How BudTrainer and Cin7 Help Customers “Grow Like the Pros”

Growing big buds isn’t easy. BudTrainer co-founder and CEO Henrique Dias learned this from personal experience, so after dedicating himself to breaking the cannabis-growing code (and succeeding), he made it his mission to help passionate home-growers quickly and easily grow high-quality medicinal plants. 

It all began in 2019. 

Henrique (pronounced “Enrique”) had struggled with ADHD, stress, and anxiety since he was 18 years old. He turned to medicinal plants for relief, but daily consumption was putting a hole in his pocket. The logical and affordable (or so he thought) solution? Grow his own plants! 

Growing weed for personal medicinal use is legal in Canada, and he was willing and able to do it, but there was a glitch: his weed wasn’t growing like a weed.

“If you want to grow high-quality cannabis, you need to put a lot of effort into it, and there's also a lot of products that go around cultivating high-quality cannabis. So, for the first two years, I spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars trying to get the perfect solution, and I couldn't get it. I followed too much wrong advice.”

A Germ of an Idea Produces Exciting New Business

Understanding that a course correction was necessary, Henrique decided to attend Niagara College and earn his post-graduate degree in commercial production of medicinal plants. He took his newfound knowledge and grew high-quality bud with strong yields, yet he faced another huge hurdle: finding quality gardening products designed specifically for growing medicinal plants. 

So, in 2021, he stepped away from his career as a mechanical engineer and business consultant and created BudTrainer, a business whose mission is “to help people upgrade their gardens and grow the biggest buds of their life with the most durable and user-friendly tools in the world.” 

Henrique successfully pitched his overly engineered products to retailers who sold gardening products, fertilizers, soil, and more, which helped BudTrainer enter the market on a high. Twelve months in, the business hit a few lows, including operating in an industry that Henrique says matured too fast. 

The biggest low, however, was relying on QuickBooks for its inventory needs. “When it comes to inventory control, QuickBooks is very subpar.”

It was time to invest in sophisticated inventory management software (IMS) Cin7.

BudTrainer’s Budding Relationship with Cin7 Blossoms

Prior to finding and implementing Cin7, BudTrainer was selling on Amazon and Shopify as well as directly through retailers and distributors. The team developed a loyal following for their high-quality tools designed to last a lifetime and for its passion for helping novices and experts succeed through its one-of-a-kind and free educational tool: The BudTrainer Method™.

“It’s a 7-step process that takes our growers from seed to harvest,” Henrique explains. “Any beginner or advanced grower can follow it.”

Providing his customers with an easy-to-follow method for growing success meant Henrique expected the same ease of use from the software he utilized. Unfortunately, QuickBooks did not meet his expectations. For one thing, it required the BudTrainer team to manually transfer inventory data from the simple accounting solution to Shopify, and for another, they were forced to track inventory by the core product.

“Our packaging, stickers, and shipping from suppliers to the landed destination all went straight into cost of goods sold,” says Henrique. “For the first three and half years of the company, our COGS were always higher than they should have been.”

Poor inventory visibility, inaccurate data, and manual reconciliations were drags on the business, so Henrique began looking at his inventory management options. After reviewing several, he landed on Cin7.  

“Cin7 checked all the boxes for us. We learned that it could do more than just inventory management. Cin7 integrates with our third-party applications and our 3PL. And support from Cin7 is great.”

BudTrainer’s transplant from QuickBooks to Cin7 took six short weeks. Its quick implementation was rooted in Cin7’s Accelerated Onboarding package, which fast tracks onboarding through group sessions, and in the expert assistance of a Cin7 onboarding specialist.

“The onboarding specialist could see that we wanted to get up and running fast,” he says. “We took advantage of our onboarding sessions and asked a lot of questions. We also did our own homework.”

In addition to their many questions during the group sessions, the BudTrainer team emailed their Cin7 contact outside of class time with other questions and concerns. She responded with helpful articles and advice while also willingly making direct adjustments within their system for them. The team also had access to Cin7 Help Center, a self-help support portal that offers help articles, Cin7’s Academy, and a chat feature to submit requests.

“The onboarding process was high touch, and within four-to-six weeks of implementing Cin7, we felt pretty confident using the system. If we have questions, our Cin7 contact points me in the right direction.”

Planting the Seeds of Success with Cin7

Nurturing healthy medicinal plants requires the right environment, tools, and know-how, and fostering a thriving business does too. Cin7, as BudTrainer’s single source of truth, provides BudTrainer with everything the business needs to grow, including:

• Access to accurate data, which provides data-driven insights that help them make better decisions
• Inventory visibility and reporting, which ensures they stock their multiple sales channels appropriately
• Updated financials and accounting, which helps them secure important investments, track revenue per product per channel, calculate landed costs and pricing, cut costs to run lean, and more

“Life before Cin7 was unpredictable. After Cin7, we’re able to invest our money without second guessing. We know what we sold in the past and what we’re going to need in the future. The whole process kicks itself off once it’s in Cin7.”

As to whether Henrique would recommend Cin7 to other industry-driven businesses? “Absolutely,” he says. “I already have. BudTrainer is dependent on it.”

Its dependency on Cin7 is helping BudTrainer make its dream of expanding become reality. The team’s expansion plans include getting their premier gardening products on Walmart.com (coming soon!) and releasing more SKUs. Their plans also include continuing to manufacture pots for other gardening brands with help from Cin7. 

“We want to be a one-stop shop for cannabis growers who want to get a high-quality yield and to be a part of a tight community that really cares about that hobby and is full of enthusiasts. And it’s great to know that we’re going to be able to grow with Cin7!”