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If you aren’t taking advantage of community groups or professional communities you are missing out.  While it is impossible to join and participate in every community out there, having a good active hand in a couple communities can make a huge impact on your business.   From knowledge and resources from other members, to recommendations and networking,  getting your name known in the community or industry provides invaluable benefits.  We meet up with Dan Foote who share some stories of how he has gained business and made connections through the communities he has joined. 

Video Transcriptions

Harry Brelsford 

A 420MSP back with the Alaskan Dan Foote of Dan Tech Services How you doing this cold up there? Dan what’s going on?

Dan Foote 

Yeah, it’s cold up here we’re in, we’re well into our second week of, of marginally double digit temperatures usually single digit and below zero. And we had snow last night which is nice, which is why we’re back up into the almost double digit temps you know, get that little cloud cover and it makes a big difference. But it’s a it’s beautiful. It’s a, but it’s called it suits. You know, you just bide your time.

Harry Brelsford 

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, so. So we’re on the 420 MSP side. And I want to just discover with you, you said your clients expanding secret gardens, you and I met there what’s going on?

Dan Foote 

Yeah, well, they’re in the process of doing a build out into the, into large space in their building where they’re going to be adding more cultivation space and, and processing space. And so we’re, we’re, we design the the camera layout, and pretty soon we’ll be laying cable for the new cameras and and we’re at one point, we were going to put the the NVR in the switch for that end of the building up in one of those new rooms, we’re actually moving it downstairs to get it away from all the kerf and oils and dust and, and such that just choke systems to death, you know, it’s just not good for electronics. So, you know, we’ve had some fun looking at how we’re going to going to build that out. Pretty exciting for James and his team. And hopefully, within two, two and a half months, they’ll be all ready to start utilizing that space. The build out should only take another six weeks. Maybe Yeah.

Harry Brelsford 

So how is the city of man courage to work with, you know, you hear in other cities, for example, the city of Bainbridge Island was hard to work with, in permitting and all that good about that.

Dan Foote 

It’s, it’s tough. It’s it is a challenge to for the processing and the permitting. And then, you know, nowadays, there’s such a hands off attitude with due to the pandemic that they’ll give you an approval based on the plans. And then they come back and they of course reserve the right to make changes. So we’ve actually stocked up on a couple extra cameras and there are laying in a couple extra cables here and strategically laying in some cables to allow us to add cameras if needed. And we kind of almost expected you know, we can give it the best coverage that we can and they’ll see something different.

Harry Brelsford 

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that would be the the traditional cannabis regulators, right, you’re dealing with different regulatory bodies, I think in the city of a building permit department, but now you’re, you’re talking about the compliance regulators.

Dan Foote 

It’s it’s both sides. The the it’s interesting on the zoning compliance side, they are doing a lot of things literally virtually. At our residence, we had our boiler replaced a couple months ago. And the contractor literally took pictures to send to zoning compliance. And they didn’t didn’t even come on site to inspect. So how, how much that plays out into the commercial space? A little unsure, but but it is. Everything is yeah, we have virtual doctor’s appointments with virtual mental health appointments. Well, we’ve been doing virtual it for as long as we’ve been in business which far precedes the pandemic. So you know, we’re rapidly evolving into a virtual world

Harry Brelsford 

Yeah, yeah, we are. Hey quickly, you’re doing some I’m gonna call them touches into the community which which I think is sets an important example you have had a conversation with a forensic accounting firm that’s interested in cannabis you’ve you’ve coached or talk to another IT provider interested in cannabis quickly what What’s going on there? Cuz I think people need to understand you got to, you got to kind of do this bizdev reach out stuff that only benefits everybody.

Dan Foote 

The the forensic accounting firm is a team out of New Mexico, which is just, I guess, just now legalized here recently. And she sees this need for the business space that has a lack of knowledge in the accounting principles to come up to speed. And so and she’s seeing that need in the cannabis space. And I think she’s actually quite right, we see, we see the need for good accounting principles. Or even better yet, good legal advice. Given that some people don’t understand what a contract is, that’s another story. But, you know, it’s, it’s, I think she’s right on with what she’s looking to do. And she’s talking about maybe looking at Alaska as a possibility. And I couldn’t agree with her more, you know, especially if you’re looking to build a business to sell. And she’s, she says that she’s got experience, both with taking businesses to market for resale, and also taking businesses to market as a, you know, a stock interest or an IPO. So she sounds like she’s got a lot of really interesting experiences. And we’ll see where that goes. But as always, when I’m working with companies like her or a gentleman that ping me said, he met me at a conference here a couple years ago. He was asking about, you know, camera systems for cannabis space. And so I gave him my thoughts and what we use and then also pitched like, I always do, I pitched 420 MSP, how about that, and also RSPA. And, you know, let people know that there is a really good solid community out here of professionals, interested participants, service providers, and you people looking to find that next adventure in life. And, you know, if I can at least give a hint of some guidance, great and you know, if they choose not to listen, oh, well, you know, but but I know that it’s, it’s been really good for us, having these communities where I can, at a minimum, just listen to what’s going on, and even more importantly, to be involved in and share our experiences and get feedback from others on on ideas that we’ve got. All right.

Harry Brelsford 

Well make that the the bottom line. Thank you, sir.

Dan Foote 

My pleasure, Harry, it’s good to talk to you.