On top: Marcus and Rachael Quinn with their children at Your CBD Store, the franchise they founded in 2018, now with over 500 units.
Rachael Quinn struggled with the pain of Crohn’s disease for years, with side effects from her original prescription drugs worse than the disease itself, she says. Then he found relief from CBD oil, derived from hemp with only small amounts of THC, and found a new calling.
Today, Your CBD Store has over 500 units in the system co-founded by Quinn and her husband, Marcus. “When I opened this store in 2018, CBD was not very well known. I took out a small personal loan, researched CBD, did everything I thought I could do to make the business successful. I was very passionate,” she recalled . “At the time it was the only store in town that sold CBD,” in Bradenton, Florida, “educating people about it. It was an amazing experience.”
Your CBD store now has competitors around every corner. “It’s sold on websites, gas stations,” he acknowledged. Martha Stewart designed a line exclusive to The Vitamin Shoppe. Franny’s Farmacy, Carolina Hemp Company and CBD American Shaman are all competitors and franchises.
Their mission has also changed. “Now the passion is to bring the highest quality CBD to people … with transparency, education behind the product and clinical data,” he said. “CBD works for so many people for so many different things, so that’s what makes it so special.” He cited the Veterans 22 Initiative, in which CBD is used to treat PTSD and other conditions facing military veterans, as a promising project.
“The information we have now makes it much easier to understand the product, to understand the different cannabinoids that can work in your system for different things. You can identify what goes where, what can help where and why.”
Marcus Quinn, managing director of Your CBD Store, recalls a chaotic rise after opening his first store. “It really took off. By the time we finished 2019 we had over 500 stores open or in the pipeline,” Marcus said. “We had 500 signed deals and we were growing very fast.”
Part of the credit goes to a crucial decision made early on, somewhat by accident. “The biggest blessing I had, one of many, in the beginning, before we had a building, I needed help with social media,” Marcus recalled. “I was looking for someone on Craigslist to help me and I got a request from a guy who has a PhD in analytical chemistry and worked in the CBD industry.”
His first hire was Dr. Anthony Ferrari, now the retailer’s chief scientific officer, who leads all of the company’s research initiatives, with the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Florida, among others.
“I’m definitely not a scientist and I don’t have any training in botany, but I feel like I’m aware of what’s going on,” Marcus said, because of Ferrari’s work and their frequent conversations. “That was going out on a limb,” at the time. “You’re hiring a guy who was a lot more than I thought he needed.”
Your CBD Store had 510 locations as of Spring 2022, 295 of which were franchise locations, all selling their proprietary SunMed product line. The investment cost for a Your CBD store ranges from $55,000 to $70,000, which includes inventory and some working capital.
Rachael oversees sales strategies and training, as well as owning and operating four stores. “I’m able to give real life, actually what’s going on out there, because our customers are our franchisees and our store owners,” he said.
Marcus said his franchise’s biggest competitor is CBD American Shaman, but he believes Your CBD Store sets itself apart in product development and “in the science and clinical trials and that aspect, working with universities, doing studies. I think that because we’ve invested significant amounts of money in these things, as time goes on, they all start to come to fruition.”
“I think we’re literally at the beginning of really unlocking all the different components of this amazing plant,” he said, with strains that “help you lose weight and others that help you relax and that help you concentrate,” he said. . “My favorite part of this industry is developing products and researching what’s going on and how we can help people.”
But at first, “It was crazy, to be honest with you. It was a lot of work, a lot of weekends, a lot of constant work. Although at the time, the kids were 5 and 7. They were helping us pack” .
So free child labour? “Yeah, the best,” he said with a laugh. “We had everyone in my family: my brother, my sister-in-law, my brother-in-law, my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law’s mother-in-law. We had everyone, everyone on deck for quite some time.”
