COO Of Kush Development Group Discusses The Importance Of Staying True To Your Vision

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

Kush Development Group is much more than a cannabis consulting firm. They’re a one-stop-shop for your cannabis business’ licensing, compliance, design, construction, marketing, and business development needs. 

“We’re a full service, vertically integrated agency, really dedicated to this cannabis industry,” said Co-Founder & COO of Kush Development Group Ryan Lafferty. “And we’ve spent years cultivating relationships with leaders both in the national industry as well as service providers that are equipped to help turn your vision into reality.”

Outside of Cannabis, Lafferty has worked with Fortune 500 companies, startups and nonprofits on the strategy, business and brand development side. His aim was to bring that same level of professionalism to the cannabis space. 

“I guess the reason why we got involved in this, it sounds kind of cheesy, but we really wanted to just make a difference,” said Lafferty.

Through its services, Kush Development Group helps businesses build operational facilities through developing a plan to streamline that process. The group has also designed and/or built over 1 million square feet of cannabis space just in the past year.

“It’s not our job to just give advice,” Lafferty told Benzinga. Kush Development Group helps create the brand. They design and build the facilities, oversee legal compliance, and most importantly, they work with their clients to protect their investment and get them in business as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“We’re innovators, we’re dreamers, we’re doers, so we’re really thinking about how do we bring those budding entrepreneurs, how do we help them realize their dream and be a part of this industry and that’s really our mission and how we got started,” said Lafferty.

Unexpected Challenges

The cannabis industry is a fast-paced whirlwind of regulations, state jurisdictions and consumer opinion. 

“For our group, we’ve all either worked in corporate America, we’ve owned our own businesses, done other things and we kind of knew how much work this was gonna take, but its a lot,” said Lafferty. “And I think cannabis is very different because just when you think you have all the rules figured out, they change the rules. And for us, as people that work a lot with municipalities — help with stage one, stage two, help people actually get their facilities off the ground — the most difficult thing for us probably is just staying ahead or keeping up with the curve. Things move fast, everything changes, and every single municipality, every single state is very different.”

Entering a new industry or growth phase can be difficult. There are many obstacles when creating a new business, and for a business in the cannabis industry, the obstacles are inevitable. 

According to Lafferty, it’s important to find partners that you can trust. There’s going to be a lot of people that are going to tell you it’s going to be easy, there’s going to be a lot of people that are going to tell you that it’s going to be cheap and it’s not going to be any of that, he said.

“I think the last thing is really to understand why you got into this industry. And don’t lose sight of your goals because you’re going to have a lot of holes and every day you got a hundred things pulling on you and fires that you’re gonna have to put out and really not losing track or losing sight of your vision and why you got into this is really going to be helpful.”

Photo by Drew Taylor on Unsplash

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.