Striking a Balance: When to Get Involved in Your Cultivation Business—and When Not To – Cannabis Business Executive

Entrepreneurs don’t need to come from the world of horticulture to launch a successful cultivation business.

If they hire the right people for the job, owners can run their grow operation like any other business.

Since entrepreneurs are held accountable to investors and stakeholders, they want to know what’s happening in every aspect of their business. It helps them understand a new industry and can help to build confidence when speaking with media, stakeholders, or investors. It also builds team comradery when the owner, president, or CEO is seen working alongside their employees.

But knowing when to get involved can make the difference between understanding your business and micromanaging it into the ground.

Problems can arise when this involvement goes beyond the initial process orientation and morphs into managing day-to-day cultivation decisions. In their desire to ensure the business is successful, entrepreneurs start doing the grower’s job. This involvement can lead to production problems and create confusion among the cultivation team.

The most successful entrepreneurs find a balance between hiring for competency and managing their business. Striking this balance means knowing when to get involved and when not to.

When to get involved

Cultivation business owners should get involved when any of the following occurs:

1. Things don’t look right.

You don’t need a horticulture degree to know when something’s wrong. Many business owners have contacted me saying, “My plants just don’t look like photos I’ve seen of other operations.” If you think something is off, you’re probably right. Trust your gut.

2. Your grower is being elusive.

If your grower is unavailable when you’re onsite, and it happens more than a few times, it’s no coincidence. There’s a reason they don’t want to speak to you. Find out what it is.

3. Your grower asks for help.

This is good news! Whether your grower is overwhelmed or things aren’t going according to plan, be glad that they came to you early, not after a problem had resulted in an economic loss. If they know they can come to you for help, support, and resources, they will continue to do so.

This will help to put you at ease when you’re not on the production floor. If you trust your grower to alert you to problems, you can safely concentrate on other aspects of the business.

When not to get involved

Anytime there is a question related to a technical growing issue, it’s best to leave it to the pros. These types of decisions should be made by someone with years of commercial cultivation experience. Remember: that’s why you hired an excellent grower in the first place.

On many occasions, I have seen upper management inject themselves into cultivation decisions that did not end well.

One operations manager decided to lessen the daily demand for the irrigation system by watering plants at night. Plants don’t need water at night, and they don’t consume fertilizer when the sun isn’t shining. Wet soil at night encourages root disease.

Another member of that same operations team had researched fertilizer recipes on the internet and decided to stop feeding iron to the plants. One week later, every plant in the facility showed symptoms of iron deficiency.

These problems occurred because inexperienced people injected themselves into situations and made decisions that were the responsibility of the head grower. This is not only risky for the crop, but it can also compromise essential work relationships. Real growers don’t have much patience for these kinds of situations. The best ones leave.

How to find the balance

You don’t want to micromanage your business, but you don’t want to hire and then just walk away, either. You are ultimately responsible for the profitability (or loss) of your business. So, what’s an entrepreneur to do?

Take the same approach as you would in any other business. Hire slow and recruit the best grower that you can afford. Within the first few weeks, you’ll know if this person is a good fit and whether you can confidently rely on them to run your cultivation program.

At this point, it’s safe to be hands-off but with clear milestones or check-ins.

If milestones are missed or the grower becomes unresponsive, all bets are off.

Instead of worrying all the time about what may or may not be going on, set worry dates. If a particular milestone isn’t achieved by a specific date, get involved. But until that time, you’re not allowed to worry.

It helps if the time between check-ins is short. Weekly production meetings work best. It provides enough freedom for your grower to handle the show, but if the program starts to veer off course, a week isn’t too long to bring things back on track.

The key to successful management lies in hiring a grower you can trust and letting them do their job. Be vigilant about frequent check-ins, but between those dates, relax. Your sanity and your health will thank you for it.