As a part of our series about “Five Things You Need To Know If You Want To Build, Scale and Prepare Your Business For a Lucrative Exit, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sara Gullickson.
Sara Gullickson is an entrepreneur, investor, and corporate dealmaker with more than a decade of experience building and scaling businesses personally and professionally. A multi-state cannabis license holder, Gullickson has a proven track record in identifying new opportunities and infusing traditional business strategies into progressive markets. At age 27, she entered the nascent cannabis space and founded her first venture, consulting firm Dispensary Permits. She went on to build several other ancillary companies tailored to the cannabis industry including a tech platform and turnkey retail model. After eight years serving as CEO across her portfolio of brands, Gullickson sold to a publicly traded company.
Gullickson continues to lend her extensive industry knowledge and credentials as CEO and founder of national consulting firm The Cannabis Business Advisors. A high-level strategist, she advises stakeholders on corporate structure, financing, and operations to better position their companies for growth and potential exit. Recognized as a Women to Watch and one of the Top 20 Women to Dominate the International Cannabis Space, Gullickson has received numerous accolades for her business contributions. She has been invited to present at the Real Estate Wealth Expos in Los Angeles and Toronto, MJBizCon, Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo, and other speaking circuits focused on high-growth industries. Throughout her career, Gullickson has thrived in an unconventional business landscape, merging her expertise in brokering relationships to cultivate success. Beyond her professional endeavors, Gullickson’s passions include raising her two children and inspiring women to pursue executive leadership.
Thank you so much for doing this with us Sara! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Iguess most recently after taking a little time away (noncompete/birth of son) it was a conscious choice to come back to the industry. After selling a few of my cannabis related businesses, I decided I still wanted to be in the space helping hopeful cannabis entrepreneurs either secure licenses or open their facilities.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Oh, gosh, just one? Lets just say, I was young and grew up in a pretty sheltered environment so I picked up some street smarts relatively quickly when I was working in Chicago. For perspective, four Illinois governors have been convicted of crimes and served time in prison.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
There is no shortcut to success, you’ve got to put in the time. I worked really hard early on in my career and eventually it paid off. And, guess what, I’m still working hard!
Can you tell us a story about how you were able to build a business from scratch, scale and sell it to a bigger firm?
About eight years ago, I had dinner with a colleague who was much older than myself and he told me I’d never sell my business because my business was basically me. From that point on, I did everything I could to remove myself and make it a more self-sustaining entity. I created policies and procedures and developed multiple revenue generators. By automating processes and increasing my online following and presence, I was able to start thinking about my exit strategy. A few years later it was ready to be sold. I entertained multiple buyers prior to actually selling.
Based on your experience, can you share with our readers the “Five Things You Need To Know If You Want To Build, Scale and Prepare Your Business For a Lucrative Exit”. Please give a story or example for each.
- Consistent Revenue: Our cannabis consulting business is largely dependent on the legalization of new state programs and introduction or expansion of licenses. This ebb and flow of application projects required me to find other ways to generate income and bring more consistency to our revenue on a month to month basis.
- Scalable Operations: A company can rarely scale through the efforts of one person alone. Creating efficient systems and processes, as well as leveraging automation will help your business better manage engagement, track leads, monitor trends, and attract new customers or projects.
- Seasoned Team (besides yourself): It’s one of the harder things to do when growing a company, but finding the right team and attracting the right talent is essential. A professional team of experts will help you to increase revenue and have more time as a leader to focus on expansion and exit.
- Multiple Revenue Streams: As mentioned previously, I learned quickly the value of developing multiple revenue streams beyond my one-on-one custom consulting projects. Having an online marketplace to generate passive income was crucial. It demonstrated that my company had the potential for further sustainable growth with a minimum of staffing support.
- Down to Earth Valuation: It’s important to be realistic in your valuation in order to make it as appealing as possible to buyers. At the same time, consider other factors that might increase the value beyond your assets and revenue. Does the geographic location of your business play a role, or does your company offer symbiotic services/assets that would provide strategic value for a potential buyer.
In your experience, is there a difference in approach for building a service based business versus a product based business when you have the intent to eventually sell the business. Can you explain?
Yes, I ended up doing both because I felt that just a consulting company (service) without any products would be a hard sell during a nascent time in the industry. Also, by building out the online presence of my business with downloadable templates, I was able to harness a different target market who were interested in entering the industry, but did not necessarily have the capital to engage a consultant for one-on-one advisory services for a custom cannabis license application.
How does one go about the process of finding a buyer?
In my experience, I did not have to go through the process of finding a buyer since someone approached me. There are business brokers for cannabis specific businesses.
How can one decide if it is better to build a business in order to exit, or if it is better to stick around for the long term and let the company bring in residual income, or if it is better to go public?
I think that is a personal question. In my opinion, all businesses should be built to exit but some entrepreneurs do not have that foresight or skillset.
Can you share a few ways that are used to determine a good selling price for the business?
I like to keep it simple and do 1–3x revenue. For the cannabis licenses, typically we use fair market value instead since they are pre-revenue.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
For people to think for themselves and appreciate others’ differences. I think the amount of political / social divide we saw in the last year plus has really been a disservice to all humans. My famous quote is and always will be, “If everyone was like me and thought like me the world would be a really boring one dimensional place.” It’s very important to celebrate other people’s thought processes. Not everyone should be a CEO or an entrepreneur. What’s right for you might not be right for other people.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
https://www.instagram.com/saralgullickson/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/saragullickson/
https://twitter.com/thecbadvisors
https://www.facebook.com/TheCBAdvisors/
https://www.instagram.com/thecbadvisors/
Read the full article here.
