Advice needed from Dispensary Operators

I'm planning (early stages) on starting up a dispensary in about 4-5 months. I've learned about everything I need to know with regards to legal and political aspects. BUT, I'm trying to figure out how long it will take for the dispensary to be self sustaining economically. I figure it would take a few years until there are enough members of the collective to cover the overhead. But without any practical experience in this, I'm just guessing, without any real information to back it up...

It would be a HUGE HUGE help if other dispensary managers/directors could give me some inkling of how fast they were able to sign up new members. I'm not planning on doing anything in terms of advertising, it would all be through word of mouth. Any advice any has on this would be appreciated, and would help my gauge how much money I'm going to have to throw into this, and for how long, etc.

Thanks for the help!!!