This year has taught us many things so far, both personally and professionally. When the normal day-to-day was flipped upside down and COVID-19 said its hello, our weaknesses were highlighted and our strengths had to be fully utilized. But what these times have also shown us is the power we have when we work together. We now have proven data to display our potential in numbers, pointing to how we can flatten a curve simply by all agreeing to stay inside. But this strength in numbers idea doesn't have to be limited to our 2020 pandemic. Instead, we can rise out of this challenge with wisdom and new knowledge. We can use this opportunity to shape our futures, molding it into the reality we've always wanted to see.
With collective power comes responsibility, so now we have a choice to make: Do we want to return to the way things were, or do we want to rise out of this smarter, better, and more capable?
On the personal side of things, we can use this opportunity to decide which businesses we want to support by voting with our dollar. We now know how valuable our currency is as we choose to give it to the local companies we want to see operating when all this is said and done. We want our neighbors and friends to succeed, and more than ever before, we've realized the impact our support has on others in our community. We've also discovered the potential of relying on ourselves as we start growing our own vegetables, trying our hand at making bread, and building projects we had tossed aside for so long. This reliance on ourselves is evident in how we run our businesses as well, and we can take this hard-learned lesson and use it in years to come.
During this time, the businesses that are surviving figured out the importance of efficiency long before all of this started. They learned how to increase their profits by lowering costs, and many had moved to automation and smart growth, saving their need for much in-person labor. Many businesses, efficient or not, have noticed their lack of control over much of the supply chain, cannabis brands included. When cannabis sales skyrocketed in California due to the industry being deemed essential, brands couldn't keep up with the demand from customers, leaving many businesses wishing they had put more thought into how they obtained their product for jars, pre-rolls, edibles, and extracts. With a need to have a reliable source, those brands who had worked on establishing genuine relationships with their farmers or had invested in their own cultivation sites were the ones who didn't feel the worst of the panic. Brands are realizing the importance of leaning on others in the industry for support and the need for a created synergy within the entire supply chain.
We have the unique opportunity to move out of this grand obstacle with a more knowledgeable head on our shoulders. While funds are tight, and the future is uncertain, scaling a business can be a scary task to tackle. But if a business expands its operation by working with a cooperative of small farms, they can not only reduce risk and create more possibilities for themselves, but they can also use this as a chance to build the positive symbiotic relationship in this industry that we’re all after. By partnering with a small farmer who cares about the cultivation inputs, you preserve small-batch quality and maintain a consistent supply without having to invest a lot of dough up front. By scaling your business this way, you open up more doors to success, and by working to incorporate custom cultivation into your supply, you maintain stability and reduce the direct monetary risk of having to figure out the ways of cannabis cultivation yourself. By propping up the expertise of each business, both sides of the chain benefit, and both parties prevail.
Are you interested in learning more about custom cultivation through Giving Tree Farms? Reach out to us and we can discuss the future. We want to see your business grow, because when you succeed, so do we. Send us an email or fill out a Wholesale Account form, and we'll reach out to you shortly.