to recap some of what I shared and the other panelists, in this blog post. 

Let’s face it the cannabis industry is a competitive landscape and crafting a compelling brand identity is essential for your emerging company to stand out from the others. When it comes to cannabis businesses, a sector gaining significant traction nationally, the power of storytelling becomes even more crucial.

If you talk to five publicists and you’ll hear five entirely different approaches to running a publicity campaign, except for two words you’ll likely hear from each one: storytelling and branding. Storytelling and branding are vital from a marketing and public relations perspective because they’re both crucial to helping you differentiate your cannabis business and highlighting its unique qualities.

Check out these four thoughts to think about using storytelling and branding for your company’s benefit:

1. Establishing an Emotional Connection

Most of us empathize with others when we see ourselves in their shoes. Especially if they’ve faced a challenge and later overcome it through great difficulty to reach a goal. Stream any random Netflix or Hulu movie, and you’d agree that most of us love an engaging story. Be it the movie’s gullible main character or a conniving confidante; there’s usually something that evokes an emotion in us as the viewer.

For business owners and company founders, the same can be true for your businesses. If it is your goal to reach your customers with a positive lasting impression about your brand, you can use clever storytelling to help you. Your target audience and how you communicate with them will determine how you do this.

For example, suppose your target audience is customers in their early to mid-30s who are recreational cannabis consumers. In that case, reaching out with Instagram reels highlighting a lifestyle appealing to them might be an ideal storytelling strategy.

However, suppose your customers are budtenders working at dispensaries in a particular region. In that case, your storytelling strategy might include writing and disseminating a branded newsletter with engaging stories that budtenders care about reading.

Regardless of who your audience is,  you can evoke empathy, trust, and loyalty by sharing authentic narratives, videos, and other content that fosters long-term relationships beyond transactional exchanges through storytelling. Your company can communicate its values, mission, and passion through storytelling, making your brand relatable and memorable.

2. Creating Differentiation

The cannabis industry is rapidly expanding, leading to increased competition. Emerging businesses must differentiate themselves effectively to stand out in a saturated market. Storytelling provides a perfect opportunity for you to showcase the distinctive qualities of your business.

By telling stories highlighting your business origins, cultivation methods, product development, or commitment to sustainability, companies can set themselves apart from competitors. This Differentiation helps build a loyal customer base that values the brand’s story and is more likely to choose it over generic alternatives.

3. Building Trust and Credibility

Cannabis businesses face numerous challenges, including regulatory hurdles and lingering stigmas associated with the industry. Storytelling plays a vital role in overcoming these obstacles by building trust and credibility. By transparently sharing your journey as a founder, your business can stand out for its ability to share details that another founder may not.

Whatever is uniquely essential to operating your business can be utilized in telling authentic stories that humanize the brand, dispel misconceptions, and position your company as a trusted authority. One way to achieve this is by creating a monthly newsletter distributed to your target audience. This might educate your customers about your unique commitment to quality, safety, compliance, or community. Through storytelling in this way, your emerging business can break down barriers, increase customer confidence, and foster positive perceptions.

4. Engaging and Educating Consumers

Storytelling is a powerful tool for engaging and educating consumers about the benefits and uses of cannabis products. Your emerging business can use storytelling to educate your target audience about the science behind cannabis, its therapeutic applications, and its potential to enhance wellness.

By telling stories that provide valuable information in an accessible and relatable manner, businesses can empower consumers to make informed decisions. This educational approach helps de-stigmatize cannabis and positions the company as a knowledgeable and supportive resource. You can integrate industry data, stats, and other quantitative information to help strengthen your messages.

Helping Your Brand Stand Out 

Cannabis is booming, and your emerging cannabis business will need to be effective at storytelling and branding to be successful against the competition. By harnessing the power of storytelling, cannabis entrepreneurs like you will establish emotional connections, create differentiation, build trust and credibility, and engage and educate your target audience.

In the fast-growing cannabis industry, a compelling brand story can be the key to unlocking growth, loyalty, and success. It really doesn’t matter the type of cannabis business you’re operating, storytelling will allow you to highlight your business’s unique qualities and set it apart from the rest.

25SecondsPR is a communications and public relations company that specializes in helping small businesses and nonprofits shape and develop their public facing profile and brand through creative storytelling. Learn more about us at www.25secondspr.com.

This is the second of a monthly blog post where the topic of canna-business intersects with public relations. What a pairing! My hope is that you will learn something valuable that can be helpful as you grow your canna-business. I am delighted for the opportunity to collaborate with Ernest Toney and the BIPOCann platform he’s created with you in mind—Lori Shepherd

For many more years than I care to admit to, I’ve managed PR accounts in tech, nonprofit, and many other spaces, but in cannabis I’ve discovered a riveting industry unlike any other. There’s no industry today quite like the fast-emerging cannabis industry, which is estimated to generate retail sales upwards of $52.6 billion by 2026, according to the MJBiz Factbook. With all this growth, it’s no wonder ancillary businesses, mainly accounting, are seeing a tremendous boom.

With social equity programs underway in states where cannabis is legal, Black and Brown people are getting access to business ownership; however, many social equity startup owners are so strapped for cash and overwhelmed with the daily challenges of operating their business that the need to set up Internal Revenue Code Section 280E compliant accounting operations gets lost. 

The Intersection of Cannabis Businesses & 280E

This is where accountants that are particularly knowledgeable about IRC 280E compliance are crucial, and it is why they can be invaluable to supporting men and women who’ve been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.

As a reminder, the IRC 280E regulates the taxation of the companies that sell cannabis. It requires plant-touching businesses to pay taxes on gross income vs. net income, requiring these businesses to maintain detailed financial records. The focus for setting up an IRC 280E compliant accounting operations should be considered before the business makes its first sale. 

“Why is this important? Because not all businesses are treated the same,” says Angela L’Esperance, CEO of Ms. Jane Accounting, the premier all-female accounting firm based in Minnesota. “This [280E] dramatically affects all cannabis plant-touching companies. Per the IRS, since cannabis is still a federally illegal Schedule I controlled substance, cultivators, processors and retailers in cannabis are not allowed to deduct ordinary business expenses. This results in high tax rates (averaging 70% or higher) for these cannabis companies.” Angela L’Esperance says that 280E compliance begins with proper Cost Accounting booking, adequate record keeping and accurate tax reporting. “Lack of knowledge, skills and expertise in this area comes at a costly price for business owners.” 

Example of differences in effective tax rate for cannabis businesses (provided by Harvest Accounting Firm)

Given the complexities of the IRC 280E requirements, not to mention the difficulty new owners face when starting their plant-touching businesses, too often new licensees and other plant-touching business owners simply don’t have sufficient enough information about its importance. 

The Blunt Truth About Cannabis Business Accounting

“The cannabis industry accounting requirements are both unique and complex,” said Angela Mays, a canna accountant and CEO of The Blunt Accountant based in Northern Virginia. “As a new licensee, you are concentrating your efforts on raising funds for your business, securing your location and preparing your business to open so setting up a 280E compliant accounting operation is the last thing on a new business owner’s mind.” Mays said that even before an owner opens for business, having cannabis accounting specific policies and procedures is important. She said that not having strong policies, procedures and processes in place that are IRC 280E compliant can make plant-touching business owners vulnerable to being audited and may result in inaccuracy and compliance penalties. “Canna business owners should operate their businesses as if they are going to be audited,” states Mays. 

When owners don’t adequately prepare for an audit, and fail to follow IRC 280E, the result can lead to penalties and fines. The fines can be exorbitant, causing tremendous hardship for new business owners to pay them and stay solvent.  The results can be crippling. But with planning and with accounting policies, processes and procedures established early on, most new licensees or plant-touching business owners who are audited, will be prepared.

“An accountant that specializes in the cannabis niche can help facilitate business growth by maintaining clear and thorough Cost Accounting records,” says Jean A. Casey, CEO of JAC Accounting, based in Phoenix, Arizona.

Auditors will look at a client’s processes and procedures. If those are in place, an auditor is able to determine the accuracy of a client’s books which can lead to a better audit experience. Without them, the auditors will assume that the books are inaccurate which can make for an unpleasant audit experience. No one wants to get audited but having an accountant that can make sure you are prepared and that understands the guidance can decrease your chances of being assessed accuracy penalties and for failing to comply with the regulations. 

The path to emerging cannabusiness owners’ success is not easy, especially for social equity owners. But, as more resources and solutions are developed, it will make their journey increasingly easier. 

About the Author

25SecondsPR is a communications and public relations company that specializes in helping small businesses and nonprofits shape and develop their public facing profile and brand through creative storytelling. Learn more about us at www.25secondspr.com.

Welcome to BIPOCann’s PR corner. This is the first of a monthly blog post where the topic of canna-business intersects with public relations. What a pairing! My hope is that you will learn something valuable that can be helpful as you grow your canna-business. I am delighted for the opportunity to collaborate with BIPOCann on the platform they created with you in mind—Lori Shepherd

Whether working with new licensees with multiple dispensaries, people with cultivation plants, or even cannabis accounting professionals, I’ve learned how incredibly quickly the cannabis industry is growing. And, as a fresh cannabis licensee, you know it isn’t easy establishing a foothold in this highly competitive marketplace. Whether you’re entering the cannabis space in retail, wholesale, or processing and manufacturing, you must overcome numerous obstacles to success.

In cannabis and elsewhere, public relations experts know how to help new companies break through the barriers preventing them from getting off the ground. They can establish constructive relationships, in person or through a myriad of press materials, with media members who ply their trade in print publications, broadcast media, or online. These individuals can give you the type of free publicity that will help you take flight. 

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “so, what is it exactly that publicists do?” But the answer is the same. It is a form of marketing that helps shape public opinion about one’s business, brand, products, or services. Publicists work by supporting media contacts’ ability to know about their clients in ways that lead to media coverage of them. 

Journalists, reporters, bloggers and influencers, and others who cover cannabis, will be willing to do this only if they’re convinced, you’re serious about making a positive impact in the community and have the skills, resources, and commitment to make your dispensary or processing and manufacturing facility a success. A publicist will help you put your best foot forward all the time, crafting messages for you that are honest about what you have to offer and eloquent when describing how you plan to implement your intriguing vision. 

Free Publicity is Better than Advertising

Unlike virtually all other types of legal businesses, cannabis wholesalers and retailers are generally not allowed to advertise. Not in magazines, on the radio, on TV, in newspapers, in trade journals, or on most social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. Creating compelling and persuasive advertising pitches won’t be a problem for you as a new cannabis licensee since that avenue is not available to help you raise awareness of your qualifications and virtues. 

Theoretically, this can severely limit your capacity to inform potential clients about your products and services. But truth be told, these prohibitions are blessings in disguise to some degree. 

If you rely on advertising exclusively to get the word out about your brand, you’ll be able to control the message entirely. But the advantages of doing this are negated by the fact that you’re relying on a source of communication that people inherently distrust, as they know that ads are always partially manipulative. 

Of course, your need to find communication channels through which you can connect with possible future clients is as urgent as any other new business. Potential customers have to know who you are, what you have, and how to find you before they can consider you a viable option for meeting their cannabis-related needs. 

Good publicity freely earned offers you, by far, your best opportunity to gain positive attention from potential clients, politicians, regulators, and other interested parties. Favorable coverage in the media means an independent voice chose to interview you and publicize your products or business because they thought you had an exciting story to tell or a worthwhile contribution to public health or the welfare of the community.

Audience members who see or read the enlightening pieces that result from a smartly planned PR campaign will perceive you as a potential community asset, thanks to your ability (or, more accurately, the power of your PR representative) to demonstrate to a journalist, reporter, blogger or influencer that you deserved positive coverage. 

Everyone who reads about you or hears about you through the media will realize you’re trying to make an excellent first impression. But they won’t punish you for it if they’re convinced a real journalist or reporter has fact-checked your claims and would have contradicted them if necessary. 

AI Is Not the Solution

Many resources are available in the PR toolkit to help you tell your story. Press releases, for example, can be valuable tools to provide accurate and detailed information about your business, yourself, your employees or partners, and your medicinal or recreational cannabis products. Skillfully honed press releases shouldn’t be confused with advertising copy, as the former is strictly informational. In contrast, the latter is meant to produce a specific result (to persuade potential customers to become actual ones). Your press releases will let reporters, journalists, editors, and bloggers know that you’ve entered the cannabis sector with a sound, sensible, and transparent business plan, meaning you intend to offer the best products and provide excellent customer service. 

Do I need someone to handle my press releases? Couldn’t I use ChatGPT instead, the red-hot artificial intelligence chatbot that is supposedly capable of producing a written script that is indistinguishable from that composed by a human writer? You could, but anyone reading closely and interested in understanding your business’s nuances may find that this technology fails to deliver fully. 

While it represents a genuine technological advance, ChatGPT cannot accentuate the specifics; it can only gather information from pre-existing data. The label’ artificial intelligence is a misnomer; ChatGPT has no actual intelligence; it is simply a complex computer program designed to imitate human beings as best it can, and that places a limit on what it can accomplish. 

As a new licensee in the cannabis sector, the last thing you need is a generic or slightly confused copy that falls short of what a skilled writer with a background in PR can produce. ChatGPT may be a valuable tool for writers looking to add a bit of spice or variety to their copy. But suppose you rely exclusively on ChatGPT to handle your press releases, blog copy, white papers, and any other marketing material. In that case, the final results will likely be mediocre. 

Telling the Truth About Cannabis — and You

It’s unfair and based on false and outdated perceptions. But in the eyes of some, cannabis still carries a stigma, and that can be reflected in the attitudes of banks, government regulators, community leaders, and media figures in their treatment of companies or entrepreneurs that market and sell cannabis products. 

The good news is that you have the truth on your side. You know all about the benefits of CBD or therapeutic cannabis products, and you can help people separate myth from reality when discussing recreational cannabis. 

A well-organized PR campaign can effectively counteract negative impressions. In cooperation with your publicist, you’ll spread the news about the benefits your entrepreneurial efforts can bring to your community without twisting, spinning, or distorting the truth. 

Public relations outreach efforts designed by authentic PR experts can open doors that allow you to express, in your own words, your real motivation for entering the cannabis space. Through legitimate media, you’ll have the chance to tell the public exactly how the products you manufacture or sell can help people improve their lives, which will generate more business for you than the most perfectly crafted advertising campaign imaginable.  

25SecondsPR is a communications and public relations company that specializes in helping small businesses and nonprofits shape and develop their public facing profile and brand through creative storytelling. Learn more about us at www.25secondspr.com.

Where’s Weed, the comprehensive online consumer resource that connects visitors with relevant cannabis businesses across the US and Canada, recently partnered with BIPOCANN to produce an informative content series on How to Get Into the Cannabis Industry.

In the introductory feature, the Where’s Weed team provides insightful context on the state of the workforce opportunities that exist in the nascent cannabis industry:

“According to a recent report, the cannabis industry supports over 428,000 jobs across the United States. Even considering the current economic climate, over 107,000 new jobs were created in the cannabis industry, nearly unmatched by any industry. That’s a 33% increase in jobs year over year!”

Popular Career Paths in Cannabis

The Career Series features 13 popular career paths in the cannabis industry and different types of roles you’ll find in each.

• Advocacy: Career paths in cannabis advocacy
• Brands: Career paths at cannabis brands
• Consulting: Career paths in cannabis consulting
• Delivery Services: Career paths in cannabis delivery services
• Dispensary: Career paths at a dispensary
• Growing: Career paths in cannabis growing
• Law: Career paths in cannabis law
• Manufacturing: Career paths in cannabis manufacturing
• Marketing: Career paths in cannabis marketing
• Media: Career paths in cannabis media
• Staffing: Career paths in cannabis staffing
• Testing Labs: Career paths in cannabis testing labs
• Tourism: Career paths in cannabis tourism

Removing Barriers to Entry in the Cannabis Industry

As Where Weed notes throughout the Career Series, “When it comes to the cannabis industry, getting into it is the hardest part.”

“Since BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) populations are under-represented in this multibillion-dollar industry, BIPOCANN’s mission is to increase visibility and advance representation. Joining the BIPOCANN network gives you easy access to cannabis industry networking, education, and growth resources.”

Partnering to Increase Minority Visibility and Representation

Where’s Weed showcases a variety of different directories to help people find dispensaries, delivery services, MMJ doctors, branded products and related deals — plus relevant cannabis news and culture.

At its core, they are a technology company with a passionate team who truly cares about the consumer. Since 2011, they’ve led with education to allow visitors to safely experience the legalized cannabis industry, while providing a platform where canna-businesses can advertise, legally.

Where’s Weed became BIPOCANN’s first Diversity Advocate member in 2020. Since then, they have been a consistent partner in supporting BIPOCANN’s work in shaping a more accessible and profitable legal cannabis industry for minority entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals in the Americas.