Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jennifer Beck. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jennifer, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

One thing I’ve learned on my entrepreneurial journey is that going from idea to execution looks very different depending on the business model. When we started Cannabase, the first online wholesale marketplace in the legal cannabis industry, we utilized the Lean Startup model of iterative development. We started small with a barebones app and a handful of influential beta users, then developed the software based on how users were engaging and the client feedback we received. Most recently, when we began our business and technology consulting firm Morphosis Studios, we just dove into our clients’ projects – supporting their success however they needed us to – and allowed the structure to follow.

Jihi, our luxury wellness brand, is a product-based business, so bringing the idea to execution was a dance between brand development, R&D (product research and development), and manufacturing. A product-based business is much less nimble than an app or service-based company – you live with your product design specs (or in our case, packaging and formulations) for a long time, and you’re beholden to your inventory and the amount you spent on it (your cost of goods). We spent the first two years of Jihi in simultaneous customer discovery, branding/creative design, product development and logistics before it all came together for launch.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Our business, Jihi, is a high end body care line that integrates high quality CBD, with spa-grade skincare and a delicious sleep tincture. Our goal is to help high performing people sleep deeper, recover faster, and discover their most vibrant inner and outer glow. Our brand’s mission to promote true wellness from the inside out feels more important and relevant than ever, and we’re so grateful for the community that embraces Jihi and brings it to life.

Our last company, Cannabase, was an electronic wholesale platform in the legal cannabis market. We were pioneers in data aggregation and market analytics, connecting growers with dispensaries across in newly legalized markets. We sold the platform to Helix TCS (now Forian, Inc) in 2016, and it was rolled into a leading cannabis point of sale tracking system, BioTrack THC.

Building and selling Cannabase was a thrilling, challenging adventure. We got a ton of insight into sourcing, extraction, and manufacturing which we applied to the 2 year R&D process that went into Jihi’s debut product line. Cannabis is heavily regulated, but CBD is not yet regulated. By applying our knowledge of best practices to the design and development of our CBD products, we believe we are setting a standard for compliance, quality and results.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

Some entrepreneurs begin what we call “lifestyle businesses” – these businesses pay the bills, give owners a day job without a boss, and help bring the business owners’ vision to life. The problem is, without designing these businesses to grow or sell, they can become a relentless treadmill with the pressures of entrepreneurship without the benefits of a stable job.

What we learned selling Cannabase was the value of our internal systems, like our customer database and the market analytics we’d generated, as well as the intellectual property and assets (technology and otherwise) we’d developed and protected.

Today I’m passionate about businesses that do both – provide a meaningful work experience, as well as the opportunity to exit and capitalize on the things that were developed during the lifespan of the company. Today, in addition to Jihi, I work with an incredible team of experienced consultants at Morphosis Studios to strategize and implement lucrative, sellable processes to startups and emerging businesses. This is work I’m hugely passionate about and has helped create a powerful community of entrepreneurs around Jihi and myself that give me so much hope about the world we’re building together.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

Jihi’s primary distribution channel is selling directly through our website, which is a Shopify website. The benefits of Shopify are that it’s easy to use, has great performance, and is a content management system (CMS) and e-commerce management platform rolled into one. However, Shopify isn’t set up to support as much content as we hoped to include on our website. As an e-commerce platform, Shopify is designed around product content and has room for a bit of blogging. We know, however, how key SEO is to generating leads over the longterm, and we had a vision for Jihi that was heavily content-based.

In order to bring this vision to life on the Shopify platform, our site has required custom development to increase the content available throughout the website and to support our free audio meditation library. Thankfully, we have a sophisticated tech team at Morphosis Studios that has continued to update our Shopify capabilities as the Jihi brand has evolved, allowing us to maintain the benefits and ease of use without stifling the growth of the brand and its vision.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Jihi.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myjihi/