Autumn Shelton is a partner and CFO of Autumn Brands, a 50 percent woman-owned cannabis business located in Santa Barbara County, California. Autumn oversees the company’s financials and is in charge of legal compliance on the local and state levels, this includes, but is not limited to, ordinances, regulations, packaging, permits, and licensing.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Autumn’s Inlaws
When business started difficulties overcame:
“understanding this new marketplace of how we had to then sell to distributors, we couldn’t just sell to a retailer or sell to a dispensary any more we had to find a distributor, a middleman that could take this on for us. And unfortunately, in the beginning of 2018 most distributors were not ready and it kind of made a little worried that we were going to be able to find somebody that could sell our product. Luckily I had planned for it and I had saved money but after about four months we all of a sudden started getting courted and right by distributors and then it was just a matter of who do we go with and who do we use”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organizaion Book by John WoodenFavourite Quote:
“Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.” Jack Canfield
Recommended Online Resources:
Google – Search the world’s information, including webpages, images, videos and more. Google has many special features to help you find exactly what you’re looking for…
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“I think in order to succeed as an entrepreneur you really have to be prepared financially and mentally for the challenges ahead. Don’t just jump into the business and hope for the best. Definitely talk to others in your industry that you are going into. Find out what their challenges and successes were. Be frugal in the beginning don’t try to go make some fancy office or systems, really live within the means or the finances that you have available to you. And if possible, have a secondary income source so that you are not just depending on this because you get one good sale you think that you are going to be on your way but it doesn’t always work out that way. So really just been in mind frame that when you start a business a slow and steady journey and not necessarily just straight up”…[Listen for More]
More About Autumn Shelton:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“People are best convinced by things they themselves discover.” Ben Franklin
Other Quotes From the Chat with Autumn Shelton:
- “I’m not afraid to fail because I always learn and grow from it”
- “if there is one thing, I should have done earlier it is to hire strong or stronger talent to supporters at the executive level. This definitely would have reduced a lot of stress and freed up a lot of time to focus on more strategic items than the day-to-day business”
- “I think our biggest mistake was not doing it sooner, not packaging our product, not taking that leap and just trying it out and seeing what the consumer liked so that we had a little bit earlier of a hold and they growth of the brand and the name itself”
- “when we started we didn’t go and buy the fanciest of equipment, upgrade everything, we utilised all the resources that we already had and grew within our means and this really allowed us to continue on this path and grow the business at a rate that was reasonable and state financially funded”
- “it’s important to research and practice knowledge in order to learn and apply new skills”
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