Laser Monks Ink Cartridges
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I was lamenting the high cost of ink cartridges to a friend one day and he mentioned hearing about Monks from Wisconsin having a Ink Cartridge Website. Huh?, I thought Monks just made wine and cheese to support themselves. Boy Howdy, was I ever wrong!
The Laser Monk Story
Ink Cartridges and Printer Supplies from The Laser Monks
All I wanted was a little bit of black dust for one of our monastery printers. In my search for a toner cartridge, I was suddenly struck with how incredibly expensive this black dust and a few squirts of ink were. “There must be a better way,” I said to myself.
And so began my foray into the world of imaging supplies. What I discovered was a revelation. Simply stated, the mark-up on ink supplies is sinfully high, reaching in some instances into the 1,000-2,000 % levels. I also discovered that there were many companies that manufactured either new compatible cartridges or remanufactured cartridges at a fraction of the cost of the big name brands. My thoughts starting racing. “Imagine the money we could save schools, churches, and other organizations if we could negotiate some deals with the manufacturers directly and cut out the middlemen.”
LaserMonks.com was born.
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Monks Needed an Income Project
Our monastery is part of the 900-year-old Cistercian Order; our particular Abbey
was founded over 75 years ago in the United States. Every monastery has a monk
in charge of all the temporal needs and activities of the community. Among my
duties as Steward of Temporal Affairs are developing and managing ways to
support our life and charities.
Contrary to popular understanding, monasteries are self-supporting. A part of
our day is given to some sort of remunerative work, from which we support our
modest living needs in the monastery, and then use the rest for charitable work.
Our Abbey was at this time looking into various new income projects, which had
ranged from growing Shitake mushrooms, raising Christmas trees, to building a
golf course and conference center.
An income project that was based on a necessary consumable item, like toner and ink cartridges, was exactly what the monastery needed – a solid, consistent, income that would not be affected by difficult economic times. Everyone has to have toner and ink to print, businesses especially. And everyone wants to save money. Add to this the fact that we use the money for good works and to support monks who dedicate their lives to serving God and neighbor, and you have the ultimate win-win situation.
The manufacturers were elated with the possibilities. They immediately said
we should market not only to schools, churches, and other non-profits, but
especially to businesses. “Look, you’re monks. You have an image and long
tradition of being trustworthy and providing top quality products. You’re
offering a great product at a great price. Once people hear about you, it’s an
easy decision. Why would anyone pay more money, when they can have quality
products for less, from monks who use the income to help others?”
The Sky is the Limit
The results have been beyond anything we could imagine. Our first year we dipped
our feet in the waters and learned more about the industry. We only sold about
$2,000 gross the whole year. But then through a college friend of mine, I
connected with a Marketing and PR company in California,
K-COMM (www.kanatsiz.com)
who liked us immediately, saw our potential, and took us on as a special
project. They helped us prepare press releases and offers to various media
outlets.
The train took off down the mountain. One story led to another, to another, to radio shows and speaking engagements, and it hasn’t stopped yet.
Our sales have soared. From our modest sales in the first year, our sales mulitpied 700% in 2003. We conservatively project doubling or tripling this year. Our customers typically save 30% – 60% through LaserMonks. At only 40% savings, LaserMonks saved our customers over $200,000 last year. That’s a lot of money to use for better things.
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And then the Angels Appeared
So here we were, scrambling to keep up with the growth, trying to arrange for phone coverage for customer service, continuing to negotiate with suppliers, processing orders between our times of prayer. Things were becoming unmanageable. And then the Angels appeared. Out of the blue, I received an e-mail from two ladies in Colorado who had a website selling ink cartridges. For various reasons they had decided to move on to other projects. We had received their offer along with many other online printer supply companies, to sell us their online business. I wrote them back and explained who we were and what we were trying to do. To make a long story short, not only were they delighted to discover us, they offered to come up here to Wisconsin to help us for a few weeks to get our business organized and running well– at no charge. That was in July of 2003. The "angels" and the monks got along so well, and our various gifts and abilities complemented one another so well, that we decided to make the arrangement permanent. Our MonkHelper Angels reside in one of the Abbey houses on the corner of the Abbey property. They handle our order processing, customer service, and manufacturer relations under the company name of MonkHelper Marketing. This leaves the monks free to focus on developing the business, media relations, advertising, speaking, and most importantly, finding creative ways to use LaserMonks income to help others.
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Building Relationships & Making e-commerce More Human
LaserMonks consciously markets our products and
molds our business and website with a focus on “people benefits.” We endeavor to
bring our 900 years of monastic tradition to bear on all aspects of
LaserMonks. Through these efforts we hope to build long-term and mutually
beneficial relationships with all our visitors and customers.
We try to make e-commerce more human through personal and truly caring customer service, that reflects our 900-year tradition of hospitality.
The LaserMonks website offers an invitation for Prayer Requests.
Thoughtful phrases and quotations are provided that encourage a moment of reflection and growth in the midst of a busy day.
Our weblog provides reflections on both monastic and business topics of interest.
Laughter is good for the soul. Luxor & Ludwig, a feature cartoon produced by Fr. Robert, our superior, provides a humorous view of the monks’ life through the eyes of the Abbey mascots, our Egyptian Pharoah Hound and Doberman Pinscher.
Our charitable works page highlights the various ways that LaserMonks and the monks of the Abbey endeavor to help others throughout the world.
The LaserMonks Newsletter is a monthly e-newsletter that provides useful articles and hints relating to efficient management of printing and printers. This newsletter also provides an interest feature on the monks, which shares a little of our life with our LaserMonks customers.
Handwritten notes of thanks and encouragement from the monks are included in some of our shipments and in occasional correspondence with our customers.
Our telephone service and auto-attendant are designed to be cheerful,
encouraging and thankful, even including our own Cistercian Gregorian Chant for
any moments that one must be on Hold
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Helping Others through Helping You
LaserMonks save our customers money, lots of money.
They can use these savings for all sorts of good works. But there’s even more
good news to the story. By purchasing printing supplies from
LaserMonks, our customers not only save money, they support the monks’
modest life of prayer and our good works. By helping you save money, we can help
others throughout the world. Everyone wins with
LaserMonks. Isn’t that the way business should be?
The monks and the MonkHelpers thank you for your interest in LaserMonks, our products, and our efforts to help others through your support. We hope you will share our story, our savings, and our good works with your friends and acquaintances.
May you be abundantly blessed with prosperity of soul.
Fr. Bernard McCoy, O. Cist.
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Ink Cartridges and Printer Supplies from The Laser Monks
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Some folks call Friar McCoy and his high-tech Monks the Ink Monks. If y'all know of any other success stories of this type just lemme know.
Just recently, Friar McCoy and his laser Monks, announced that they will also be adding Computers and Computer Software to their Website.
Here are a few more Magazine and Newspaper stories about The Laser Monks
Wisconsin Monks Go High Tech Laser Monks on Chanel 3 News
Madison, Wisconsin - Madison Magazine - Laser Monks
Saint Paul Pioneer Press - Monk e-business