Former SBDC State Director to Open Adult-Use Marijuana Store

By Anthony Birritteri, Editor-in-Chief On Apr 14, 2023

With 29 years of experience advising fledgling entrepreneurs on how to start their own businesses, Brenda Hopper, former state director and CEO of the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers, has taken her own entrepreneurial plunge to start a marijuana venture in the state’s one-year-old-and-growing recreational, adult-use cannabis market.

Commenting on her experience in pursuing this venture, the seasoned business advisor tells New Jersey Business Magazine, “My stomach is churning!”

Hopper tapped into her pension to the tune of $40,000 to fund her business since cannabis is illegal on the federal level and bank financing is unavailable, she explains.

Upon retiring from the SBDC in April of 2020, it was her adult son Linsey who convinced her to first open a cannabidiol (CBD) store in Union Township (Union County) called CannaBoy TreeHouse CBD. “Linsey said this industry is going to be like the Wild, Wild West initially, but it’s going to grow and be very prosperous,” Hopper recalls.

Now, Hopper and her son will be opening a recreational marijuana store in South Orange this summer. However, the path to opening has been a bumpy one. Hopper first wanted to open a location in Union, but she explained that the town restricted locations to Rt. 22 East and West. “Then, when we mentioned that we wanted to open a cannabis business, [some] landlords said, ‘We don’t want such a business here,’ or rents doubled or tripled,” she says.

After searching for locations in other towns, South Orange finally welcomed Hopper. To avoid increasing rent scenarios, she decided to buy a commercial property at 57 South Orange Avenue. Consisting of 2,900 square feet (of which 2,500 square feet will be used as actual retail space), Hopper jokes, “If all else fails, I am still a commercial property owner.”

Obtaining a license and municipal approval is not for the faint of heart, as Hopper says, “The road to getting this store open has been unbelievable.”

She first applied for a conditional license with the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC). “The CRC wanted to make sure women and minorities, and those with prior drug arrests, would have the first option to obtain a license. So, I applied as a state certified minority and/or woman-owned business,” Hopper says.

She also had to submit both a business and regulatory compliance plan. “Being with the SBDC for 29 years, I could definitely write a business plan, but for the regulatory compliance plan, I had to hire [an expert] because there were specific items to deal with including security, odor mitigation, hiring (are you hiring disadvantaged people) … there’s a whole litany of things you have to do,” she explains.

She applied for a conditional license in March 2022. It was granted in October of that same year. “Once you get the conditional license, you have five months to set everything up,” Hopper explains. “You need the municipal resolution, you need site control and, since we registered as a micro-business, we had to keep employment at 10 people or less.”

Hopper received the municipal approval resolution this past March. Now she is in the process of converting her conditional license to an annual license.

At press-time, she is toying with a proper name for the recreational-use cannabis business. She will buy her products from brand name vendors approved by the CRC, but she says that at some point, she may want to cultivate her own cannabis and establish her own brand.

She expects the adult-use marijuana industry to grow, especially when it is approved at the federal level. She hopes that, as a woman-owned business, customers will gravitate to her store rather than the larger franchises. “We are certainly going to market that aspect … and we are going to provide the best customer service there is,” she says.

Hopper’s business is a family affair as her son Linsey and two of her granddaughters, Sasha and Tatyana, work at CannaBoy Treehouse.

Because of her experience and knowledge in opening a recreational cannabis business, Hopper has been asked by the SBDC to be a consultant to entrepreneurs looking to enter the industry. Asked what her former SBDC friends think of her venturing into the legal cannabis trade, she responds, “Everyone is excited for me!”

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