How Implementing Standard Operating Procedures In Your Cannabis & Hemp Business Can Save You Money

As many cannabis business owners know, following a clear set of Standardized Operating Procedures (SOP) offers security as they provide both management and employees with a set of procedures and regulations that are expected to be followed in all day-to-day operations of the business.

When your business is in the cannabis and hemp industry, the regulations that have to be followed and adhered to are the bottom line to keeping the doors open.

So why are there still so many facilities that are operating without SOP practices in place?

In this article, we take a closer look at the cannabis industry’s operations in relation to their existing SOP, the benefits of having a thorough SOP, what can happen when you don’t have an SOP in place, and some solutions to get you started on your journey to full compliance today.

Standard Operating Procedures Can Save Your Cannabis & Hemp Business Money

What are Standard Operating Procedures?
The benefits of having SOPs in your cannabis or hemp business
What can happen when you don’t have an SOP in place?
How BuildMySOP.com can help your cannabis & hemp business

What Are SOPs?

Specifically, in the cannabis and hemp industry, an SOP is a detailed outline of the procedures that take place for all operations.

These outlines can act as training tools for all employees to follow the step-by-step guidelines required to perform any task within the facility. And again, they need to be concise but very detailed.

For example, if the job description is to ‘water plants’, then the SOP should detail which plants are to be watered, how much water should be used, what time the watering should occur, what type of water should be used, and who is responsible to water the plants.

The SOP should clearly state thorough and specific details of the required tasks, and be consistently referred to in order to ensure that employees are aware of the expectations and can clear up any discrepancies or questions that can arise.

In our very first episode of the Ask The Regulator podcast, founder and CEO of BuildMySOP.com Kady Cravens sat down with BuildMySOP’s VP of Regulatory Affairs Tom Mohan, to discuss the importance of having thorough SOPs in a cannabis and hemp business.

Both having an extensive background with the regulatory side of the cannabis and hemp industry, they saw the pitfalls that many facilities fell into due to a lack of SOPs in the day-to-day operations.

However, before we get into the downside of not having SOPs in place, let`s first discuss the benefits.

The Benefits of Having SOPs In Your Cannabis or Hemp Business

Having a Standard Operating Procedure will offer peace of mind for any business operator in the industry.

By having an SOP, employees can be trained quickly, know exactly what is expected of them, and know exactly how to perform their duties.

This record-keeping of employee training and performance offers management assurance in trusting that any employee who was trained according to the established SOP will know how to perform that task.

More specifically, having an updated SOP in place will:

Create a homogenized product.
Time operations efficiently and correctly.
Increase profitability by saving time, efficiency, and streamline employee training.
Hold employees, ownership, and management accountable

Creating a Homogenized Product

As far as hemp and cannabis products go, consistency in the finished product is critical.

As the industry continues to grow and undergo endless changes to regulations, having a handle on creating a homogenized product is “critical for the manufacturing and the testing of cannabis-related products.”

Having an SOP in place can organize all operational procedures that lead up to cannabis production, and help to guide business owners in making adjustments to the procedures as necessary.

Time Operations Efficiently and Correctly

Like with any product manufacturing operation, the timing of particular tasks is crucial to the efficacy of the entire operation.

Having an SOP can let employees know the expectations in every operation, while also acting as a record for management to review to make necessary adjustments.

Increase Profitability

Having SOPs in place and adhering to them frequently will increase profit in terms of efficiency of product production in that expectations to perform every task is clearly outlined for any employee to refer to over and over again.

This also streamlines employee training and can ultimately save the company money in training time and costs associated with preventable errors.

Hold Employees and Employers Accountable

Having SOPs will also help the business’s HR regulatory procedures and help protect both employer and employee.

SOPs maintain a record of employee and management training and performance and hold both facilities and independent parties accountable for their conduct.

SOPs act as the mandate by which all employees and employers must legally comply, and they provide evidence of consistencies and inconsistencies in work expectations and adherence to operational procedures.

What Can Happen When You Don’t Have an SOP in Place?

When SOPs are not in place in a cannabis or hemp operation, a number of things can occur that can cost the business profit and even the ability to operate.

One common and very expensive consequence of not having an SOP in place is a significant loss of product and profit.

In our podcast episode, former Regulator Supervisor from the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division Tom Mohan shared an alerting experience he had encountered with a facility owner where the operator he had surveyed did not have an SOP in place and had $500,000 worth of concentrates unaccounted for.

Without having an SOP in place, there was no accountability, no roadmap, no system in place to track down the missing product or hold anyone accountable for the loss.

Additionally, these types of blunders can result in formal violations and even more profit loss as these mistakes violate regulatory laws on both the State and local sides.

Regulatory violations can include:

Fines
Days of suspension
Licenses can be suspended or revoked

Clearly, these types of violations and profit losses are avoidable by having an SOP system in place.

How BuildMySOP Can Help Your Cannabis & Hemp Business

There are many options for Standard Operating Procedures out there, but only one that is specifically designed for the cannabis industry.

BuildMySOP was created by founder and CEO Kady Cravens who has worked in almost every position in cannabis facilities and operations.

After experiencing her own frustrations while working to get various facilities up to compliance, she realized that the one thing that each business seemed to consistently lack was a thorough SOP system.

Designed to help keep management and employees up to date on regulatory changes and ultimately keep the facility doors open for business, BuildMySOP is now being implemented in nine states and is rapidly growing.

With customizable templates and even options to have experts design your own, BuildMySOP can fit every facility’s specific needs.

Next Steps

Having thorough SOPs in place is the bottom line to keeping your facility open, as they serve and protect employees and business managers and help to regulate products and performance.

BuildMySOP is created by the very people who know the operational and regulatory sides of the cannabis business and are a great investment for your business.

BuildMySOP offers cannabis business owners customizable templates and subscriptions that fit every business size.

For additional product and pricing information, visit our website.

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