One company that runs operations, customer retention and finance for licensed dispensaries, under one contract and one point of accountability. Built by operators, Gold Standard, and a cannabis accounting partner.
New York is licensing many first-time owners who can open a store but struggle to run one profitably. Today they coordinate four separate vendors, and nobody owns the result.
The owner hires, manages and reconciles every vendor alone.
One relationship, one strategy, one monthly scorecard.
The dispensary contracts with and pays the management company. We pay the accounting firm, Gold Standard's service team and our own operators, and we answer for the result.
SOPs, inventory, purchasing, pricing, staffing, training, local marketing, executive oversight.
Loyalty programs, email and SMS, segmentation, reactivation, conversion tracking, retention reporting.
Bookkeeping, reconciliations, AP prep, monthly statements, tax and financial reporting.
Brought in and managed by us, so the owner never coordinates them.
Returning-customer frequency drops. A targeted reactivation campaign goes out.
Checks service, pricing, product availability and staff execution in the store.
Confirms whether the fix actually improved margin and profit, not just sales.
Defined packages let us serve different stores without overcommitting our people. Prices are drafts for partner discussion.
We place an experienced operator in the store as interim GM, operations, inventory, training or turnaround manager, with a set end date.
Example: client pays $12,000/month
Per store, we earn a management fee, a margin on resold accounting and CRM, and possibly a performance fee. The example below is a store doing $500K a month in net sales.
of the drafted example's profit comes from the 2% performance fee. Without it, a store contributes only $3,750 a month, which is too thin to carry overhead. Performance fees may also face New York regulatory limits, so we plan on a higher base fee and treat performance fees as upside.
| Per store, per month | Drafted base | Repriced base | Drafted + 2% fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Management fee | $10,000 | $15,000 | $10,000 |
| Accounting resale ($3K cost → $4K) | $4,000 | $4,000 | $4,000 |
| CRM resale ($1.25K cost → $2K) | $2,000 | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Performance fee (2% of $500K) | — | — | $10,000 |
| Direct costs | −$12,250 | −$12,250 | −$12,250 |
| Contribution | $3,750 · 23% | $8,750 · 42% | $13,750 · 53% |
Recommendation: equity plus a cost-based service fee (a blend of Options A and C). Every partner covers the real cost of their work, and profit is shared only through ownership, so everyone is motivated to grow the entire company.
Why not Option B (70–80% of CRM revenue to Gold Standard): it rewards growing one division's margin over the whole company, and it is easy to double-count against profit distributions.
Partner relationships, the accounting firm's clients, vendor and brand reps, and owners of underperforming stores.
A paid 2–4 week store assessment with a scorecard, designed to convert into a tier contract.
Before-and-after dashboards on sales, margin and retention from our first 3–5 clients become our case studies.
| Role | Owner |
|---|---|
| Sales lead: pipeline, pitches, closing | To be decided |
| Account lead per store: client contact, owner meetings | Operations partner assigned per store |
| CRM delivery and the customer half of the dashboard | Gold Standard |
| Financial reporting and the finance half of the dashboard | Accounting firm, reviewed by operations |
| Contracts, compliance, company admin | To be decided |
Net sales, gross margin, labor %, operating expenses, EBITDA, cash, inventory value and turns.
Transactions, average basket, units per transaction, category and product performance, sales per employee, discounts.
New vs. returning, loyalty enrollment, retention, visit frequency, lifetime value, email, SMS and reactivation results.
The monthly performance dashboard combines all three views. It is our main differentiator from a consultant or a marketing agency.
Four phases, each opened by a go/no-go gate the partners decide together. Timing is a proposal.
Several revenue streams may need Office of Cannabis Management disclosure or approval, or may not be allowed. These are questions for a New York cannabis attorney, not conclusions.
| Business risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Thin margin on base fees | Reprice the base tier; track cost per store from client one |
| Partners stretched across too many stores | Cap stores per account lead; hire field operators by Phase 3 |
| One client is a big share of revenue | 6–12 month terms with notice periods; 5+ clients before hiring ahead |
| Conflicts between competing nearby clients | Disclosure policy and territory rules in contracts |
Between the operations partners and Gold Standard, with vesting.
Equity plus cost-based fee, or another option. Gold Standard brings its real cost per store at 3, 10 and 20 stores.
Confirm the repriced base (about $15K management fee for a Growth store) or another target contribution per store.
Hold until counsel answers the legal checklist.
Who leads sales, and what partners earn for bringing in clients.
Where CRM ends and ops-led marketing (social, events, local outreach) begins, so no work is duplicated.
Who funds formation, legal review and the first months of overhead, and which attorney we hire.
Recurring management revenue first. Then systems, data, relationships and reputation. Then, where it is legal and makes sense, a stake in the stores we help improve.