The Laser Monks are a 75-year-old Abbey of the Cistercian Order in Wisconsin who refill printer cartridges to cover their expenses, instead of making cheese or beer.
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.
(Thanks, Ronks!)