With marijuana and cannabis use rising rapidly nowadays, it is easy to see why more and more people are wanting to jump on the bandwagon and start their own marijuana seed business. If run and managed well, a marijuana seed business can be a lucrative market to be a part of and can offer a huge number of benefits for both customers and the business alike. But how can you go about starting up your own marijuana seed business? Learn more with our guide for getting started with your seed bank business today.
How Many Seed Banks Are There?
Before you get started with opening your own seed bank business, it is important that you first understand the competition that you are facing. Though cannabis has not been legalized globally yet, its legalization is becoming more common and, in line with this, more and more seed banks are popping up. Before you start your own seed bank, then, you should make sure you know how much competition you’ll be facing.
Don’t just consider local seed banks, either; though there is a niche for local seed banks in certain areas where cannabis seed sale and purchase has been legalized, such as in Canada, the vast majority of online seed banks operate in a global market. So, you should consider not only local or national seed banks but global seed banks and what they offer for customers.
As of the start of 2020, it is safe to say that customers have hundreds of different options for seed banks. There are the big players, of course, such as ILGM, MSNL Seed Bank, and Crop King Seeds (just to name two of the most well-known names). However, new seed banks are also popping up regularly. Each of these has to offer something new to entice customers, be it new strains or great prices and promotions. And, after all, since you’ll likely be operating in a global market you’ll need to work hard to get new customers to come to your seed bank as opposed to choosing an established one.
Don’t Forget to Consider the Legalities!
Different countries have different laws regarding the cultivation of cannabis and its sale. Therefore, it is important to make sure you check the different rules for your country (and potentially even your region) before attempting to start a seed company. For example, in certain countries or areas, running a seed bank may be completely legitimate and not illegal, whereas other areas may have a different stance. There are even differences between states often, so do your research first.
Getting Started with your New Marijuana Seed Company
So, you’re ready to get started with opening your marijuana seed company. But what do you need to do during this early stage of opening your business?
Understanding Strains and Seed Selection
First, consider whether you’ll be selling your own unique strains or reselling other breeders’ cannabis seed strains. There are pros and cons to both options, which may suit your needs differently depending on how you intend to run your marijuana seed business.
If you are selling other breeders’ strains, you’ll likely face more competition from other seed banks as these will likely be available elsewhere. You won’t have much control over the quality of the seeds that you are selling. Furthermore, since these strains will likely be available elsewhere, you might need to offer great promotions or discounts for the seeds – you may even need to operate as a loss leader in order to entice new customers.
Alternatively, you could breed your own strains of seeds for sale. By breeding your own seed strains, you will have full control over the quality of seeds that you’re selling as well as having a great USP (unique selling point) to entice new customers. Since these seeds won’t be available anywhere else, if people want to try the new and exciting strain then they will need to shop through your marijuana seed bank to get the seeds! Of course, there are two glaringly obvious drawbacks to this system: for one thing, you will need to develop your own strain of seed in the first place (which can take a considerable amount of time) and, secondly, you’ll also need to make sure you have the facilities in place to produce enough seeds to keep supply met for your seed bank’s customers.
In addition to this, you should also consider offering feminized and auto flowering strains to your customers. These are often popular choices and you may lose sales if you don’t offer them, whether you sell your own strains or sell other breeder’s strains.
Get the Website Right!
Your website will likely be the main thing that your new customers judge you on, so make sure you get this right. Website builders such as WordPress, Magento, and Shopify are great for E-commerce stores, so you may want to consider building a website with these – or otherwise hire a developer.
Taking Payments
Before you even make your first sale, you’ll need to have a think about how you will accept payments from your customers. Common payment options for seed banks include Visa and Mastercard debit and credit card payments, cryptocurrency (especially Bitcoin), bank transfers, and the like. Do your research and choose a payment option that will give your future customers plenty of chances to make a payment in a manner that they feel comfortable with! Don’t forget to consider how your payments will appear on your customers’ bank statements, too – discretion is key for seed banks!
What Next?
Above are just some of the things that you’ll need to think about when opening your seed bank. There are a huge number of different factors to consider even in the early stages. However, don’t get these first days wrong; make sure you put in the time and effort to make your seed bank the best it can be if you want to be able to compete in the growing, competitive, and highly international cannabis and marijuana seed industry.
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