How To Pick The Best Supplier For Your Smoke Shop

Opening your smoke shop is such an exciting moment. Running your own business is a serious commitment and a life-changing experience. 

Still, running a business demands specific skills, tasks, and challenges along the way. This is why it’s so important to consider some things before you jump into entrepreneurial waters. 

Having a business plan and creating a budget is just a first step. You also need to think about the legal side, licenses, and registration. 

Having a smoke shop is easy, but running a successful smoke shop is an entirely different story. You will need a great location, knowledgeable staff, and straightforward ways to market your smoke stop. 

Of course, you will also need a good supplier. Finding the right supplier can be tricky if you don’t have the proper guidelines. Here is how to pick the best supplier for your smoke shop. 

Picking The Best Supplier

Having the right suppliers for your business is vital to ensure that you can deliver services and products on time. Suppliers are also responsible for setting the right price and creating quality standards. 

To have the best supplier possible, you need to yield specific steps. 

What Do You Want To Offer

Do you already know what you want to offer in your smoke shop? If so, that’s great! If not, you just need to go back to the drawing board and do more research. Think about your vision for your smoke shop:

• What do you want to sell?
• What atmosphere do you want to achieve?
• What kind of customers do you want?

By defining your ideal customer and following your vision, you will know what items specifically you want in your smoke shop.

Pro tip: Always include popular items such as wholesale weed grinders if you want to be taken seriously. Don’t miss to stock up on essential high-quality products. 

Define Your Process

Know the methods that you will use to find suitable suppliers. Decide how you will approach selected companies directly for estimates and proposals. Always allocate a time frame for conducting your suppliers’ selection process. 

1. Will you call them, email them?
2. Search them via Social media or cannabis-oriented platforms?
3. Word of mouth?

Think about what works for you the best. If you are a tech-savvy person and you want to cultivate that energy in your business, you should focus on online spaces. 

If you prefer to talk with people in person, then you should go for more traditional channels. 

Ask For Bids

It’s common in the business world to call for bids. This way, you can prepare better, plan your expenses, and have a more concrete business plan. 

Put out a call for bids according to the selection process you chose. This could be a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a Request for Quotation (RFQ).

Whatever form it is, it should include specific information, such as:

• Full detail of service/product you need
• Delivery dates
• Quantity
• Quality standards based on your criteria

Always ask bidders to provide full information on the processes they use, and if there are specifics on how they run their businesses. Ask about the stability of their raw material suppliers.

Evaluate The Bid Submissions

Once you have enough bids, you need to evaluate them. Compare each submission and focus on the criteria that you have set in the beginning. 

Check the price, delivery time, and how they communicate with you. Identify what works for you so you aren’t drawn into a situation that could harm your business anyhow. 

Also, check supplier reviews and overall performance, so you know where you stand. 

A cheat sheet on Picking the Best Supplier

1. Do your research
2. Know your market 
3. Join smoke shop online community
4. Check for supplier reviews and ratings
5. Compare suppliers