South Ventures is a completely modern business consulting and marketing firm with a keen eye on supporting the cannabis industry. They have the ability to act as essentially the swiss army knife of resources for your business. With a background in building and scaling businesses, South Ventures partners with a distributed workforce of experts spanning the globe to help other business owners do the same. Their operations model is lean. This allows them to help businesses at any stage of development, even from the ground floor.
On a case-to-case basis, South Ventures tailor-makes long term marketing and growth plans for businesses. They recognize the necessity of creating unique and custom plans for each brand and business they work with. Business models, technology, operations, and integrated marketing are just a few aspects of a business they work with. Problem-solving is at the core of what South Ventures’ and their global team does and strives to represent. They work to help entrepreneurs, business owners, and executive teams achieve goals while solving problems along the way.
Based out of Portland, Emmitt South, the CEO of South Ventures has a storied background in the cannabis industry and working with marketing firms. In many ways, his firm is an extension of his desire to solve big problems. South Ventures also represents the crazy network of experts, creators, and marketers he’s built over the years. We had the opportunity to speak with him about his diverse background in cannabis and marketing. He gave us insight into his wins and losses building up South Ventures. He also spoke on how he’s forging ahead today with his team.
Bong Buddy
Bong Buddy was the first major success in the cannabis space for Emmitt. Growing up a big fan of the herb, it made sense for him to find a constructive way to give back to the cannabis community. While working full-time at a start-up, Emmitt was also fully developing a retractable leash to attach to your bong to hold your lighter. Prior to that, he was the Director of Operations at a multi-location private practice. It’s the combination of these experiences that made Emmitt discover his true calling. This was finding “creative, cost-effective, and surprising ways of solving big problems,” as he put.
Several years ago, Bong Buddy seriously took off and became a hallmark product for stoners worldwide. Emmitt said that “I got a lot of experience from that. I built out my network while experiencing all the wins and losses.” Emmitt said. His Bong Buddy business now basically runs itself. “There have been months where I didn’t have to touch the website because it handles itself.” When Bong Buddy was starting to take off six years ago, Emmitt left his full-time gig. From there, he began consulting for businesses in multiple industries. The next year he officially began South Ventures.
Integrated Marketing Services
The term “integrated marketing services” is thrown around a lot. Emmitt said it basically is referring to all of your marketing. “Whether that’s digital, in-person, or print, it’s all part of the integrated marketing strategy,” he told me. He went on to say that due to the fact that they have a totally remote distributive workforce, they’re able to remain agile and have less overhead. This allows them to make their pricing competitive.
Industry Agnostic
Though South Ventures began with their hands in the cannabis and healthcare industries, they don’t specialize in any particular industry. “We’re industry agnostic, but as a cannabis user, I certainly support the industry and have experience in it from the business side, software side, and customer service,” Emmitt said. But as far as overall client-base, Emmitt said they work with anywhere from big companies to “start-ups needing to take the first steps.”
One of South Ventures’ successful clients is Primary Jane out of Hudson, New Hampshire. They’ve been able to creditably aid this bubbling CBD company to reach new heights with their business and optimize their strategies. Technical and fundamental SEO, checking under the hood and asking “do we have all the code optimized for page speed, are we utilizing all elements of your SEO and content?” These are all things Emmitt said his team goes in and improves for literally any business.
Pandemic Solutions
South Ventures has gone as far as to even offer business guidance to anyone that is struggling to keep their business afloat during COVID-19. Their “Pandemic Solutions” involve a number of actions. These include business continuity planning, crisis management, remote work best practices, technology and software solutions, and business and marketing consultation.
Emmitt South and his team at South Ventures are lean, mean, problem-solving machines. They continually take the first step forward into new territory when it comes to lending aid to businesses. It’s worth looking over their site to see if setting up a meeting will help give your company or brand the push it needs to trim the fat and forge ahead.
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