License to Grow: How to Set Yourself Up for Success
You’ve gotten your growing license, congratulations! But now what do you do? Let’s turn to the subject of the grow itself. There are so many things to consider when building your grow - indoor, outdoor, hydroponic, what type of lights, so many variables. It can be overwhelming for somebody who is wondering what the hell they do now that they finally have a license to grow.
During the application process this would all be planned out, but once it's real, it’s a whole different game. You’ve gotten through the application process with these diagrams of build outs on paper, even though you've never built one in your life. Now all of a sudden they give you a license and tell you to go build it. You’re probably going to be excited at first, then immediately think “Oh, shit”.
So what's first with zoning, what are things to consider when you're considering plots of land to build on?
The first thing right off the bat is whatever the regulation says you can or can't do, or where you can and can't be. They might tell you specific zones that you’re allowed to be. Then the county or city has a say of where you can and can't be. So you have the state regulation and then you have the city rules as well.
So, start out with those rules because that's going to eliminate most of your options at the start. Then from there, you have to decide between three main options. Are you going to build out a whole new building on an empty plot of land? Are you going to rent an existing building? Or are you going to buy an existing building? Some people love to jump into building from scratch, they think it’s just a warehouse so it’ll be easy. Or they think they’ll get a plot of land super cheap or if they already have a plot of land they think they can grow on it. Some people already have a building, so they think they can start growing in it, but these are not necessarily the best ways.
One - it’s really slow, two - you’re building a building and if it doesn't work out, you're stuck with this big ass building. If you wind up buying, again now you're stuck with this warehouse that you now own. Now if that’s what you do - buy and flip warehouses, sure it can work out, but generally most people don’t have that warehouse experience.
Most people are going to wind up renting a place. When you rent the place, not just any warehouse will work. The layout has to be good and the amount of power that goes to the building has to be high enough. Power is a huge issue with grows. The location is useless if there's no power to it. A big warehouse means nothing, because most warehouses don't have a lot of power unless they were utilizing machinery or something of that nature. You absolutely need to check out the power situation to make sure you have enough for your facility.
I know of a company where they got a 50,000 square foot grow license, but they moved into a warehouse where they could only grow 10,000 square feet because there wasn't enough power to the rest of the building. The way that you solve that problem is by speaking to the power company and telling them you need more power. It's never a fast process to get more power into your building, it's a huge back and forth with a lot of paperwork.
The company that could only grow in 10,000 square feet because they didn’t do their research had to build out their own substation. If you have to pay for your own substation, that’s a quarter million dollars, then you have to pay for the line to run to it. Depending on how far out the knock is you're looking at another couple hundred grand just to run the line and a bunch of other fees.
On top of that, it may take a year or more before it even happens. You're stuck growing only 10,000 square feet of a facility when you have a 50,000 square foot license just because you picked a bad warehouse. You didn't check to see how much power goes into it and what it's going to take to upgrade that power. That is very important.
Finding a well sealed building is also important, to keep out pests, roaches, and mold, as well as getting a good location. Location includes the security aspect, plus considering if you are near schools or churches, that's all regulation information to look into. Also, you don't want to be in a neighborhood where they don’t want you there. Your building is going to smell, people will know what you're doing there. So are you going to attract the wrong crowd? Are you going to have Christian protests outside your building all day because you didn’t research the spot?
If for some reason the public doesn't want you there, the mayor or city council is going to listen to them. They will boot you out because they're definitely going to side with their constituents yelling and screaming over you all day long.
We will be posting more questions, answers, and industry tips regularly, so be sure to sign up for our email list to be notified to your inbox! Also, we will be releasing the full length version of the podcast on these talks at the end of the week as a wrap up for those that prefer to just listen to the full podcast in one sitting.
Cheers!
.: Adam