Cannabis Lottery Winner Speaks
Entrepreneur Fought Deadlines, Regulations, and Death Threats – LPC
Cannabis lottery winner Steven Fry gives an intriguing behind-the-scenes look at what running a cannabis store in Hamilton, Ont. is really like. Fry, who describes himself as an entrepreneur, entered the Ontario cannabis licence lottery on a whim.
“The entry requirements were ridiculously low: 75 bucks and an email address. No experience required. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory stuff,” Fry wrote in his Toronto Life article.
But once he won, the cannabis lottery winner found that running the business was a lot harder. Fry became an instant celebrity, and people from across Canada tried to get in on his cannabis business.
“I hated those early talks,” he wrote. “No one was interested in the fact that I’m a competent businessperson…. I was just a commodity – lottery meat.”
That was just the beginning. At some points, you feel he wondered whether being a cannabis lottery winner was worth it. Securing a $50,000 line of credit in five days for a cannabis business was harder than he thought. Landlords jacked up the rent and sometimes wanted a piece of the business. But he found a location and spent $400,000 in renovations. It wasn’t fast enough though, and he was fined $12,500 for not opening by April 1.
“It was brutally unfair, I thought, to set up these impossible conditions and penalize us for failing to meet them, but I kept going.”
Cannabis Lottery Winner Not the Same as Cannabis Store Owner – LPC
Fry partnered with High Tide under the Canna Cabana banner because of its Jimmy Buffet vibe and reasonable partnership terms. The arrangement meant he had full control of the store, something he liked – at first. But the staff were working 14-hour days on the floor and then doing inventory at close every night. Two managers quit within weeks. Staffing was usually anyone he could find. Fry received death threats as well. It didn’t help that he had a job and and a family and a new baby on the way.
Still, he had it easier than others. Fry tells of some cannabis lottery winners who “sold their soul” to bigger companies, working all the hours for 10% of the profits. One winner has yet to open a store. Fry’s entrepreneurial skills and management experience helped him, but even then he was overwhelmed. He could only imagine what those with less business experience were going through.
“That’s one of the problems with the low bar of a lottery. You get a mixed bag of winners: some were businesspeople, others weren’t built for commerce,” he wrote.
He has since opened a new consulting business, Sessions Cannabis, to help cannabis lottery winners from the latest lottery navigate the system and avoid the mistakes he and others have made. Read Fry’s entire article in Toronto Life by clicking the link below.
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