We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alisha Gallegos. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alisha below.
Alisha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
The idea began when I saw a need in public spaces for a consumption area. Most public venues have a smoking area for tobacco, but they did not have one for cannabis. Living in Colorado I discovered there is a need when I am seeing public consumption happening everywhere. I wanted to mitigate this experience and make a legal area so that we are protecting the public as well as providing a space for cannabis consumption. I first toyed with the idea of a pop-up tent, but per rules and regulations this is not a feasible way to regulate.. I then explored the idea of what I could do and researched a business with licenses available within the cannabis. Space., I discovered there was a mobile hospitality business license, and got to work meeting all the criteria necessary to obtain the license and create a mobile bus that met all rules and regulations to legally operate.. it has taken a year and a half to get licensed and then we have been operational for a year. We are seeing some great responses, but we are also only business license number five in the state of Colorado and the idea and the use of a consumption bus is still a concept that we are trying to implement and bring awareness to . We are fighting a bit of a uphill battle with the public and lack of accountability in public consumption. We would like to work with the city and county of Denver Excise and licensing and the Denver police department in mitigating public consumption practices and set a precedent of responsible consumption at event venues and in public spaces. This will keep in tact public safety. We have worked really hard to be compliant and legal and pride ourselves on that. We have put in hard work and research of laws rules and regulations that help us to remain compliant. We are proud that we can provide a legal space and a concept that is necessary in the state of Colorado. We are trailblazing a new safe and legal way to consume in public spaces.
Alisha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I came into the cannabis space after discovering a social equity program that the city and state were implementing within cannabis businesses. I did not have direct cannabis experience at that time, but did take a 10 week Technical assistance program through the color of cannabis. However, I have a multitude of experiences in business areas That have helped me to acquire a variety of skill sets such as organization, communication, and customer service. We are proud to say that our business is female and Hispanic owned. And diversity and inclusion is a top priority Our business and our brand prides ourselves that we are customer service oriented. We are in the hospitality business and we want to ensure that all of our customers are having a great experience on our consumption bus. We have a hostess that serves in the back of the bus during consumption and they interact with our customers to enhance their experience. I think that our consumption bus is a great addition and a unique niche in the event space. There are not that many hospitality buses out there so we have the opportunity to create an implement this idea of responsible consumption in public spaces..
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
Funding a cannabis business is very difficult. From the get-go in order to become licensed, there is a multitude of licensing fees, and application fees, as well as in specific for my business having the actual physical bus purchased and renovated that met and complied with all rules and regulations. This funding came out of my own funds of my savings. I had to go through several bank processes as they continue to shut me down, even though I’m an ancillary business to the cannabis industry I had to have licenses and insurances prior to being operational. This caused an extreme amount of funds spent you cannot get alone as easily as you could on just a business loan and there are very few things that will even try to get you funded. There are several other areas to access capital but proved again to be difficult being in the cannabis space. Thankfully, the cannabis business office has offered two rounds of grants. I wrote and was awarded a grant last year and applied again this year. This has helped supplement the cost of operations while we start to market. It is overwhelmingly expensive to start a cannabis business
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Being in the cannabis, business industry has proved that you have to Have resilience. The rules and regulations change frequently. I have had to be resilient and learning how to pivot when I have standard operating procedures in place and they have to change. There’s a lot of compliance. Sometimes when you’re out of compliance, you have to problem solve and figure out a different solution. There are many obstacles that pop up when you’re dealing with regulatory agencies and state agencies. In my business building and operations over the last three years, I run into obstacles with operating procedures on a monthly basis so I have to really Put in the time in the effort to pick myself back up and start again.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.cannaCabanaBus.com
- Instagram: @ccabanabus
