Do you have the right stuff to be a stellar budtender; a star employee at a marijuana dispensary, or a cannabis store? Do you enjoy empowering clients by helping them discover the products that fulfill their needs? Are you enthusiastic about keeping up with the latest emerging market trends? Interested in forming interpersonal liaisons with local growers? Do you take pride in keeping the store or dispensary an inviting, professional, and welcoming space? If so, then you have the talents to thrive in this growing career! Sure, budtending is one of the most fun jobs you can score, but the foundation is the desire to care for people.
A Budding Career Path
Cannabis is a crucial business in the United States. You can make a budtending position anything you want it to be: an entry-level job where you focus on community, working behind the scenes helping to discover new products, or creating via manufacturing or marketing.
Budtending is rooted in helping people discover and access quality cannabis products that enhance well-being, assisting people in finding what works for them, whether medically or recreationally. You also get to develop your own informed opinion on the best concentrates 2020.
Training
Budtender training may be helpful in acquiring knowledge and confidence. However, it’s not required to break into the industry. What is essential is that a great budtender should always be eager to discover new information and offer the client that knowledge in a kind and professional manner.
Your journey begins by discovering and analyzing your budtending strengths and style and learning how to share your knowledge about marijuana with clients. Budtenders help people with various issues, from relaxing and health care to understanding dabs thc percent.
How to Be a Stellar Budtender
There are many paths to take to be a fantastic budtender, whether you’re an autodidact (if you know that word, there’s a good chance that’s your road) or prefer certificates, college, or on-the-job training.
To begin, explore content like Quora, Reddit, and YouTube for fun, free, and accessible information. Then there are aids like Leafly’s Cannabis 101 to help to familiarize yourself with everyone’s favorite weed, including tips for enjoying marijuana, CBD products, and best dabs.
Certificates
Certifications are OK, but they aren’t mandatory. But you knew that, right? So, to bastardize The Treasure of the Sierra Madres, “We don’t need no stinkin’ certificates!”
You must care about the bud business and the best way to help individuals who enter your establishment. That said, Portlandia does a great skit about certificates: Certificates look good, they build confidence and contacts, and they’re fun to collect.
College for Knowledge
Budtending is usually an entry-level position. However, it can lead to opportunities for advancement. You can mold your education based upon your area of interest, experience, and expertise.
If you want to study the cannabis plant and the industry in-depth, consider the offerings of a traditional two- or four-year college experience, where there are many areas to explore. For instance, you can study at the recently established Harrington Institute at Cleveland School of Cannabis, which pivots on providing equitable access to the industry’s many branches.
Some ideas for areas of study that could help provide a foundational understanding of the marijuana business and entrepreneurial fields include biomedical and biological sciences, botany, agriculture, industry, and marketing/advertising.
Offerings like these provide a complete, systematic learning experience, providing a foundation for a career that can grow from superstar budtender — and beyond, for all we know.
A Legal Weed State of Mind
Yes, Felicia, cannabis must be medically or recreationally legal in your state to fulfill the dream of being a budtender at a legal dispensary.
As has been said about real estate and romantic affairs, it’s all about location, location, location. Your state influences your responsibilities as a bodacious budtender, which differ locally, with medical and recreational applications. If you work in a venue that allows only medical dispensaries? Then you’ll work with cannabis products and interact with clients from a strictly medicinal perspective.
Job duties may range from providing knowledgeable, fact-based information on products, taking responsibility for safekeeping patients’ health information, and assisting individuals in understanding the properties of flowers, edibles, concentrates, topicals, CBD goods, and other products.
Being a budtender is a heady responsibility and an excellent career option. The best budtenders are focused on helping people by sharing knowledge about the plant. To that end, continuously discovering, learning, and listening are ways to grow in this flourishing industry.