Your venture's unfair advantage

Below is a list of my 10 best resources that make my venture special:

1. Transportation – having my own form of transportation to deliver prescriptions to patients (and making sure my employees have vehicles, too) is valuable because any employee can deliver while on the job. This is rare because some dispensaries don’t allow their team to drive with the medicine. While others can copy this, they’ll have to go through some legal troubles, and others resources can’t provide this same benefit.

2. Staff – making sure my staff is kind, friendly and always exhibiting the “Core Four” communication skills will give value to my venture because customers will feel welcome asking for help or assistance. This is rare because most companies do not take the time or effort to train their employees to care about others. I actually copied this idea from my former employer, Chick-fil-A, so unfortunately this can be copied. Other resources can enhance this benefit.

3. Human resources – when my staff takes care of me and my business, I have to take care of them, so I’d make sure to have an experienced HR head who would provide valuable benefits for my employees. This isn’t a super rare resource, because other companies offer good benefits in terms of health, insurance, vacation days, etc. I would put a unique benefit on working for me so no other dispensary can duplicate that. This resource definitely complements my staff resource.

4. Raw material – making sure my store has the highest quality medicine is valuable because patients desire certain strains/concentrations. My set-up is rare because the inventory would only consist of what customers have ordered before. While someone could also duplicate this, I would trust my team not to share our resources/strategies. Other resources can’t provide good quality marijuana.

5. Brand – because I am a journalism major and have graphic design experience, I can create a modern, fresh look for my brand. This would be valuable because I don’t have to hire an outside person to do my website design/social media branding. No one else could duplicate my creative work, and because of that, no other resource could take branding’s place.

6. Customer databases – because majority of our customers will have chronic illness/diseases, we’re a sort of pharmacy for them, so it’s valuable to have a detailed customer database with each patient’s bio about their illness and preferred medicines. This isn’t very rare because most doctor’s offices and pharmacies have customer databases, but I would make sure each bio is personalized and detailed, making it hard to duplicate the system.

7. Partnerships – as someone who has no real-life experience in a medical marijuana dispensary, I think it’d be valuable to partner up with the existing dispensary here and see if we can combine efforts to make greater profit and serve more people. Partnerships aren’t rare, but medical marijuana partnerships in Gainesville are. This could go very wrong though because if the other company’s ideals don’t match mine, it will affect my business.

8. Networking – thanks to my skills as a journalist, I’m very good at networking and getting to know the community, which is valuable to my company’s success. Many students get nervous to talk to those in authority, but I’m rare because I use it to my advantage and create connections. Because I know how to market myself best, no one can duplicate this, and networking will complement any partnerships or branding resources.

9. Shands – with the hospital being so close to the heart of Gainesville, I would have researchers and doctors that can help me (as a student) learn more about the science of marijuana and the illnesses it helps, which is very valuable. The team at Shands is unique to the hospital, so no one else could duplicate this resource. Learning more about marijuana will ultimately help decide what raw materials to buy.

10. Sales pitching – because I know who my customer base is and have researched what their characteristics are, my sales pitches will be valuable and beneficial for them as patients and me as an entrepreneur. I will have my own unique way of selling my product, therefore it’s unlikely anyone can copy me. This cannot replace any other of my resources.