The Flower Spot Finds Success as a Black Woman-Owned Dispensary
Increasing social equity in the cannabis industry
Summary
The Flower Spot in Oklahoma isn’t just a dispensary, it’s a legacy that Tiffany Johnson plans to leave behind for her three daughters.
Tiffany works two jobs — one as a nurse — while owning and operating her cannabis shop. She paid for everything to get open and quickly realized that it was going to be much more work than expected.
"I am a Black woman and I have three Black daughters. I want to leave them something besides my house, besides my car, and besides my life insurance. My goal is to leave them a legacy through this dispensary."
Tiffany Johnson
Owner of The Flower Spot
Through determination and hard work, Tiffany opened The Flower Spot in November of 2021. Her dispensary exists to help patients in the state of Oklahoma who suffer from pain, anxiety, insomnia, or any other ailments that cannabis is known to remedy.
Tiffany’s dispensary has been open for less than four months, but she can already see the difference it makes for the community around her as well as for her family.
The challenge
It wasn’t easy for Tiffany to get the Flower Spot open. As a Black woman who has suffered from the illegality of cannabis, she originally hoped for some sort of grant or loan program from the state to help her get started, but quickly realized that there was nothing available.
"I Googled and researched for things like ‘loans for women’, ‘loans for Black women’, ‘loans for Black-owned dispensaries’ and I couldn’t find anything. I think if I was operating in a different industry, I probably could have found some, but not in cannabis."
Tiffany Johnson
Owner of The Flower Spot
With funding being the primary challenge for The Flower Spot, Tiffany took it upon herself to work and save until she could finally open her doors. She found this undertaking to be a tremendous amount of work.
The solution
While Tiffany found no state-subsidized funding or social equity programs, she was delighted to become a recipient of Flowhub’s Social Equity Program which provides her dispensary point of sale software valued at over $50,000.
"Being able to get onto Flowhub’s program where I only pay $4.20 per year has been a blessing straight from God. It helped me get open faster because I didn’t have to come up with another lump sum of money to pay for dispensary software."
Tiffany Johnson
Owner of The Flower Spot
Tiffany was concerned about onboarding a new software at her dispensary because of her tight schedule as a mother who worked two jobs. But Flowhub’s implementation team worked closely with her and her schedule to make sure she was both set up for success and not worried about time management.
She also worried about having to spend time auditing inventory, calculating sales numbers, and running reports — but was delighted to find that Flowhub’s software did all of that for her. She said using Flowhub “really has made my processes a lot easier.”
Now four months into operating The Flower Spot, Tiffany is hopeful for the future of her shop. Her operations are running smoothly and she has a sizable customer base that consistently returns.
We look forward to watching Tiffany’s journey and seeing her find tremendous success in the Oklahoma cannabis industry. Her story is an inspiration and testament to the value of sheer effort and determination.
