How Can I Start My Own CBD Company?
by Rowan Bailey
How can I start my own CBD Company?
It’s no secret that we started the business with next to nothing and managed to build it up to where it is today learning as we go. We are forever being asked about how we started, how did we learn it all, where did we find suppliers, what legalities have to be covered etc.
So I figured it made sense to do a summary on here for those of you looking to get into the CBD industry with a few tips and some info on how we can now actually help you launch your own brand and line of products!
So what do you need to launch a CBD Business?
We’ll get to your products, branding and more soon but first things first!
Compliance:
Firstly, you’re going to need to understand the rules and regulations of the industry and ensure that you are compliant. I would write them here, but as i can’t update this on a monthly basis, chances are it could be outdated by the time you read it. So you need to do your own Due Diligence to ensure your products are legal and safe for your customers to use! Whats the best way to find out what these are? Your local council will have a trading standards officer and other relevant departments if you’re manufacturing your products. These are the front line to ensure products are legal on the market, if you have a non compliant product, these are the people who will tell you to remove it from sale. So don’t be scared of them, before releasing anything reach out to them, inform them of your plans and you can even send through labels to be checked!
Liabilities:
When you’re producing a food or cosmetic product, it’s vital that you take your customers safety seriously, this is more relevant than ever with the current pandemic. However, accidents happen or issues during transit can cause problems that are outside of your control. So you need to ensure that you are protected, but also your customers are in case of an issue. Having the right kind of insurance is vital.
A way to sell them!
This sounds obvious right? Well we thought so too until our card payment system was pulled from under us whilst our physical shop was open with no warning…
Yep that’s right, card processors aren’t all too happy with taking payments for CBD.
Paypal? Forget it! Shopify payments? Nope!
But don’t worry that doesn’t mean you cant take payments! You just need to find a payment provider that is happy to process CBD payments that also have an integration for the online shopping platform you’ll be using such as shopify.
As an example, we use Shopify to host our website, they don’t accept CBD Payments via their own payment system so we have to use a third party, in our case ‘Viva Wallet’
Products
Alright alright i’ll get on with the main thing you’ve been thinking about, your products, your brand!
So how do you go about getting your own products to launch? Well there are a few different ways, so i’ll break them down starting with the easiest:
White Label:
Some of you will already know what ‘White Label’ products are, but for those who don’t. This is where a company who already produce products that you want offer to produce them for you with your label on instead of theirs!
Why is White Labelling so popular?
It’s incredibly popular for a few key reasons. Firstly it takes all product development out of your hands and means that you don’t have to wait for this phase as the company offering the product have already done this. Secondly the company will have (Ok perhaps i should write SHOULD* have) put their product through the relevant legalities such as safety assessments and manufacturing them to a high GMP standard. Thirdly you can get a product/ range of products on the market with your own branding far cheaper than doing so yourself from scratch. So with that money you’ve saved you can put it into ad campaigns, promotional materials or a broader range of products! Lastly, some white label companies will work with you to develop a product from scratch, meaning you can still have a unique product on the market, but with the peace of mind that it has still been put through all the correct legalities and is safe to begin selling!
Where to find white label CBD products?
Well look no further because we offer CBD White Labeling! We can produce anything from topicals, vapeables and edibles in our carbon neutral lab here in Pembrokeshire! If you'd like to hear more, you can reach out here: consultancy@infinity-cbd.co.uk
Product Development from scratch:
This is a much more involved process but for many this is what they want to do because they want full control from start to finish! After all, this is how we did it!
In order to do this there is a wide range of things you need to be aware of, rather than going in depth with every point i’ll highlight some key things you’ll need to know:
CPSRS/ Safety Assessments: If you are making any kind of cosmetic/ topical product then it has to be put through a Safety Assessment before being legally put on the market. This is to ensure the safety of your customer, as well as to protect your business by ensuring that your products are in fact safe to release.
Novel Food: Now this is something that has been plastered everywhere with varying degrees of accuracy over the past year or so. Essentially, any food product containing CBD has to have been put through a novel food registration. This process isn’t cheap and when the industry started booming here in the UK this wasn’t available, so it isn’t as easy to get into the edibles side (that includes CBD Drops!) as it was before. It isn’t cheap getting these products novel food
registered and can be prohibitive to many who are starting out.
Research MG/Gram ratios and blending practices for your products. It’s one thing learning how to create a beautiful whipped body butter, it’s an entirely different thing to learn how to make the whip density perfect every time so that your products always come out the same weight and in turn the exact same CBD dosage. Don’t take this for granted as a big part of this industry is trust, so if you get this wrong and a lab test comes back showing your product is massively under the claimed potency then it will cause you problems!
If you decide to go down this route then as always we are happy to help and guide you through the process as best we can, so by all means reach out to us to find out more!
Best of luck with your venture, and if you are looking for a white label CBD supplier then we’d love to start working with you! So hopefully you’re no longer thinking ‘ How can i start my own CBD company?’ anymore, but asking when!