HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016 -Our fabulous 2015 in review!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! We wanted to share our year with you.

JANUARY 2015- Well, first we launched our new fancy schmancy E-Commerce website on Shopify: http://kinkaraco.com

On the first KINKARACO ® website we marketed  directly to the public and we posted  all the prices online. The problem was hardly anyone knew what a shroud was or that they were legal (even though the prototype was seen on HBO's "Six Feet Under!" 2005)

In 2008  BusinessWeek magazine called and said they put me in an article with 3 other guys called
" Entrepreneurs Changing the Funeral Industry". They made me the centerfold - 

      

After that the really smart open minded funeral homes took notice of KINKARACO and became our official product resellers. We realized then this had to be an inside job - supplying the good funeral homes who understood this alternative GREEN option and having them in stock for  families  in need. We decided then to work only with funeral homes located near GREEN CEMETERIES who contacted us first as they would  already understand this type of customer and be successful ...

Litwiler-Simonsen Funeral Home,OR. -http://www.litwillersimonsen.com/

 Pray Funeral Home,MI -http://www.prayfuneral.com/ 

Because they asked we took the prices down for 7 years. This was great because people  called us on the telephone asking for pricing and we could answer questions so we could listen to their concerns and educate them as to their options.

This is how we built the business one customer at a time without any distributors or middlemen, speaking to every family and helping make all the arrangements and connecting them to great funeral homes and green cemeteries near them. 

We have always encouraged our customers to  BUY LOCALLY and now there are many great funeral homes to choose from in nearly every state! You can find them and the green cemeteries on the RESOURCES TAB :http://kinkaraco.com/pages/where-to-buy

              2015- The year of the Cemetery! 

This year 8 new green cemeteries became KINKARACO resellers:

http://kinkaraco.com/pages/funeral-home-list

They  now have shroud products on hand in the cemeteries! They also bought our KINKARA-KART ™ handmade processional vehicles:

  

   2015-DEATH EVENTS ,RETREATS and other fun things .. 

MARCH 2015 - I wrote an article featuring all 16  women cemetery owners, mnagaers, funeral directors, home funeral guides &  product suppliers for AMERICAN FUNERAL DIRECTOR magazine called "The PIONEERING WOMEN OF NATURAL DEATHCARE which was very well received ( and had never before been done) . 

APRIL 26th 2015-DEATH SALON at the GETTY MUSEUM in Los Angeles hosted by Caitlyn Doughty.

JUNE 12-14th 2015- California Dharma Celebration at KMC HOLLYWOOD Buddhist Empowerment

 

AUGUST 2015 - Annual Buddhist Summer Festival  Cumbria, Northern England

( A 13th Century priory with a Tibetan style Temple in the backyard- ( aerial view) 

Afterwards attended special silent retreat for 10 days in Malaga, Spain:

 

Buddhist retreat vacations are very inexpensive because you stay in dorms 6-8 people in a room and share in the work, serving food, washing dishes, chopping vegetables in exchange for the retreats . It is the experience of living in a monastery for lay people .I find meditation retreats far away from home imperative for long term working with Death ,dying and keeping in business in the funeral industry with all the pressure, sadness, emotional upset and stress that goes along with my job. 

OCTOBER 2-4 2015 NATIONAL HOME FUNERAL ALLIANCE CONVENTION in Los Gatos, CA. I was a exhibitor and gave a shroud demo . Nearly 200 mostly women gathered to hear speakers Frank Ostazeki,Caitlyn Doughty, JerriGrace Lyons, Katrina Spade of Urban Death Project and others ..

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OCTOBER 19-20 NATIONAL FUNERAL DIRECTORS ASSOC. Convention Indianapolis, IN. A very old and old fashioned show but always good to check it out. I liked the RESOMATION containers, the Embalming Dummy and the Abe Lincoln Hearse (where I ran into Caitlyn Doughty first day!) 

 NOVEMBER 15th 2015- END OF LIFE FAIRE Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. A day devoted to seniors and their end of life resources.https://www.jccsf.org/adult/adult-prog-con/end-of-life-resource-fair/participating-businesses-organizations 

NOVEMBER 19th 2015  INNOVATE-HER - SBA/ Renaissance Entrepreneur Center national contest for women entrepreneurs held at the UBER/SQUARE building SF,CA. I was chosen out of hundreds along with 8 other businesses to pitch to VC investors for National competition and I won  3rd PLACE  and free one on one mentoring from the esteemed VC judges! 

DECEMBER 9-14 Went on an exploratory  factory search in New Mexico and ended up gilding 24C. gold leaf for the new Buddhist Temple being built there KMC-NM.  

 All & all a fascinating year filled with wonder and amazement at the beautiful world we live in, and committed WORLD PEACE by trying to be a more loving ,compassionate, patient and helpful person to all living beings in 2016.We ARE Peace on Earth if we have calm peaceful MINDS and open HEARTS . Join me and 

                                                BE THE PEACE in 2016!

                                            

{This year we face one of the most pivotal Presidential elections in our countries recent history and I am 100% assured that the Karma of the United States of America will prevail (one way or the other...) VOTE & Pray hard! } 
Happy New Year 2016 
Love
Esmerelda from  KINKARACO 

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