Oxford Dictionary defines a budtender as someone who caters to customers in an establishment that sells marijuana or similar products. But they’re more than employees behind the cashier’s desk. They’re gatekeepers of sales, with top performers helping increase monthly sales.
If budtenders are that essential for dispensaries, it’s crucial you stick to the end of this blog. If you’re unsure now, you’ll have a clearer understanding of what a budtender entails and what it takes to hire one in this blog successfully.
Definition: What Is a Budtender?
| A budtender is a title given to an entry-level staff member within a dispensary or cannabis store where medical and recreational cannabis products are sold. His or her main goal is to help smoothen a customer’s purchasing process. They do this by answering cannabis questions, recommending, showcasing products, and securing the purchase. |
The term budtender is a portmanteau, combining “bartender” and “bud.” Essentially, to budtend is to bartend cannabis bud. This position began as early as 1997, shortly after medical cannabis became a thing in California.
Now, the legal cannabis industry supports more than 440,000 full-time jobs across the state. The rise in active budtender job positions is a testament to the role’s importance in managing a cannabis business.
What Is a Budtender Job Description?
Similar to bartenders, budtenders assist in customer service and fulfill product orders. However, budtenders go beyond just transactional. They’re the go-to persons for product suggestions and overall impromptu cannabis education. They also provide inventory services, such as taking notes of today’s orders.
Depending on the employer, budtenders can fill different roles (especially for small businesses or start-ups). These are some of the common day-to-day tasks and responsibilities:
- Maintain cleanliness and space organization at all times.
- Conduct age verification and other customer information before purchase, like medical marijuana cards.
- Ensure the right cannabis products are fulfilled in the customer’s package.
- Provide customer service support by answering questions, recommending products, and assisting customers in all aspects.
- Demonstrate the use of different products for customers (when needed).
- Educate consumers about the benefits of cannabis, including industry jargon.
- Process payments while ensuring compliance in all transactions.
- Ensure no discrepancies in the count of stocks and what’s recorded in the Point of Sale system occur.
- Keep stored products fresh and uncontaminated.
- Constantly learning about the dispensary’s product features.
- Ensure all practices and transactions inside the dispensary are executed according to state regulatory protocols.
Skills & Requirements Needed for a Budtender
Budtending is a skill. It may not necessarily need a degree, but some dispensaries require certain certifications as proof of technical training. Soft skills you have before the job and something you developed during your employment tenure are vital to the job.
It’s important to include your list of budtender qualifications and skills in your job ad. That way, you’re immediately filtering out unfit candidates from those who qualify. To give a glimpse of the hard skills, soft skills, and minimum requirements a budtender should have, here’s a list:
Soft Skills
- Great customer service personality
- Resilience and patience when dealing with customers
- Honesty and integrity
- Sales skills
- Communication skills
- Ability to maintain business confidentiality
- Detail-oriented
Hard Skills
- In-depth knowledge of the industry, legal standards, and recreational and medical dispensary products
- Can confidently demonstrate the usage, maintenance, and storage of cannabis products
- Cash handling
Minimum Requirements
- High school diploma
- State work permit (for some states that require them)
- You need to be at least 18 or 21 years old, depending on the state
- Underwent a background screening
What Is the Average Salary of a Budtender By State?
According to Indeed, the average US salary of a budtender is $33,267 annually or $2,772.25 a month. Budtender salaries vary from state to state, with some localities offering more than the average national salary. Budtenders may also receive benefits outside their salary, such as product discounts.
Here’s a table listing the average budtender salary for each state in 2024, taken from Indeed’s database.
| State | Average Budtender Annual Salary |
| Alabama | $32,626 |
| Alaska | $37,059 |
| Arizona | $36,238 |
| Arkansas | $29,582 |
| California | $41,699 |
| Colorado | $38,362 |
| Connecticut | $40,372 |
| Delaware | $39,965 |
| Florida | $36,281 |
| Georgia | $26,669 |
| Hawaii | $40,485 |
| Idaho | $37,899 |
| Illinois | $40,009 |
| Indiana | $28,276 |
| Iowa | $50,486 |
| Kansas | $37,987 |
| Kentucky | $37,822 |
| Louisiana | $30,135 |
| Maine | $39,945 |
| Maryland | $42,903 |
| Massachusetts | $40,535 |
| Michigan | $35,598 |
| Minnesota | $41,744 |
| Mississippi | $28,383 |
| Missouri | $35,417 |
| Montana | $39,860 |
| Nebraska | $31,554 |
| Nevada | $33,591 |
| New Hampshire | $38,294 |
| New Jersey | $41,504 |
| New Mexico | $34,806 |
| North Carolina | $34,353 |
| North Dakota | $38,756 |
| New York | $44,908 |
| Ohio | $41,436 |
| Oklahoma | $28,305 |
| Oregon | $36,715 |
| Pennsylvania | $39,296 |
| Rhode Island | $41,947 |
| South Carolina | $33,730 |
| South Dakota | $36,677 |
| Tennessee | $31,341 |
| Texas | $38,612 |
| Utah | $38,922 |
| Vermont | $46,539 |
| Virginia | $35,691 |
| Wyoming | $25,322 |
| Wisconsin | $35,820 |
| West Virginia | $35,323 |
| Washington State | $40,062 |
What Are the Steps to Hire a Budtender?
An HR recruiter specializing in cannabis manpower would most likely know how to hire budtenders from your state. So, if you don’t know how the process works and the legalities accompanying it, it’s best to let the HR recruitment specialist do it. Nevertheless, you should at least have an inkling of the hiring process. Keep reading to learn the step-by-step process of hiring a budtender:
Step 1: Draft a Job Post
A job posting is your store’s official advertisement for budtender job openings. It’s posted online, at fairs, and in other job announcement mediums. It’s a written document informing the public about the open job position and provides information about the job description, qualifications, required documents, and company details.
To stand out, add something about your store’s employee perks and benefits or at least list the salary range.
Step 2: Upload the Job Post
The key to posting your job online is to cast a wide net across several online job platforms.
Aside from big job platforms that welcome cannabis jobs, you can also try to post on cannabis-specific platforms like CannabisJobs and Vangst. Here are some sites you might want to advertise your job posting:
- Indeed
- LinkedIn Jobs
- Monster
- Google for Jobs
- Kijiji
- Job Bank
- Talent.com
Other online platforms for posting include your company’s social media accounts or career page.
| 🏆 Pro Tip Do not abruptly close your job postings online. Keep them active so you have a ready line-up of applicants in case a replacement is needed, a candidate backs out, etc. |
Step 3: Filter Applications
Keep those applications with relevant experience, skills, and qualifications. Based on your job requirements, preference, and personal judgment, shortlist candidates with the closest profile. Schedule shortlisted candidates for interview.
Step 4: Conduct Interviews
There are two ways to go about conducting interviews. You can ask for an in-person or video interview. Either way, you must prepare a list of relevant questions to help unravel the candidates.
Aside from the usual “where do you want to be in the next five years” questions, dig deep into their personality and knowledge by asking questions that are not prone to rehearsed scripts.
Step 5: Call References
A candidate may look good on paper and in person, but doing a basic background check for good measure is always good. Part of that process is calling an applicant’s references or previous managers. These people will give you the best information about a candidate’s work ethic, performance, professionalism, reliability, etc.
Step 6: Make an Offer
Extend a formal job offer letter detailing the negotiated salary, benefits, job description, and onboarding details. It’s important to note that a candidate can always reject or accept the job offer. If you truly want this candidate, this is the perfect time to practice your negotiating skills.
Step 7: Onboarding
The onboarding process can be intimidating for new hires, so making it as smooth as possible is important. Help them feel confident and supported, and let them know that it’s okay to make mistakes as they learn while also emphasizing the importance of owning up to their errors.
The onboarding process includes offering training and orientation sessions on company policies, culture, organization charts, standard operating procedures, etc.
| 🏫 What Is Budtender Training? Some states have budtender training programs and initiatives to aid dispensaries in maintaining their licenses. They are especially available in areas where states require dispensaries to have all of their employees trained. Private and company-based budtender training programs are available, too. These options can give you the “remote” type of training option. |
How to Manage a Budtender’s Performance
Managing an employee is an art. You have to learn to avoid extremes. For example, micromanaging can create a toxic, zero-trust working environment. You can’t be too lax, either.
According to the University of Pennslyvania, the keys to effective performance management is through the following actions:
- Setting performance expectations
- Coaching
- Providing clear and timely feedback
- Evaluating performance
- Addressing the issue if expectations weren’t met
- Rewarding performers
| 🤔 Did You Know? The Cannabis Industry has one of the highest staff turnover rates of about 55%. This leaves store owners in a vicious and costly cycle of hiring and onboarding new employees within any given year. This makes cannabis employment management critical as those retained are most likely to be dubbed “top performers.” |
The Wrap
Budtenders are the first people customers see when they enter your store and the last faces they see when they leave. As a living representative of your store or company, budtenders have a huge role in customer loyalty.
In addition to hiring the best people for your team, make a lasting impression by stocking your inventory with the best cannabis products the industry has to offer. The Hemp Doctor Wholesale supplies federally legal, hemp-derived products in the US.
We stand out because we integrate the most sophisticated extraction and manufacturing processes, such as our proprietary nano-emulsion technology. Call us (1-888-206-3832) to learn more about our products, white-label services, and more!
FAQs
What are the duties of a budtender?
Help customer makes the right product choice and fulfill their orders.
How much do budtenders make in the US?
The annual average salary of a budtender in the US is $33,267.
Where do budtenders get paid the most?
In the state of Iowa, the average annual offer is $50,486.
What is the hardest part of being a budtender?
It depends, but the glaring answer would be to “multi-task.”
