Black CannaBusiness Magazine was founded on the idea that resources, information and education make better businesses. In the cannabis industry, with all its changes and regulations, it’s more important than ever that cannabis business owners of color are tapped into best practices for success.

In her e-book, “Five Steps to Business Transformation,” Black CannaBusiness Magazine founder Kristi Price gives you actionable, usable and most importantly, transformational tips on creating a business that works for you. We’ll continue providing tips, advice and guidance for new and established business owners, helping you scale and grow. In the meantime, read on to learn how to make the most of your efforts:

The Current State Analysis 

Transforming your business for growth is a journey, likely one you’ve never been on before. Having a solid understanding of where your business is positioned will help you create the best route for where you should go.

Here are some tasks you can use as you’re taking a current analysis of your position:

• Determine your current profit
• Determine your current expenses
• Ask yourself: what efforts have I already made to transform my business?
• Where should I focus my efforts to achieve product development, sales conversion, advertising, and operations?

The Future State Analysis

Now that you’ve taken a proper assessment of where you are with your business, it’s time to determine where you’ll go. What are your goals? To hire more employees? To increase your profit or expand?

Use these tasks below as a work outline and roadmap for goal-setting.

• Who are my ideal customers?
• Determine what next level success looks like for your business using market trends
• Carve out time to develop your business (work ON your business, rather than IN your business)
• Develop strategies for raising capital
• Outline obstacles and potential threats to success.

The Vehicle Method

Almost as important as knowing your destination is figuring out how you will get there.  Will you walk, drive or fly? Of course we can’t literally put your business in an actual car or  a plane, but you can decide how quickly you want to move. Your answers to these important questions will help you put the right tools in place for your success.

Use these tasks to work out your best method of operation:

•  Determine how quickly you want to transform your business
•  Determine when you want to get started
•  Ask Yourself: How quickly do I want to move along my journey to business   transformation?

The MBB Approach

It isn’t enough to know that you need to go on this  journey of business transformation, you must also  understand your why. Most entrepreneurs start their  businesses to fulfill a purpose or to satisfy a passion, we call these Mission Based Businesses or MBBs. Why you want to transform your business  will help you stay focused, even when the going gets rough.

Use these tasks to level-set where you are: 

• Determine your business mission and  highlight the verbs or action words in the statement Determine how your business addresses your mission
• Ask yourself: Does the work that I am currently  producing address each action word from your mission?
• Use these actionable items to develop your mission statement, values and vision to present to your customers

The Readiness Assessment

The final destination on the road map helps you to measure your readiness to take the  journey. There is nothing worse than getting started down a path and then realizing that  you have forgotten something (or someone) important behind.

Use these tasks to stay on track: 

•  Determine who (if anyone) will be impacted by changes made to your business  Determine how much time you can dedicate to working ON your business as opposed   to the time you spend working IN your business
•  Ask yourself: Do I have the confidence and the competence to transform my   business?

Stay tuned for more business owner information, tips, resources and best practices as we move through the series.