Business

The cannabis industry’s biggest financial challenge isn’t banking access alone. It’s fragmentation. Operators juggle separate solutions for payroll, lending, insurance, and payments, leading to repetitive work, high fees, and compliance headaches. A unified, purpose-built financial infrastructure could eliminate duplicative workflows, automate compliance, improve access to capital, and give operators room to grow. Here’s how that vision could look.

With price compression squeezing margins, more dispensaries are shifting away from discount-driven strategies and toward curated menus that create real differentiation. By focusing on relevance, selection, and customer value, retailers are carving out a competitive edge in saturated markets.

Green Lane Communication makes the case for trust-first public relations — where credibility, preparation, and respect for the press matter more than shortcuts, hype, or empty promises.

Surfside brings a performance-first lens to cannabis marketing, using retail media, attribution, and data-driven personalization to connect media investments directly to measurable business growth.

Heavy metals can find their way into cannabis through water, soil, fertilizers, and even aging equipment—yet most growers don’t realize how easily contamination can occur. Researchers are just beginning to understand how the plant interacts with metals like arsenic, cadmium, and lead, but cultivators can take practical steps now to minimize risk. From input testing and pH management to smarter irrigation practices, here’s what every grower should know to keep crops compliant and consumers safe.

Pisgah Peaks Ventures helps cannabis operators scale marketing and revenue through embedded, fractional teams — prioritizing brand-building, realistic metrics, and execution that compounds over time.

KCSA Strategic Communications brings decades of experience in regulated industries to cannabis, helping brands build credibility, navigate volatility, and align earned media with long-term business goals.

Maverick Public Relations focuses on long-term credibility in cannabis communications, emphasizing trust, data-driven strategy, and disciplined storytelling in highly regulated markets.

Cannabis Marketing 3.0 is here, and the old playbook doesn’t work anymore. Social myths have collapsed, AI alone can’t save creative, and brands are losing customers because their websites feel like relics from 2017. These are the new realities of marketing in a rapidly changing industry where creativity, speed, data, and customer understanding must work together. The brave win. The passive fade. Here’s what actually drives growth now.

Cannabis cultivators often celebrate yield, but volume alone doesn’t guarantee profitability. Many grows unknowingly scale losses because key expenses — overhead, indirect labor, and material consumption — aren’t accurately tracked. When cost visibility is missing, even high-performing strains can drain margins. In today’s tight market, operators need precise cost intelligence, not guesses. Knowing the real cost per gram helps cultivators eliminate waste, refine their product mix, and build a more resilient, profitable operation.