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The wrong way to handle small business accounting
Last night I finished the messiest and most stressful small business accounting job ever encountered in a 30+ year career. They will keep their bank financing, but at enormous personal cost to all of us. I just finished billing a bad stress-filled accounting job that took most of my time for the past two weeks.…
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Looking past decriminalization
This coming week our federal legislature will take up a bill to decriminalize cannabis. Most states, including ours, are attempting similar measures. But my form’s focus isn’t on these proceedings. In fact, we have little confidence in the near term outcome. That timeline really doesn’t matter in the big picture. What we know is that…
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Eight Inconvenient Truths About the Cannabis Industry (that nobody is talking about)
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November 2019 update on cannabis in NJ
Here’s where we are with the insanity and injustice of cannabis law in our part of New Jersey right now. The state’s next dispensary will open in about a month here in Vineland. Initially the facility will be open for training; its locally grown cannabis supply won’t be available until next year. The facility is…
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Eight Inconvenient Truths About the Cannabis Industry (that nobody is talking about)
CPAs in the cannabis industry are not being candid, honest and straightforward in talking about the cannabis industry. While I’m not suggesting that there are any easy corrections available for current positions, I do think that it makes sense for us to address the facts directly and honestly.1 A headline in a CPA newsletter today…
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Cannabis banking bill passed by House
Today the U.S. The House of Representatives passed a cannabis reform bill for the first time. The new law would permit cannabis businesses to access banking and financial services. The bill passed in a vote of 321-103. A total of 230 Democrats voted in favor of the bill while 91 Republicans also voted for the legislation.…
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Federal cannabis banking law introduced
This coming week the U.S. House of Representatives will introduce H.R. 1595, the SAFE Banking Act of 2019 that is intended to legalize cannabis banking. The bill has already cleared the Financial Services Committee and is expected to be voted on through a process known as ‘suspension of the rules’ that requires two-thirds of the…
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The role of the CFO in the marijuana business
The role of the small business Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is typically described in four distinct functions. I describe my own CFO role as filling five functions in the emerging marijuana industry. #1 Recordkeeping The CFO has primary responsibility to assemble, safeguard, manage and store the financial records of the company. This basic but necessary…
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Caution with CBD products
(hold for CBD banner advertisement photo) I talked with two local small business owners this weekend who recently started marketing CBD products in their shops. One is a local health food drink maker and the other primarily markets beauty products. Both were completely unaware of the risks they take in selling CBD products. They are…
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Sara’s advice for entrepreneurs
My business relationship with Sara Rosenberg, the Connector-in-Chief, is one of my greatest blessings. This excerpt is taken from one of her recent social media post as a sample of why I say this: “When you’re first starting out, and money is tight (or let’s be real, non-existent), you can do the following things for…