benchmarking you
against your competition
The dirt
A benchmarking service can best be described as "How do I stack up against my competitors?". As the "Green Rush" continues to explode, business and industry data for the north american cannabis markets continues to get more robust and reliable. Third party data suppliers are providing wholesale cannabis prices for both public and private companies. This is excellent news for everyone in the cannabis industry - more financial, business and industry data is going to help us make better decisions for our own companies. Comparing market data against your own company's performance via a benchmarking exercise will assist in bringing transparency and efficiency into your organization. Many cannabis companies would prefer to do their own thing; follow their own vision, irregardless of what their competitors may be executing on. While the cannabis industry will continue to rely on trailblazers to set the trends, companies who are unable to identify what they do better than the market run the risk of eventually losing their competitive advantage. Furthermore, the mergers and acquisitions activity in the cannabis industry is picking up at a rapid speed. As your regional competitors evolve through organic growth, capital infusion and business combinations, it stays increasingly important to understand your place in the market place.
Specific benchmarking services we offer:
+ Sales and Gross Profit Benchmark
Sales and sales growth is what is driving the cannabis industry in the current climate. Investors are expecting large returns (eventually) but for now, they will settle on incredible year over year growth in sales. In addition to raw sales numbers, we musn't forget that even the extremely well funded will run out of money eventually if their gross profits do not meet expectations. Many of our clients are excited to get their hands on their competitors sales data and have us analyze how they stack up by gross sales, product lines, division of a new leaf, wholesale prices etc.
+ Full Profit & Loss Benchmark
While many clients are mostly interested in price assessments of their products compared to other market participants, it is important to consider all aspects of your organization. A full scale profit & loss benchmark engagement will tackle every single line item and produce an analysis against your competitors. As you can imagine, many important questions about organizational efficiency are addressed here including headcount, G&A expenses, interest vs equity financing etc. The end result of such an engagement will give management a clear picture as to where they stand in the market and what areas are in need of an improvement.
+ Benchmarking by Division, Geography
For larger organizations, it may make sense to benchmark your activity by business activity or geography. After all, the regulatory requirements for a dispensary in Massachusetts is quite a bit different then in California. Multi state operators will see better results by splitting their organization up and then benchmarking each individual division. This will truly enable management to understand where the strong and weak points of the organization lie.
+ Why Choose Green Books
Greenbooks is ready to assist you in finding how you benchmark against the industry. Each benchmarking engagement will differ depending on the size of your firm and your desired scope. For example, a small time cultivator in Massachusetts should compare its desired metrics against other small time cultivators in Massachusetts. A large, multi-state distribution company may need to parse out the organization by product line and then again by geography to get a meaningful comparison. Whatever analysis is needed, our CPAs are equipped with the industry knowledge and tools to get to the final result.
Take a look:
Benchmarking your organization among competitors is an important step to taking your business to the next level. One of the most common benchmarks our clients ask to perform is how profitable they are by product type against their competitors. The below viz shows how a multi-state operator is performing against competitors; try playing with the Product Category to get an idea of where they should focus their efforts.
