Nail Down the Perfect Dispensary Location: Check for These 10 Things

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good morning or good afternoon if you're joining us from the east coast really exciting webinar we have in store for you today thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to join us we're going to get right into it today's webinar we are going to be discussing how to nail down the perfect dispensary location and provide you 10 things that you must check out before signing that lease we're also going to be talking about how to score more foot traffic with an ideal spot for today's agenda once again we're going to be covering why location is integral for your success which 10 things you need on your must-have list what you can negotiate on and what you can't once again i'm eduardo silva i will be your host for today's webinar i have 18 years marketing and sales experience and have been part of the cannabis industry for over five years i'm really excited to be joining you today thank you so much for this opportunity a little bit about foot traffic we are a dispensary advertising firm with over five years experience in this space i've been fully focused in bringing more foot traffic as well as online revenue for our clients with tried and tested techniques and strategies a couple housekeeping items before we get started with all of our exciting content here and i love love cell phones as we all do as marketers but we ask that you either put those face down on your desk and or silence them for the next 30 minutes as we're going to be moving fairly quickly through a lot of content please do take a moment if you are joining us from the live webinar on zoom to familiarize yourself with the interface there is a q a function either at the bottom and or the top please find that we do have panelists here live that can answer any of your question and or get you more information if the information is not available immediately be sure to stick around we do have a special offer for those attending us attending the webinar here today and we'll be sharing this at the end of the webinar you can't underestimate the impact of a good location on the success of your business if you want to draw people to your store then you need a space that's easy to get to and attracted but that's not all nailing down your ideal location can be a complex formula you have to factor in multiple variables do a bit of math and then choose the place that has the brightest outlook for your business and of course there's no objectivity uh correct answer here two dispensaries with similar locations can have varying fates but by covering your bases and making sure you take into account the various aspects of a location you can stack the deck in your favor today we are going to be covering some of the most important factors to keep in mind as you look for your ideal dispensary location how you choose to prioritize them is entirely up to you but they should each play a role in helping you find your perfect spot that said there are they are not in any particular order so you can actually determine which are the most practical for you in your circumstance the first variable we're going to be covering is distance distance may make the heart grow fonder but it does make it more likely that your target audience will visit your shop if you're aiming to reach a particular audience then the closer you are to where the audience lives or works will be better for you let's say that you're targeting young professionals it makes sense that you would want an urban location close to a city center it will be convenient for your target audience to get there and it's a location they already tend to frequent or perhaps you want to be closer to the new condos and town homes that are in being currently being built which are also targeting young professionals to keep this factor in mind make sure you've done your research and your target audience has been isolated where do they live where do they work where do they shop how do they spend their free time the more you know about your target audience the better able you will be to find a location that works well for them when looking at possible locations make sure to check out your possible neighbors the stores around you can impact your foot traffic if you want to get more foot traffic then make sure that you find a spot near other shops your target audience already frequents so if you're looking to be in the wellness niche for example find a location that's closer to other retailers or fitness studios in that niche can actually help boost your overall chances to attract your target audience let's say you set up a shop next to a yoga studio as an example that would be ideal for marketing your cbd products and other wellness oriented goods similarly if you're surrounded by stores that aren't of interest to your target audience or that are off-putting then you may scare away potential customers for example take that same wellness center dispensary and place it next to a shooting range do you think that individuals focused on their chakras or getting better sleep are going to feel comfortable stopping by a dispensary where there's a shooting practice happening next door no the answer is no make sure to step away from the location itself and get a good view of everything surrounding it before signing that lease another way to isolate this is to stop by at different times to see if there are traffic noise or other issues you need to be aware of you don't want to be up in a space that is constantly being blocked by trucks unloading and where you constantly hear the sound the subway accessibility and visibility is the third factor today that we will be discussing have you seen a store that's only accessible on one side of the road as an example you know the type i'm talking about if you're coming from one direction you need to do an entire u-turn to get to it and let's be honest that's not a great location shops like that aren't easy to get to and they will likely suffer from reduced foot traffic you have to consider how convenient the location is for your customers and what it takes for them to get to it if it's out of the way far from public public transportation or popular roads then you will get less people stopping by it's a fact you should also consider visibility are those storefronts you're looking at visible from the road or are they hidden if they're hidden can you put up a large sign that makes it easier to find you a visible spot will work as its own form of advertising for you people will see you as they go about their lives and think about stopping in without that visibility you're losing a valuable touch point with your customers convenience is important for most customers so it needs to be important to you if you're thinking of opening a shop in the city consider where people will park can you find a space with a small parking lot or with plenty of on-street parking can you petition to have reserve parking spots for your customers you should also consider how accessible public transportation is is there a bus or subway stop near by so people can easily get to you are there bike racks for cyclists or parking garage nearby even for suburban shops parking can be a concern what you have to share a small parking lot with a lot of other stores can you reserve parking spots for your customers or will you have your own parking lot with curbside pickup this has become even greater concern you need spots for individuals to weigh in their cars and place for customers to park so they can stop also think about your business model are you hoping to offer drive-through services if so you are going to need plenty of space for cars to drive around as well as to park want to do delivery think about where you're going to keep your delivery fleet if you are losing the spot excuse me if you're leasing the spot be sure to ask about who will be responsible for the maintenance of the parking lot will your landlord be responsible for plowing the snow or filling in potholes or will that fall to you if you were hoping to attract tourists to your dispensary consider how close you want to be from particular attractions tourists will likely only travel so far to get to a dispensary so the further you are from the areas that you frequent the less likely they are to pay a visit to your store to attract tourists you will want to think about the particular uh space that you were considering to lease and how popular the places are around you to stay eat and visit within the city as well as the location of your airport let's say you're open a seattle dispensary you will either want to be close to the seatac airport or close to some of the tourist hotspots like the space needle pike place market or elky beach think about popular museums theme parks clubs stadiums and venues dispensaries closer to these places will get a leg up on capturing the attention of tourists unless of course you have an undeniable unique value proposition like the largest stock or space in your area interesting events or a consumption lounge of course your location won't be enough to draw tourists to your shop you will also want to have an advertising campaign in place to reach them if part of your business plan is to read tours then set up a call with me or our team here foot traffic by navigating to foot traffic dot me for slash call and we'll put this in the chat window here for you and we'll be happy to talk to you about displays at display ads and how to target people visiting these areas factor number six is local regulations dispensary owners know there's a lot of paperwork red tape and bureaucracy surrounding setting up a dispensary depending on where you're open enough to shop you will have restrictions on where you can lease a space you will need to look at state or provincial regulations as well as local regulations to pinpoint where you can and cannot lease a space most of these regulations have to do with how close dispensaries can be located to parks or schools before checking out available locations with your realtor be sure to look at a map and verify that the places up for rent or lease are not off limits to you your realtor may not be knowledgeable about this so you will likely need to take the lead on it you can also run this by your legal counsel so that you can actually be sure that everywhere you are looking meets your state province or city requirements and because of regulations you may not be able to be as close to certain attractions or points of interest as you may like you might be zoned out of historic areas or hot spots as an example so consider this as you're searching for a location that will allow you to reach that target audience that you're looking at some cannabis regulations also limit signage if you can't have signage or have size limits on your signage then you will want to place more more emphasis on the visibility of your location because you cannot rely on signage to draw people in and onto factor number seven which is size there are two factors that will impact how big a space you will need the first is regulations you will want to be sure that you have the space necessary to include all of the things required by law this will differ depending on where you're located but it may include a space for security personnel to check ids or medical cards before allowing customers in a waiting room for example a sales floor with enough rooms for several point of sale systems a place to hold your inventory management offices a room for your security equipment and of course a break room for your staff if you're a medical only shop check your regulations because you may be required to have a pharmacist or other medical professional site and what this means to you is that you will need dedicated office space for them the second factor that can impact how much space you need is what you want to do with your dispensary if you're if you'd like to hold events or house a consumption levels for example for example you will need more space to do that this may mean look at adjoining spaces or just finding that perfect large space that can accommodate all of these items having like an idea of how you want the inside of your dispenser to flow can also help you narrow down your list and pinpoint the perfect size space for you as you're turning possible locations ask yourself whether what you're seeing is in line with what your brand will be and if it's not are you able to make changes per the lease so let's say you want to exude a calm and uh luxury feel maybe you want that spa-like vibe to the location you're looking at mesh with it or can you transform the spaces uh you are touring into that luxury feel if not you can make it harder to reach your target audience you your message would be in direct contrast with the space you're renting that kind of discordance can be unsettling for customers though they may not be able to actually place a finger on what is bothering them about the space it's kind of like watching that awkward part in a movie that takes you out of the action you're watching the movie to enjoy the escape but when something doesn't work on screen you're jolted out of it and you feel like something's not working there's a mismatch between your brand and your location this can be a similar effect i've mentioned your target audience a few times now and for good reason remember everything you're doing is to reach them your space needs to reflect that and so does your brand factor number nine the competition how close do you want to be to your competition now in some places you may not have too much of a choice because the market is crowded however other places have few dispensaries do you want to be close to them or far away from them if you have done your homework then you know exactly where the competition is and what they are targeting if they are targeting a different audience than you it likely doesn't make sense to be located too close to them if you're targeting the same audience you may need to be closer to them unless you're serving a large metropolitan or suburban area then you can spread out more and while still targeting the same audience and if you're worried that being too close to the competition will lead to lost sales consider display ad with competitor targeting and feel free to check out some of our previous webinars on this topic or schedule a meeting with us so we can team up and personalize an introduction to this practice for you once again the link is in the chat panel here factor number 10 today is the history of the site before signing a lease make sure to check out what the space spaces you are interested in used to be if you're able to research why does the previous tenancies no longer lease the site that could be helpful in narrowing down which spots may be working best for you for example if that spot on the corner you should be a restaurant that closed down after a year you may want to think about if there were issues with accessibility or visibility that made it unpopular of course they could always have had bad food but it's important to investigate so that you won't face the similar fate if it used to be a retailer what were they selling and who were their target audience are other shops in the area also targeting those same customers does their target audience differ if you aren't able to learn more about the history of the site think critically about the factors that i've already mentioned if the site is easily accessible to your target audience can they see it are you close to where they live work or shop as you're considering all of these factors there's probably a big elephant in the room here and that elephant is cost you absolutely cannot overlook the cost of a particular site i didn't count this as one of our top 10 factors because it's one that you're already aware of now by cost i don't just mean rent though that is an important and huge factor here think about how much work the place needs to get it to where you need it to be well you need to do any renovations on the exterior any renovations what you need to do in the interior to create the necessary spaces we've outlined also consider the utilities that you will be responsible for look into how the space is heated or cooled when the hvac system was less replaced ask your realtor about the previous tenants or owners utility bills they should be able to provide this information to you so you can create a realistic budget a larger space or a space with a lot of windows is going to have a higher utility cost you will want to be aware of this before signing the lease or purchasing the property you will also want to think about maintenance costs if you're purchasing a property this will fall to you you are responsible for all of the upkeep and everything from the electrical plumbing and heating and cooling of the building you will need to be prepared to plow snow clean windows patch holes and or leaks and otherwise keep your location safe for your customers and look good in the process now there's always give and take with any contract and a lease or a property sale is no different here if you're leasing you will want to have information regarding the process of having issues repaired or making changes to the interior or exterior of the property you will also want to be sure you know exactly what costs you are responsible for and which will be covered by the new landlord do not skip this process you do not want any surprises down the line if you're purchasing the property consider whether there are any issues you need to be dealt with right before you take ownership is the roof okay does the hvac system need to be replaced is there anything from the previous owner or tenant that needs to be removed from the property you can always ask the seller to address these ahead of time or try to get them to come down in price for the property depending on the amount of work that's required and your realtor or legal counsel can obviously help you and talk you through some of these items as you get closer to signing the lease but in essence you want to be sure that your rights are protected once you have your site it's time to start the marketing while you may not be opening your doors for a few months it's crucial that you start building your online presence so you can start ranking for important keywords that way when you open your door you already have easy to access and find online for your customers it may seem early however it takes time to build a presence online and establish trust in the same way takes time to remodel a new space to start you should have a website and an seo strategy that's going to help you rank higher on google your website should be set up to be easy to use and helpful your your search engine optimization strategy should target the high value keywords that your target audience may be searching for in finding your dispensary we can get you set up with both of these things and have an ideal uh way to share with you in just minutes and make it really really easy as you get closer to opening day you may also want to consider doing a press release for your grant opening or running google ads and display ads should increase food traffic once you launch your location is important but it's it won't matter if people don't know about you start screaming from the digital rooftops to get foot traffic in store and online make sure that you have an audience eager to check out your shop when you open your doors and so take advantage of today's seo deal to increase your findability on your google ranking we create robust seo strategies that include on-site and off-site optimization keyword research link building reputation management and much more our seo will help you make it easier for your customers to find you and if you schedule a call with us before next thursday then we'll take off 200 of your first months of seo this is a crucial service that you need in order to boost your e-commerce or your foot traffic presence just go to foot traffic dot me forward slash call to get the ball rolling once again the link is in the chat window here feel free to schedule a call with us and keep in mind that the pandemic has only made it more obvious that a digital presence is vital for the success in today's market don't get left behind and let's get you set up with a custom seo strategy that will help you target and find your online audience let's take a moment here for any questions from our audience once again there's the q a function there uh but feel free to just john any questions out here let's take a moment to address some of those great first question here does square footage matter is there an ideal square footage for a dispensary now the the interesting part of this question is that the ideal size of your space that you can lease or purchase is going to really be limited to where you're looking right that's always going to be the case so for instance if you're trying to find a spot in the mission district in san francisco for example then you're probably going to be cons confined to like a 500 square foot location but guess what that's okay for san francisco because it's a very dense city with small real estate uh office space as we all know throughout the country now in oklahoma though as for some of our customers as an example you may have a few thousand square feet at your at your disposal the size isn't as important as what you do with it because the products don't have to be shoppable in the same way as clothing for example so you can keep a very large inventory in a small space and make that also available menus online so people can easily find what they're looking for and also get the assistance they need i would say that there probably isn't an ideal size but the more important factor is about having enough space to create the dispensary vision that you have in mind right so remember some of those factors that we talked about such as are you going to be medicinal only practice and if so do you require a pharmacist or some uh form of consultation practice on site and so you do need to accommodate for that and so therefore space or square footage will be a major factor some of our clients do have pharmacists on staff and they do require those medical offices if you will or small offices inside the practice to abide by the hipaa compliance law right great first question there any other questions from our audience all right well i want to thank you so much for joining us in today's webinar i really appreciate it make sure to take advantage of our seo offer before he expires on the 18th and schedule a call with us any of our team members here by going to foot traffic dot me forward slash call and let's get hooked up have a great rest of your day and thank you so much for your time ]