For Howell and Chris Miller, cannabis wasn’t a business plan or a brainstormed opportunity. It was simply a part of life.
“I’m a legacy guy,” Howell explains. “We're of Jamaican heritage. The marijuana business is kind of cultural for us.”
Although the Miller brothers were familiar with weed from a young age, it was a path that eventually led to incarceration for Howell. After serving his time, Howell assumed that chapter of his life was over, and his plan was simple: go back to working construction, rebuild, and move on.
Then he had a meeting that changed everything.
“I met Senator Chuck Schumer,” Howell recalls, noting how he’d previously learned of New York’s program that helps convicted cannabis offenders obtain operator licenses. “It stuck in my brain… so when I met Chuck Schumer at the event, I said, ‘Mr. Schumer, I just got out of prison for marijuana,’ you know, and he says, ‘Oh my God, you’re the guy we’re looking for.’
“From there I spoke with a handful of attorneys he pointed me to, and the rest was a wrap,” Howell says.
Bringing the Business Home to the Bronx
Of course, there was still the small matter of finding a suitable space to hold Howell and Chris’s new cannabis retail venture. After scouting several locations, Howell found a vacant space in his own neighborhood in the Bronx – the same area where he and his brother grew up. The location checked every regulatory box: proper distance from schools and churches, no nearby dispensaries, and a landlord willing to make a deal. After sitting empty for four years, the space came with three and a half months of free rent to complete the buildout.
The catch? It was in rough shape.
“I had to fight with the rats and the roots,” Howell laughs. “They wanted the space, too.”
Using his construction expertise, Howell handled the renovations himself. When the doors finally opened, Two Buds became more than just another dispensary. It was the first Jamaican-owned dispensary in New York state, one of the first legal shops in the Bronx, and a powerful symbol of transition – from legacy to legal.
“I opened the store in the same area that I’m from,” Howell says. “Most of my customers are people I’ve known my whole life.
“It really feels like I’ve come full circle.”
Hard-Won Lessons for Newer Operators
Of course, opening a dispensary doesn’t mean instant success. Like many first-time operators, Howell and Chris quickly learned that patience and discipline are essential.
“The hardest part is being patient,” Howell says. “And keeping your invoices down to a bare minimum.”
Early on, he says vendors pushed large orders – some $20,000 to $30,000 at a time – before customer traffic could support it. That created additional stress Howell hadn’t anticipated.
“I like to pay my bills. I like to have a good name,” he says, “but we weren’t bringing in that kind of money yet,”
His advice to new operators is simple: start small.
“You’re not going to have a whole lot of customers on day one. Take the bare minimum so when the invoices come around, you can handle them.”
That measured approach helped Two Buds find its footing and build sustainably rather than chasing volume too early.
Finding the Right Tech Partner
As Howell navigated the operational side of dispensary ownership, one thing became clear: the technology behind the counter matters just as much as what's on the shelves.
Like most New York licensees, he was approached aggressively by cannabis software vendors. But Howell wasn’t interested in hype; he wanted something that worked. After extensive research and numerous conversations, he chose Cova.
“Cova is very user-friendly,” Howell says. “Once you get to know it, you just fall in love with it because it’s easy to navigate.”
Ease of use was critical. Howell is deeply hands-on in the business, personally entering product data, managing payments, and handling much of the bookkeeping himself.
“My day-to-day is putting stuff inside the Cova system,” he explains. “I enter all the data. I pay the vendors. I do a lot of the bookkeeping.”
Meanwhile, Chris handles payroll, taxes, and inventory movement from the vault to the sales floor. That division of labor works because the system supports both of them – from reporting to inventory tracking – without adding complexity.
“I don’t know about anybody else,” Howell says, “but everyone I’ve turned onto Cova doesn’t have anything bad to say about it.”
Support That Shows Up
Howell remains as hands-on as ever at Two Buds. He closes the store most nights, while Chris opens in the mornings. When Howell isn’t at Two Buds, he’s back to construction – consulting, designing, and building other spaces using the skills that helped launch his own store.
But Two Buds remains the heart of it all.
It’s a business built on redemption, community trust, and doing things the right way. And with Cova supporting the day-to-day operations behind the scenes, Two Buds is positioned to keep serving its neighborhood for years to come.
Want to see how Cova can support your dispensary from day one? Book a free demo today and learn how the right technology partner can make all the difference.