Dude, it's more about who you know than what you know. It might take some time to get plugged in enough to start selling your wares. Even then, introductory prices because it's not like California has any shortage of other entrepreneurs like yourself. To say the Cali med scene is flooded is an understatement. Clubs buy pounds at under $2,000 on the regular and sell it all at outrageous prices. A club I visited in Santa Cruz CA sold all their bud by the eighth, and at $65 for the highs. An ounce purchase came with a 10% savings... so $475 for an ounce... They claim to be non-profits and the whole thing out there is about to implode.
In cities like San Jose drug dealers with stores are getting busted left and right. Anyone operating at an obvious profit these places are going to wind up ruining the community and the message. Selecting who you do business with is going to make all the difference in the long run. You want to work with a collective that protects its growers, pays them well, and operates above board. Meet with their lawyer, get your own, ask questions!!!
Before you can get to that point you have to prove yourself as a reputable grower by producing some fine product and networking in the community. Reputable dispensaries, the kind you want to be working with to protect yourself, have high standards regarding how the plants were grown. Organics will carry a higher price if you show the club your organic process and that can set your stuff apart from the mountains of Hydro they'll have this March. This summers weather was a great year for California outdoor and the extra pounds really add up across the state. There's no shortage of organic outdoor from October to January.
So... Let us assume you get the right place to grow, you get your license, and you get in contact with the right club or distributer. What do I think you could make, per year, growing the maximum amount of plants with a reasonable amount of overhead? $100,000 a year legitimately after covering trimming, utilities, media, and nutrient costs on the average. That'd be 3 harvests of 99 plants at 1/4lbs per plant indoor organic at $2,500 a lbs. You'd probably need to employ someone else, and then there are lawyer costs. I mean, ultimately, at the end of the day, I think you should be happy to take home an honest paycheck in excess of $60,000.
Doing everything above ground has its costs and limits. Incorporating a large 99 plant outdoor grow could allow for hundreds of pounds that could increase overall profits while providing medicine at lower prices. Then again, mold, mites, or any other number of unforeseeable disasters could destroy a crop and cost thousands of dollars.
Factor in the cost of set up... And you'd need to make sure that you have a lot of money saved up to begin with. I'd say this is a $100,000 minimum investment to cover housing, supplies, and your living expenses, without seeing any return for at least 1 year. You could spend more or less, but personally, I'd make sure I had $100K laying around before schlepping across the country to try and get plugged in.
