As the books begin to close on 2022, 2023 looms over the industry complete with opportunity to dominate the market. Cannabis has certainly evolved an incredible amount after the pandemic and particularly in the past year. With respect to current markets as well as emerging markets, 2023 poses as an opportune time to capitalize on the rapid growth of the industry by strengthening current operations and expanding into additional projects. Our focus year-round is on streamlining processes to maximize productivity and we have several opportunities to explore when looking at maximizing operations for 2023.  

Review Current Subscriptions 

Consistent with personal finance, regular accounting audits prevent irregularities and identify truly useful platforms being utilized. Not only should all budget line items be reviewed for efficiency and accuracy, but those recurring expenses should also be reviewed for capabilities. It may be possible to consolidate subscribed services by evaluating the capabilities of your current partners. Within a true ERP platform, for example, while it may function primarily as a POS system it may also create streamlined functionality for finance and accounting teams. By either reviewing the original agreement or connecting with the account manager to confirm your account’s capabilities and potential capabilities, there may be several opportunities to consolidate services into fewer platforms and save spend on multiple open accounts.  

Update SOPs for 2023 

Certainly all organizations have some sort of playbook or library of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to drive uniform processes and ensure quality at every step- Q1 is a perfect time to review those and prepare for the rest of the year and beyond. While some organizations develop SOPs as needed and move forward, not all take the time to review those processes and ensure they are as optimized as possible. Breaking SOPs out by department and having those department leads review their SOPs with their team in the first quarter of the year not only verifies the teams are operating to company standards, but also provides an opportunity for training (or, in some cases, retraining) as well as opens the conversation to reducing bottleneck within regular company efforts. Perhaps a purchasing manager may find additional reports to run to better inform their purchasing patterns throughout the year as a result of reviewing their SOPs or a cultivator determines a more opportune way to utilize labor for effective plant processing. Regardless, the beginning of 2023 is an incredible time to ensure all teams are running at their best and collaborate internally to drive productivity every day.  

Identify Areas of Opportunity and Data Needed for Stakeholders 

Naturally, the end of the year is a time of reflection and when running a business, it is a great time to look back at areas of opportunity that were met in 2022 and how those problems could be better solved. For many in the last few years, supply chain and labor have been difficult areas to find a standardized rhythm for and that area of opportunity has overshadowed other business practices that could be maximized. As end of year reporting is developed, digging deeper into what did not work is as impactful as digging deeper into what did not work in 2022. With areas such as perhaps labor spend, marketing efforts, or identifying key demographics to target the next step is inevitably identifying how to track the progress of these new focuses. With key factors to focus on called out across departments, ensuring a data-driven way to create KPIs around those goals is as important as identifying the goals. Exploring data platforms and ensuring regular reporting is set up to track progress is a useful effort for 2023. Not only will this data ensure that the executing parties have clear goals in mind, but this will also be a tool for stakeholders to track exactly how much progress is being made and how the team is remedying the areas of opportunity.  

Confirm Cannabis Goals in 2023 

As we have confirmed, the landscape of cannabis is constantly changing and reviewing upcoming legislature and political progress in the cannabis industry is required reading for all cannabis operators. Presumably, dedicated cannabis operators are already tuned in to key newsletters and outlets that report on cannabis industry news but are you tracking your region specifically to plan short- and long-term goals? Nevada operators, for example, are beginning the process of developing consumption lounges- many of which will be through vertically integrated operations. While this is one of the more recent industry updates, many states are sure to follow. Identifying what legislative changes may be in progress in 2023 and beyond will ensure your team is ready to tackle these opportunities as they present themselves. Staying in tune with other markets and what is successful drives key learnings to your region(s) for your future success as well.  

Certainly there are many ways to maximize efforts and efficiencies in 2023, but the topics we discussed are key areas we like to look at as we discuss future growth. 365 Cannabis is a fully formatted ERP platform dedicated to growth and success in the cannabis industry with a full suite of business functions to remove bottlenecks and drive efficiencies.  

To connect with the 365 Cannabis team to explore how an ERP platform can deliver high quality, tailored results for your organization to grow, click here for a demo.  

To explore the modules available on the platform that can be naturally integrated to your organization’s functionality, click here.