Types of Cannabis Consulting Services, by Business Stage
The main types of cannabis consulting, as ten core services and four kinds of specialist work, each with what you receive, typical timing and a named project. Find your stage, then the service that fits it.
A Decade of Harvesting Success - Trusted by Cannabis Operators Worldwide
Which Type of Cannabis Consulting Do You Need?
The types of cannabis consulting services fall into three groups by business stage: decisions before a license (market, money and the application), building and opening a facility, and making an operating license pay.
Each type below shows its first deliverable, its published timing and a project you can look up. Figures about Catalyst BC are company-reported and sourced at the foot of this page.
Meet Catalyst BC's Founders
-
Leif Olsen
Chief Executive Officer
-
Michael Williamson
Chief Operating Officer
-
Ian Miller
Executive Chair
Leif Olsen leads our license application engagements. Michael Williamson leads optimization work and joins any engagement that turns on cultivation capacity or facility decisions. Ian Miller leads design review on every facility project. Senior Crop Advisor Dr. Matthew Indest, PhD, and Director of Genetics & Breeding Eric Forington are named on genetics engagements, and Operations Advisor Andy Schnack implements optimization work on site.
As Featured In:
The Ten Core Services Compared: Deliverable and Timing
The table sets the ten core types of cannabis consulting side by side as separate services: who each is for, the first thing you receive, and the timing the service page publishes. Where a page publishes no timing, the table says so rather than guessing. Every row links to the full service page, with its scope, team and frequently asked questions.
| Service | Best for | What you receive first | Published timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cannabis Business Strategy Consulting | Founders and operators choosing a market, a site or an acquisition | A written market or expansion case and a cost-per-gram model | Diagnostic and model within four weeks |
| Cannabis Financial Planning & Modeling | Applicants raising capital; operators testing margin | 3–5 year P&L, cash flow and balance sheet projections | Cost-per-gram model about 3–4 weeks; full capex plan 6–8 weeks |
| Cannabis Licensing & Application Support | Applicants for cultivation, retail, manufacturing or distribution licenses | A managed application: documents, stakeholder communication and submission | Set by the state: windows generally open with 30–90 days’ notice; awards 4–12 months after submission |
| Cannabis Facility Design & HVAC / HVACD Engineering | Anyone building a dispensary, cultivation center, lab or vertically integrated facility | A free feasibility review, then a fixed design deliverable | Schematic design to permit-ready documents typically 3–6 months |
| Cannabis Startup Support | Entrepreneurs, legacy operators and investors | A master project plan, SOPs, org chart and job roles | Not published |
| Cannabis Operational Optimization | Licensed growers, processors and dispensaries | A written diagnosis of what is capping output | Change typically shows within 1–3 harvest cycles |
| Cannabis Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) | Indoor and greenhouse cultivators | Setpoint, fertigation and environmental control strategy | Not published |
| Cannabis Vertical Farming Consulting | Cultivators adding output inside the same footprint | A multi-tier canopy and microclimate plan | Not published |
| Cannabis Genetics & Cultivar Strategy | Cultivators building or repairing a strain catalog | A cultivar portfolio plan and phenohunt protocol | A phenohunt typically 9–18 months |
| Cannabis Business Turnaround & Operational Recovery | Operators facing yield collapse, failed tests or covenant pressure | A written 30-day diagnostic with cost figures | Diagnostic in 30 days; results typically 12–16 weeks |
Swipe the table sideways on a phone.
Compliant Harvests
Square Feet of Cultivation, Production, and Retail Facilities Designed
Licenses Secured
Before a License: Strategy, Finance and Applications
Three types of cannabis consulting come before anyone holds a license, and these services answer three different questions: should we do this here, can we pay for it, and can we win the license?
- Business strategy answers the first. You receive a written market or expansion case and a cost-per-gram model built from your own numbers, then a capital plan with capex sequencing. See cannabis business strategy consulting.
- Financial planning and modeling answers the second with three- to five-year projections, capex and opex by category, and pro formas timed backward from the state’s application window. See cannabis financial modeling.
- Licensing and application support answers the third: a managed, merit-scored application or RFP response, led by CEO Leif Olsen. See cannabis license application support.
The licensing record behind this work is company-reported: 58+ licenses secured for clients for cultivation, manufacturing and retail dispensaries, at a 96% competitive application success rate (licensing service page). On the planning side, the multi-year financial model at Evokanna in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, included capex for cultivation, extraction and manufacturing infrastructure.
Which pre-license service answers which question
| Your question | Service | What answers it |
|---|---|---|
| Is this market, site or acquisition worth pursuing? | Business strategy | Market or expansion case, cost-per-gram model |
| How much do we need to raise, and when does it pay back? | Financial planning | 3–5 year projections, capex and opex by category |
| Can we win this license round? | Licensing and applications | Scoring-criteria review, then the managed application |
| Will the building match the plan we submit? | Facility design | Feasibility review, then the design package |
Swipe the table sideways on a phone.
What this means for you: you can buy the answer to the first question before paying for the next two. Start with the pre-license discovery questionnaire or, if the open question is money, the capital-raising questionnaire.
Building and Opening: Facility Design, CEA and Startup
Once a license is awarded or within reach, three types of work cover the build, and a fourth, commissioning, decides whether the building performs on day one.
- Facility design. We produce the design package and provide construction administration; Executive Chair Ian Miller leads design review on every project. Schematic design through permit-ready documents typically runs three to six months. See cannabis facility design.
- Controlled environment agriculture. Setpoints, fertigation and environmental control strategy for the rooms being built, with COO Michael Williamson leading cultivation systems and Dr. Matthew Indest leading plant science and substrate strategy. See controlled environment agriculture consulting.
- Startup support. A master project plan, SOPs and work instructions, an org chart with job roles, and startup budgets. See cannabis startup consulting.
At Aether Gardens, a Nevada-licensed cultivator, extractor and manufacturer in Las Vegas, our team wrote the Basis of Design and Owner’s Project Requirements, acted as owner’s representative through construction, and ran installation, operational and performance qualification (IQ/OQ/PQ) on the systems. At Galaxy Labs, a craft cultivator in Richton Park, Illinois, our work began after the license award: pro forma and runway models, capital planning, cultivation layout, and operating procedures written to Illinois requirements, taking the founders from license award to operational launch.
Build-and-open work on named projects
| Project | Where | What our team delivered |
|---|---|---|
| Aether Gardens | Las Vegas, Nevada | Basis of Design, owner’s representation, IQ/OQ/PQ commissioning |
| Evokanna | Ashburnham, Massachusetts | Cultivation layout, C1D1 hydrocarbon and solventless extraction room design, vendor-neutral equipment evaluation |
| Bostica | Lynn, Massachusetts | Equipment selection, HVAC and fertigation validation after install, SOPs and start-up framework |
| Harborside Farms | Salinas, California | Greenhouse retrofit, construction management support for a new Venlo greenhouse, power-upgrade coordination |
| Galaxy Labs | Richton Park, Illinois | Cultivation facility design, utility demand forecasting, launch planning |
Swipe the table sideways on a phone.
What this means for you: design, environment and startup can be bought separately, but they are cheapest when one team carries the same assumptions from drawing to first harvest. If you are mid-design, the facility design and commissioning questionnaire tells us where to start.
Licensed and Operating: Yield, Genetics and Recovery
For a business that is already open, four types of cannabis consulting do most of the work, and each of these services starts by measuring before anything is sold.
- Operational optimization. You receive a written diagnosis of what is capping output before any implementation is scoped or priced. COO Michael Williamson leads, Operations Advisor Andy Schnack implements on site, and the service page says meaningful change typically shows within one to three harvest cycles. See cannabis operational optimization.
- Vertical farming. A multi-tier canopy and microclimate plan for the rooms you already have. The service page publishes average yields of 40–65 grams per square foot single-tier and 120–195 three-tier, and notes that results vary. See cannabis vertical farming consulting.
- Genetics. A strain catalog built around your business model, with phenohunting tracked against KPIs; a structured phenohunt typically takes 9 to 18 months. See cannabis genetics consulting.
- Turnaround. A written 30-day diagnostic on cultivation, cost and compliance at a fixed fee, then retainer-based implementation, with results typically in 12 to 16 weeks. See cannabis business turnaround.
Two results, both company-reported: Cultivate Holdings in Massachusetts nearly doubled its average flower yield within eight months, peaking at 109 grams per square foot, and on HEXO Corp’s 1.3 million square foot greenhouse campus in Canada average output rose 25 to 35% across key zones (HEXO Corp case study).
Specialist Work: Extraction, Dispensaries and Fractional Leadership
Directories list more types of cannabis consultants than any one firm covers. Four kinds of specialist work sit inside Catalyst BC’s core services rather than on pages of their own.
Cannabis extraction and manufacturing consulting
At Evokanna, the scope included C1D1 hydrocarbon extraction laboratory design, solventless rooms for hash and rosin, and extraction equipment selection for both methods, evaluated vendor-neutrally. At Aether Gardens it covered the extraction layout and its commissioning, and at LeafLine Labs in Minnesota, operational overwatch at a medical producer whose operations included cultivation, extraction and infused-product manufacturing. Extraction rooms are designed through facility design and tuned through operational optimization.
Cannabis dispensary consulting
Retail licenses are part of the more than 58 licenses our team has helped clients secure, and Kind Love, the Denver company our partners co-founded, operated and later exited, ran its own dispensary. At Cultivate Holdings, the retail work included staff training in bundling, upselling, suggestive selling and demographic-based product curation, inventory flow and pricing tiers, and house-brand work including the “Chocolate OG” line and its point-of-purchase materials. Dispensary work is delivered through licensing and operational optimization. For owners planning a store, our guide to opening a retail cannabis dispensary and dispensary profit projector are free starting points.
Fractional cannabis operations leadership
Some operators need an experienced manager before they can hire one. At Bostica in Lynn, Massachusetts, we served as a fractional Director of Operations, with remote KPI monitoring and Lean improvement work. At Harborside Farms in Salinas, California, we provided fractional Director of Operations, Wholesale Manager and Inventory and Compliance Manager support.
Transactions and exits
At LeafLine Labs, we prepared the operational documentation needed during transaction discussions; the company was acquired by Green Thumb Industries in late 2021. At Aether Gardens, the work included exit readiness, EBITDA improvement planning and valuation support. Buyers and sellers start with cannabis M&A advisory.
How Engagements Are Scoped, Timed and Priced
None of our service pages publishes a price list, because cost follows scope. They do publish how scope is set:
- Fixed deliverables. Licensing work is scoped as a fixed deliverable, and the full cost picture is given in a free initial consultation. Genetics work is scoped as a defined deliverable rather than hourly.
- Size-based fees. Design fees scale with square footage, complexity and how much of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing scope is included.
- Diagnose, then price. The 30-day turnaround diagnostic is a fixed fee scoped to facility size, and implementation is retainer-based; optimization work is priced only after a written diagnosis.
- Where the work happens. Catalyst BC is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. How much of an engagement is on site and how much is remote is set in the scope. Projects outside the United States are covered under international cannabis consulting.
A word against our own interest: if you only need one deliverable, buy one. A cost-per-gram model or a 30-day diagnostic is a complete piece of work, and you do not need to commit to a full engagement to get it.
Types of Cannabis Consultants We Are Not
Guides to the types of cannabis consultants list fifteen or more specialties, from cultivation to IT. Knowing which ones a firm does not cover saves you a wasted call. This is where our work stops and someone else’s starts:
Specialty by specialty: our work, or who to call
| Specialty | Catalyst BC? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cultivation, CEA and genetics | Yes | Core services |
| Licensing and applications | Yes | Including site selection support |
| Facility design and commissioning | Yes | Design assist and owner’s representation alongside your architect and engineers |
| Extraction and manufacturing | Yes | Room design, equipment selection, operations |
| Dispensary licensing and operations | Yes | Retail licenses, staff sales training, merchandising and sell-through |
| Compliance and SOPs | Yes | SOPs, staff training and compliance diagnostics |
| Financial modeling | Yes | Models and pro formas; not tax filing |
| Tax returns, audits and 280E filings | Not one of our services | A CPA |
| Capital raising and securities | Partly | We prepare the business, model and documents investors review; we do not broker securities or give securities advice |
| Legal opinions, entities and contracts | Not one of our services | A cannabis attorney |
| Websites, digital marketing and ad campaigns | Not one of our services | A marketing agency. In-store merchandising and house-brand work sit inside operational optimization |
| IT and point-of-sale software | Not one of our services | An IT provider; our POS guide helps you compare systems |
Swipe the table sideways on a phone.
If you are still deciding whether to bring in outside help at all, start with how Catalyst BC’s cannabis consulting services work for applicants and licensed operators, or our free guide to choosing a dispensary POS system (sent by email).
Not Sure Which Service Comes First?
Tell us your stage, your market and the decision in front of you. We will tell you which type of work answers it, what it should cost to scope, and whether it is work we should be doing at all.
Questions About Choosing a Type of Cannabis Consulting Service
What are the main types of cannabis consulting?
They group by business stage. Before a license: business strategy, financial planning and licensing applications. Building and opening: facility design, controlled environment agriculture and startup support. Operating: operational optimization, vertical farming, genetics and turnaround. Catalyst BC also does extraction, dispensary, fractional operations and due diligence work inside those services.
Which service should a new applicant start with?
Usually business strategy, because it answers whether the market, site and numbers work before you pay for an application. If the market decision is already made, start with financial planning or the application itself.
Can I hire Catalyst BC for one service only?
Yes. Each service can be bought on its own, and several are single deliverables: a cost-per-gram model, a feasibility review or a 30-day turnaround diagnostic.
How long does each type of engagement take?
Our service pages publish these typical timings: a strategy diagnostic and model within four weeks, a cost-per-gram model in about three to four weeks, a capex plan in six to eight weeks, facility design to permit-ready documents in three to six months, a phenohunt in 9 to 18 months, and a turnaround diagnostic in 30 days. Licensing timing is set by the state.
How is cannabis consulting priced?
By scope, after a free consultation. Licensing and genetics work are scoped as fixed deliverables, design fees scale with square footage and complexity, and the turnaround diagnostic is a fixed fee followed by retainer-based implementation.
Do you offer cannabis extraction consulting?
Yes, through facility design and operational optimization. Projects have included C1D1 hydrocarbon and solventless extraction room design and extraction equipment selection in Massachusetts, and extraction layout design and system commissioning for a Nevada extractor.
Do you help open and run dispensaries?
Yes. Retail licenses are among the licenses our team has helped clients secure. Kind Love, the Denver company our partners co-founded, operated and later exited, ran its own dispensary. At Cultivate Holdings, our retail work included staff sales training, pricing tiers and house-brand work.
What is fractional operations leadership?
An experienced operations manager provided part time until you can hire one. We have served as a fractional Director of Operations at Bostica and provided fractional Director of Operations, Wholesale Manager and Inventory and Compliance Manager support at Harborside Farms.
Selected Catalyst BC Projects
The three projects below each show a different type of work: operational overwatch through a sale at LeafLine Labs, a greenhouse rebuild and fractional management at Harborside Farms, and start-up through fractional operations at Bostica.
Hexo Corp.
Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
Bostica
Lynn, MA, United States
Leafline Labs
Cottage Grove, MN, United States
View All Projects
View all Catalyst BC Projects
Further Reading on Opening and Running a Licensed Business
How Much Does It Cost to Open a Dispensary in 2026?
The allure of jumping into the legalized cannabis industry often paints a picture of quick riches and burgeoning demand, yet the reality of establishing a
How to Open a Retail Cannabis Dispensary: A Comprehensive Guide
A Retail Cannabis Dispensary is a licensed establishment that sells cannabis products to consumers for recreational or medicinal use. These establishments vary from small boutique
Cannabis Dispensary Design: Optimizing Space and Customer Experience
A Retail Cannabis Dispensary is a licensed establishment that sells cannabis products to consumers for recreational or medicinal use. These establishments vary from small boutique
Where the Facts on This Page Come From
Provenance. Every figure and project detail on this page is company-reported and comes from the Catalyst BC pages below, read on 10/13/2026.
- Deliverables, timing and pricing basis for each core service: the ten service pages linked in the comparison table.
- Roles of Leif Olsen, Michael Williamson, Ian Miller, Dr. Matthew Indest, Eric Forington and Andy Schnack: licensing, business strategy, facility design, operational optimization, CEA and genetics pages.
- 58+ licenses for cultivation, manufacturing and retail dispensaries; Kind Love, co-founded, operated and exited by our partners, and its dispensary; 3,000+ compliant harvests: Catalyst BC About Us.
- Project scopes: Galaxy Labs, Evokanna, Aether Gardens, Bostica, Harborside Farms and LeafLine Labs project pages.
- 96% competitive application success rate: Cannabis Licensing & Applications.
- Cultivate Holdings, average flower yield nearly doubled within eight months, peaking at 109 grams per square foot; retail training and house-brand work: Cultivate Holdings case study. HEXO Corp, 1.3 million square feet and 25 to 35%: HEXO Corp case study.
- 11M+ square feet designed: Cannabis Facility Design.
Contact Us
Enough about us. We want to hear more about you, your project, and your vision! Get in touch with a real live person today. Don’t worry, we don’t have a long, confusing phone menu, and your email isn’t going to the abyss, we promise. At Catalyst, we provide the service and support we’d want to experience ourselves!