Welcome to our first Client Spotlight interview! In this latest series, Jade Stone's founder, Katie Motta, sat down with Chris and Holli Doberstein, the Co-Founders of Hazy Bear Herbery. Located in Outing, Minnesota, Hazy Bear Herbery offers a wide variety of vapes, glass, and edibles to the local community. Learn how Chris and Holli started their business and discover how to launch and grow a cannabis dispensary in Minnesota.
Table of Contents:
What initially sparked your interest in opening a dispensary?
What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome in launching your dispensary?
What advice would you give a newcomer who wants to open a dispensary?
How much was branding and design a factor in your initial launch?
What essential partnerships helped your business get to where it is today?
Did you have any mentors who guided you during your cannabis journey?
What changes would you like to see change for the better in the cannabis industry?
Are you working on any new exciting projects right now that we can hear about?
Video Transcript (Edited for clarity):
Katie: Hello, my name is Katie Motta and I am the founder and CEO of Jade Stone Branding. Jade Stone is a branding and design agency that's focused on eradicating the stereotypes of cannabis through effective and modern design. And today I'm talking with two of our past clients, Chris and Holli Doberstein of Hazy Bear Herbery.
Hazy Bear is a Minnesota-based dispensary that's going to be opening soon. And we're just going to chat today about their business, some of their insights into the cannabis space and just tell a little bit about their story. So, Chris and Holli, it is great to see you, and I'm really excited to get started!
Holli: Good morning!
Katie: So, we'll start really simply. Tell me a little bit about, you know, how you got involved in cannabis. What sort of inspired you to get started in the industry?
Holli: We first fell in love with our town. So, we full time traveled for about five years. And every time we left Outing/Emily, Minnesota, it kind of felt like we were leaving home. So eventually a building came up for sale that we purchased, and we built our home here and started working on a business. We weren't sure what it was going to be at the time. But we knew that we wanted to open a business in this community. And when Minnesota started talking more seriously about legalizing, we started down that avenue as well. We opened last August.
Katie: Yeah, very cool. And, so, correct me if I'm wrong - The legalization in Minnesota was not too soon before you opened. Is that correct? You pretty much were open pretty soon after they approved everything, right?
Chris: Yeah, we opened the same month that they legalized it.
Katie: Amazing! That's great. Good for you guys! So obviously it's still been relatively new - but in terms of any challenges that you guys have, sort of, overcome as you're opening the dispensary and sort of getting launched, what would you say the biggest challenge is that you've had to overcome at this point?
Chris: I would say probably understanding regulation. We're in a lucky situation where Outing [Minnesota] isn't incorporated. So we don't have [local] government. So everything goes to [the] county.
[The] County's been super supportive. But just understanding regulation and what we can and can't sell, because there's a lot of companies on a national level that have products that aren't legal in Minnesota. And just to be able to identify what is legal in Minnesota versus what's not.
Katie: Yeah, that's a very interesting challenge. I'm sure everyone's sort of struggling with that, and especially state-to-state, as it changes state to state. It's a wild west sometimes, as we know.
All right. Well, if you guys had to advise someone who was interested in opening a dispensary or somebody maybe new to the area, whether that's specifically in Minnesota or just generally, what sort of three things would you recommend that they do in order to succeed at opening a dispensary?
Holli: Definitely know the needs of your clientele. What are they looking for? And then guide your inventory towards that. A lot of our customers come in, they're looking for sleep assistance or pain assistance, so CBD and CBN are popular items in our store that we try to give different varieties of.
Chris: And then also another big one is talk to your banker. On a federal level, marijuana is still not legal. So you're out of all the funding as in SBA funding and whatnot. So it's "talk to your banker". They're able to figure out what you do qualify for, what you don't qualify for. So definitely understand how you're going to be funding your business is a big one.
Katie: Yeah, that's a great piece of advice. It's something that most people don't tend to think about because you're right - It's obviously not federal. So it's not something that you can just go get a loan or make it really easy to open. So that's a great piece of advice.
Chris: Six months to get a checking account approved with a local bank.
Katie: Yeah, and that's, I'm sure - like I said, a challenge for most people as well. So that's a good piece to bring up. Definitely.
Real quick question too, just in terms of your audience - Obviously, you sort of knew the area a little bit beforehand. And you are in a unique situation where you have a very small amount of people who sort of live in the general area.
But for the most part, as we know, you're dealing with a lot of tourists that are coming through. So in terms of sort of seeing what their needs are, do you find that it's similar to people in the general area as well?
Holli: Yes. And it also, I would say, expands because then we're kind of having "we're coming up for like a fun weekend" - So maybe we don't really need help sleeping this weekend. Also, try to keep our prices very competitive. So, a lot of the people who come up from the cities will stock up on inventory or products before they go back to the city because our prices are very competitive.
So, they buy gummies for the weekend while they're up here. And then on their way home, they'll grab, you know, sleep gummies or whatever they're looking for throughout the week.
Katie: Yeah, and that's a great strategy too. Again, to kind of keep in mind the people that are traveling from somewhere else, especially keeping your price point down is really good for sure. All right. My favorite question, of course, on this list, is how did branding and design factor in your initial launch? And how much is it going to play into your longer-term strategy?
Chris: Well, when we first opened, we didn't really have an identity, as in we weren't exactly sure what all we wanted to sell in our store. We were doing some local art, which was great. And we were doing some other products as kind of a mixed retail store. And as we were going, we realized we needed to kind of pinpoint what our direction is going to be, what we want to be identified as.
So then as we started going a couple months into it, we decided that we want to do everything cannabis from growing to consuming. Once we identified what we wanted our store to be, then we wanted to find a partner to help us brand through our branding. We weren't exactly sure how to do logos, how to do branding, how to do color schemes, which is where we found you and definitely helped us out significantly.
Holli: Very helpful.
Katie: Yeah, thank you, guys. And of course, it was phenomenal to work with you guys. You were one of, I say this all the time, one of our easiest going clients. It was just the best experience on our end as well! So thank you.
What other sort of partnerships have helped your business grow up to this point? Whether that be someone who is giving you an inventory of their own products for your store or like architects. Who have you worked with that has been essential so far in getting it up and running?
Chris: Yeah, I mean, this is a new industry in Minnesota, so there's really not an established history with a lot of people.
Katie: Yeah.
Chris: The best thing that's helped us out is to get to know other store owners. We're all in it together.
We're all trying to figure it out at the same time. So, I mean, there's a lot of great stores in our area, the Weedery, Cholly's Farm - We can bounce ideas off each other.
We see each other more as friends trying to figure out the industry versus competitors, so it's kind of nice to rely on other people. If you have a struggle, you can reach out to them and see what they did to overcome it and so on.
Katie: That's fantastic. It's great to have a community, of course, to talk to other people about, but it's good to hear that it's more of a community and a supportive community, I should say, as opposed to just "stay over there on your side" or "over here with our side" and don't talk to us about any strategy. So that's great to hear that you guys have that out there. That's awesome.
Similarly, in terms of any mentors, did you have any sort of mentors, and even that can be family, who sort of supported you through this so far and any kind of advice they've given you?
Holli: Both of our parents have also been business owners in the past, so I think that kind of is where some of the entrepreneurial spirit comes from. And then Chris's parents are right down the road from us. They have helped us anytime we need just help around the shop even. They'll come up and help us around here.
Chris: Yeah, our families have been extremely supportive, so it's been very nice. We're very fortunate with that.
Katie: Yeah, that's great, and definitely a background in entrepreneurship helps for sure. My dad was a business owner as well, so I feel like that tends to run in families.
All right, pivoting a little bit from your business just to the general sort of industry [overall], what changes would you want to see for a better cannabis industry? And that's not necessarily a question specific to your area, but internationally, nationally, but what do you sort of think would help to further the industry?
Chris: Well, I mean, our biggest hurdle with every other dispensary in every state is going to be U.S. Code 280E.
So as soon as they can reschedule cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3, I know my accountant will be super happy with that!
Katie: As we all will.
Chris: Yes, and we're essentially paying taxes twice and can't write basically everything or anything off. So once they reschedule it, that would definitely help a lot of small businesses nationally.
Katie: Yeah, absolutely. That's a big one.
It's something people talk about constantly in the cannabis industry, so that's a good one. All right, last question here just before we sort of sign off, but are you working on any new exciting projects that we can have a sneak peek on or just hear about anything that you've sort of got going on?
Holli: We are under constant construction. Now our store is...
Chris: About 600 square feet.
Holli: And soon enough, we'll be 1,500 square feet. So, this wall behind us right here actually is just a temporary OSB wall.
And then this wall will come down and it'll be about triple the size in here.
Katie: Amazing.
Chris: We're building our grow room as well, so we'll grow as well in this building by processing, [and] manufacturing. So, it'll be a one-stop shop. Everything from growing to consuming we'll have here [we'll] be able to grow our own product and sell that to the public.
Katie: Yeah, that's fantastic. We'll have to come by for a tour at some point. Once you've got all the construction done, we'll do a tour and come through. That'd be awesome. I can't wait to see the space.
Holli: We're really excited to get tents and lights and grow equipment in here for customers.
Katie: Yeah, absolutely. That'll be a great facet of the business, I'm sure. Awesome.
Well, amazing. Thank you guys so much again for being with us today. This has been a fantastic conversation. It's really nice to hear about, obviously, everything you've got going on and just what your plans are for the future as well. And we can't wait to see how everything progresses.
So, again, I am Katie Motta of Jade Stone Branding, and we'll see you all soon.
Holli: Thank you!
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